Which Story Will You Tell? A Q&A With Alexander Chee
The novelist talks about his first essay collection, How to Write An Autobiographical Novel; how to keep working during bouts of self-doubt; and more.
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Article Archive: Online Exclusive
Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
A Thing Meant to Be: The Work of a Book Editor
The vice president and editorial director of Riverhead Books on the art of editing.
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Blind Ambition: A Q&A With Gregory Pardlo
The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet talks about his new book, Air Traffic: A Memoir or Ambition and Manhood in America.
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In Search of Your Own Voice: A Q&A With Poet and Editor Quincy Troupe
The editor of Black Renaissance Noire on the importance of publishing new and emerging writers.
A Petition Circulates and Sides Form as AWP Board Remains Silent About Fenza
Responses to AWP executive director David Fenza’s departure have been met by silence from the organization’s board.
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David Fenza Out as Executive Director of AWP
On March 11 the board of directors of AWP ended its relationship with the organization’s long-time executive director, David Fenza. “I had no warnings,” he says.
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Go Home!
The Pulitzer Prize winner offers his personal perspective on the idea of “home” in his foreword to Go Home!, a new anthology of fiction, memoir, and poetry by Asian diasporic writers.
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Craft Capsule: Infinite Distance, or The Starry Archipelagoes
Dan Beachy-Quick explores the infinite possibilities of poetry and the idea that metaphor can be a philosophy, and poetic craft a means of living a life.
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Craft Capsule: Rhyme and the Delay in Time
Poet Dan Beachy-Quick considers rhyme, easily derided in workshop but able to make of the mind a wind-chime.
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Craft Capsule: Hundreds of Eyes
Dan Beachy-Quick imagines the poem as a peacock with tail outspread, and the phosphorescent circle on each feather an actual eye. The poem lets us see through every eye.
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Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country
Described as “a lamentation aimed at providing clarity,” Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country is Steve Almond's effort to make sense of our historical moment using literary voices, including Melville, Orwell, Bradbury, and Baldwin.
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A Novel in Five Residencies
A novelist describes her progress as she writes her fourth book, The Great Believers, across five residencies, from 2014 to 2017.
Craft Capsule: The Craft of Humility, the Craft of Love
A poet and essayist recalls his personal introductions to poetry and its craft during his younger years.
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Craft Capsule: Every Novel Is a Journey
Authors share their notes on writing in this series of micro craft essays. In the latest installment: Tayari Jones completes the journey of writing her novel An American Marriage.
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Craft Capsule: Finding the Center
Authors share their notes on writing in this series of micro craft essays. In the latest installment: finding the center of your story.
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Craft Capsule: The Scourge of Technology
Authors share their notes on writing in this series of micro craft essays. In the latest installment: writing around tech in contemporary fiction.
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Craft Capsule: Finding Your Story
Authors share their notes on writing in this series of micro craft essays. In the latest installment: finding the story that challenges you.
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The Many Faces of Inspiration: A Q&A With Edward Carey
Illustrator and author Edward Carey talks to the editor in chief of Poets & Writers about art, hope, and seeing the light amid darkness.
Polite Need Not Apply: A Q&A With Mary Gaitskill
“There are very few rules that can’t be broken,” says the author of six books of fiction and one essay collection in this wide-ranging interview.
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Whiting Foundation Announces New Prizes for Literary Magazines
Three Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes totaling up to $120,000 will be given annually for print and digital publications. The new awards program is intended to support both “nimble upstarts as well as established journals.”
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The Heart of the Novel: Nicholas Montemarano and Eric Puchner
Two fiction writers discuss scandals and second chances, finding the heart of the novel, and blurring the personal and political.
Where the Past Begins: An Interview With Amy Tan
Novelist Amy Tan talks about her approach to memoir and how this shift in process changed the way she views her fiction writing.
5 Over 50 Reads 2017
Read excerpts of the debut books by this year’s 5 Over 50: Jimin Han, Laura Hulthen Thomas, Karen E. Osborne, Tina Carlson, and Peg Alford Pursell.
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The Sewanee Review at 125
The country’s longest-running literary quarterly publishes its 500th issue with a new design, a new editor, and a new submissions platform, but the same old commitment to literary excellence.
A Book About Delusional Thinking, a Song About Breathtaking Conviction
Novelist and singer-songwriter Ben Arthur finds inspiration in Puritan settler Anne Hutchinson, a character in Kurt Anderson’s book Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History.