First Fiction 2023
Interviews with debut authors Tyriek White, Ada Zhang, Mihret Sibhat, Shastri Akella, and Rebekah Bergman, along with excerpts from their books.
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Article Archive: Feature
Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
Bringing the Joy: A Profile of Luis Alberto Urrea
Luis Alberto Urrea always knew his mother had a story; he just didn’t know how to tell it. But in researching his new novel, Good Night, Irene, he gained a deeper understanding of the person she was and the happy ending she deserved.
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Blooming How She Must: A Profile of Camille T. Dungy
With roots in nature writing, environmental justice, poetry, and photography, Camille T. Dungy’s new book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, delves into the personal and political act of cultivating one’s own green space.
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Agents & Editors: Rakia Clark
Mariner Books executive editor Rakia Clark talks about unlocking the full potential of an author, how writers can shine in the query letter, and effecting meaningful change in the publishing industry.
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Ravenous With Story: A Profile of Celeste Ng
In her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, best-selling author Celeste Ng continues to explore the social and political pressures that shape family dynamics—this time in a story set in a contemporary dystopia that feels frighteningly familiar.
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5 Over 50: 2022
Essays by debut authors Madhushree Ghosh, Sari Botton, David Santos Donaldson, Shareen K. Murayama, and Jane Campbell.
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My Life in Book Banning
The author of one of last year’s most challenged books confronts a campaign of threats, cyberattacks, and doxing in the post-truth era.
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Agents & Editors: Annie Hwang
Annie Hwang of Ayesha Pande Literary talks about community building, professional burnout, the questions writers should ask when querying agents, and the demanding work of advocating for diversity in publishing.
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How It Felt: A Profile of Namwali Serpell
In The Furrows, Namwali Serpell draws readers into the roiling nature of grief in a powerful narrative that explores memory, loss, and Black identity without resting on what she calls the “meaningless platitude” that art promotes empathy.
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First Fiction 2022
Interviews with debut authors Leila Mottley, Tsering Yangzom Lama, Arinze Ifeakandu, Paige Clark, and Morgan Talty, as well as excerpts from their books.
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Keeping the Stories: A Profile of Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s new novel, Women of Light, chronicles five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West and is imbued with her rich sense of history and pride in her own mixed ancestry: “The story of who I am is inextricably tied to this country.”
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Life Goals: A Q&A With Elif Batuman
Elif Batuman, the best-selling author of The Idiot and its sequel, Either/Or, talks to Porochista Khakpour about the new novel, being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and what she learned on a trip to Russia and Ukraine.
Resistance and Reclamation: Three Poets Revise the Narrative of Transracial, Transnational Adoption
Three poets discuss writing, survival, and community as Asian American adoptees.
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5 Over 50: 2021
In this online supplement to our annual print feature celebrating debut authors over the age of fifty, Jeffrey J. Higa, Ursula Pike, Megan Culhane Galbraith, Michael Kleber-Diggs, and Vinod Busjeet share excerpts from their first books.
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The Field of Stories: A Q&A With Joy Harjo
In a new memoir, Poet Warrior, published by W. W. Norton in September, U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo travels the roads, rivers, and rhythms of her life, taking readers on a journey across generations.
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The Wide Question: A Q&A With Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh Akbar, the author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf, returns with Pilgrim Bell, a collection of poems that dissolves the border between knowing and not knowing and interrogates ideals of justice, the self, and the divine.
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How We Remember: A Profile of Clint Smith
In his first nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed, published in June by Little, Brown, poet and scholar Clint Smith delves into the legacy of slavery alive in the monuments and landmarks within and beyond the United States, in an immersive read that exquisitely depicts how a nation and its inhabitants remember its history.
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First Fiction 2021
Excerpts from the titles by Eric Nguyen, Lee Lai, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Joss Lake, Pik-Shuen Fung, and the late Anthony Veasna So featured in our annual roundup of the summer’s best debut fiction.
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First Fiction: Anthony Veasna So
Alex Torres reflects on the literary legacy of his beloved partner, Anthony Veasna So, the author of the debut story collection Afterparties, who died in December 2020.
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5 Over 50: 2020
Five authors over the age of fifty—Elizabeth Wetmore, Vivian Gibson, A. H. Kim, Susan Buttenwieser, and Daniel Becker—share excerpts from their first books.
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The Confounding Insistence on Innocence: A Q&A With Danielle Evans
Ten years after her debut story collection was published, Danielle Evans returns with her second book, The Office of Historical Corrections, a timely reckoning with, among other things, America’s history of racialized violence.
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I’m Writing to You: Letters From Writers of the Black Literary Community
Eleven writers pen letters addressed to fellow Black writers, to their ancestors, to gatekeepers, to members of the media, and to allies, among others.
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World of Wonders: An Interview With Aimee Nezhukumatathil
In her new essay collection, World of Wonders, poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil turns her creative powers of attention, play, openness, and love to a world of magic and imagination outdoors.
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First Fiction 2020
Our annual debut fiction roundup features Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, Jean Kyoung Frazier, Corinne Manning, Megha Majumdar, and John Fram.
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5 Over 50: 2019
In our fourth annual installment of this series, five debut authors over the age of fifty—Julie Langsdorf, Valencia Robin, Timothy Brandoff, Margaret Renkl, and Peter Kaldheim—share excerpts from their first books.
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