How to Keep Writing When You’re Convinced Your Book Is a Disaster
When feeling beaten by your manuscript, come back to the page with humility and curiosity, and remember the ways that this work feeds you.
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Article Archive
Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
A Strong and Simple “I Must”: Rebuilding Confidence in the Wake of an Agent Breakup
After an unexpected split from her longtime agent, an author reconnects with her sense of calling and remembers who she writes for: herself.
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Q&A: Jenny Molberg of Ploughshares
The new editor in chief of Ploughshares discusses her vision for expanding the journal’s digital format and its community.
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The Written Image: A Radical Alteration, Women’s Studio Workshop
A new exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts features artists books with innovative designs that honor familial pasts and document history.
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The Anthologist: A Compendium of Uncommon Collections
An introduction to three new anthologies, including The People’s Project: Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward and Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color.
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Small Press Points: Finishing Line Press
Based in Georgetown, Kentucky, Finishing Line Press publishes around three hundred titles each year and runs a chapbook competition celebrating writers who are marginalized from mainstream publishing.
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AI Reads (and Translates) Audiobooks
Audible has announced that machines will begin narrating its audiobooks and translating them into select languages.
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Writers Mix Movies and Memoir
A new nonfiction series from Ig Publishing encourages authors to reflect on the films that have transformed their lives.
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How to Write When You’d Rather Be Online
Your internet obsessions can become your writing’s obsessions; allow those passions to animate your book.
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Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa and Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice by Rachel Kolb.
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How to Protect Your Time
Carrying a stroller down the subway steps is a good use of your time; doomscrolling and social media are not. Fight for time for the things you love and put your writing at the top of that list.
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How to Mingle at a Book Thing
Find your social buoys, practice your talking points, and if all else fails, return to the topic of shoes.
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How to Negotiate a Freelance Rate—or, How to Know Your Worth
Remember the value of time, expertise, and talent—and that you, too, should be invested in your work.
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How to Write an Author Bio
Keep it simple, or do like Nora Ephron and consider what defines you.
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How to Kill Your Darlings
Consider your cuts as a culling of the herd, and know that even writing which is omitted will leave its imprint on the book.
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Ten Questions for Raymond Antrobus
“I needed time away from text to indulge in paintings and drawings and collage art. I spent a lot of days in art galleries mulling over my memories and the text I was writing.” —Raymond Antrobus, author of The Quiet Ear: An Investigation of Missing Sound
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Writing on Grief: Transforming Loss Into Art
The author of Indigo (Copper Canyon Press, 2020) reflects on how writers can turn grief into literature.
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Ten Questions for Anne Waldman
“I like the idea of action writing, putting text on the floor and playing with arrangement like abstract expressionist painting.” —Anne Waldman, author of Mesopotopia
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Ten Questions for Xenobe Purvis
“But fear can be galvanizing; perhaps the novel would not have been written without it.” —Xenobe Purvis, author of The Hounding
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Historical Details: Approach With Caution!
The author of Restitution (Regal House Publishing, September 2025) recommends writers refine their research and examine which details actually serve their characters and plots.
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Ten Questions for Ed Park
“I just remember the miraculous appearance of story seeds, bursts of inspiration, and cloudless composition.” —Ed Park, author of An Oral History of Atlantis
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Real Life as Experiment: Letting Characters Play in Your Life
The author of Restitution (Regal House Publishing, September 2025) recommends writers use their own memories as a testing ground for their characters.
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Ten Questions for Katie Yee
“I think every writer carries with them someone they wish they could’ve told all their stories to.” —Katie Yee, author of Maggie; Or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar
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Using Time to Create Emotional Tension in Fiction
The author of Restitution (Regal House Publishing, September 2025) recommends writers use time as a tool to shape the emotional stakes of novels.
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Ten Questions for Issa Quincy
“I tend to work across these different forms, on different projects at the same time.” —Issa Quincy, author of Absence
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