Article Archive: Special Section

When you build your own literary education from workshops and mentorships, travel and books, learning is tailored to the books you dream of writing.

The focused support, accountability, and wisdom of the right writers group can keep a literary life afloat—and keep you at the writing desk.

A writer canvasses faculty about the supportive communities, intentional mentorship, and flexibility that make low-res programs outstanding options for emerging writers.

Persistence is a virtue in landing an agent—but if you’re not connecting, when is it time to regroup? An agent offers professional wisdom on balancing tenacity and realism, and on assessing what to do next if your search has stalled.

Writers may dream of partnering with a literary agent who offers it all, from staunch advocacy from a sympathetic ear. But in practice, the best agent may be one who’s less fairy tale and more human.

A quick guide to forty of the most inspiring prizes for short work, environmental writing, work by older writers, and works-in-progress.

Foxes, llamas, and one portentous bobcat remind the author of Ninetails: Nine Tales that the artistic process can’t be planned or tamed—and that perhaps its wildness is one of the reasons we write. 

In a season of disappointment while trying to conceive, the author of How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder reconnects with creativity at the Summer Fishtrap Gathering of Writers. 

Amid political turmoil and momentous life changes, a retreat at the Blue Mountain Center gives the author of The Archer inspiring ideas about how to be an artist—even without writing any new pages.

Fairy tales are built on their own enchanting associative logic. A maestro of magical realism explores what writers can unlock when they let readers leap between a story’s plot points—and where such a trail of breadcrumbs can lead.