Article Archive

A look at some of the most exciting first books of poetry published in 2017, including WHEREAS by Layli Long Soldier and Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar.

A literary agent answers readers’ questions—from how seriously agents consider a writer’s previous sales to how to responsibly seek new representation.

Fiction writer Danielle Lazarin discusses five journals that have published her short stories, some of which appear in her debut collection, Back Talk, forthcoming from Penguin Books in February.

How important is it for characters to be likeable? A look at a controversial question, and how literature’s darker actors can pose useful lessons about both the craft of writing and ourselves. 

Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large, Peter Sokolowski, discusses how the popular dictionary is driven by both definitions and data, and reveals the 2017 Word of the Year: feminism. 

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.” 

Novelist Amy Tan talks about her approach to memoir and how this shift in process changed the way she views her fiction writing. 

Based at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and led by Kwame Dawes, the African Poetry Book Fund supports and celebrates pan-African poetry. 

Published this month by Little, Brown, David Sedaris Diaries: A Visual Compendium features images and artwork from the best-selling author’s 153 diaries, which he composed over the past forty years.