Craft Capsule: Multiple Narrators
The pleasures and pitfalls of writing a novel with multiple perspectives.
Article Archive
Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
Ten Questions for Amy Bonnaffons
“I’m coming to believe more and more that the whole body should be engaged in the writing process.”—Amy Bonnaffons, author of the debut story collection The Wrong Heaven
A Space Odyssey of Healing: Brian Turner and the Interplanetary Acoustic Team
Brian Turner is best known for his award-winning poetry collections and memoir about the Iraq War, but with his new project he has pushed into an entirely new dimension of creative expression.
Craft Capsule: The Art of Research
How does a writer tell a story set in another country during a time before she was even born? Research, research, research.
Ten Questions for Keith Gessen
“You can almost always make something better by making it shorter.” —Keith Gessen, author of the novel A Terrible Country
Craft Capsule: Who Are You?
The desire to tell stories is one thing; finding the stories you want to tell is something else entirely.
Ten Questions for Jasmine Gibson
“Get in where you fit in, and where you don’t, break it.” —Jasmine Gibson, author of Don’t Let Them See Me Like This
Craft Capsule: Find Your Voice
A simple exercise to help lead you closer to the fiery core of your own, utterly unique, narrative style.
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Ten Questions for Lillian Li
“Avoid the word ‘it’ whenever possible. Which is to say, specificity whenever possible.” —Lillian Li, author of the debut novel Number One Chinese Restaurant
Craft Capsule: A Form of Salvation
Simon Van Booy writes about opening your whole life to creativity.
Ten Questions for Grady Chambers
“That was the scariest part in making this come together: the endless possible permutations of inclusion, exclusion, order; the fear of endless possibility.” —Grady Chambers, author of the poetry collection North American Stadiums
First Fiction 2018
This year’s debut fiction roundup features emerging writers R. O. Kwon, Fatima Farheen Mirza, Jamel Brinkley, Katharine Dion, and Tommy Orange.
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Literary MagNet: Chelsea Hodson
An essayist discusses five journals that published work from her debut collection, Tonight I’m Someone Else.
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Poets Protest Guns in the Classroom
Poets and educators work to fight campus carry bills.
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The Business of Relationships: How Authors, Agents, Editors, Booksellers, and Publicists Work Together to Reach Readers
The teams behind debut authors Jordy Rosenberg, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Aja Gabel, Rachel Z. Arndt, and Ruth Joffre.
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Cornucopia: Report From Literary Bogotá
In a continuing series on international writing communities, contributing editor Stephen Morison Jr. spends time with authors and publishers in Bogotá, Colombia.
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Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin
The first lines of a dozen new books, including Sick by Porochista Khakpour and Sons of Achilles by Nabila Lovelace.
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Small Press Points: 7.13 Books
A fiction press for first-time authors.
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Q&A: A Merger of Literary, Legal Minds
Agent Gillian MacKenzie on her new partnership with lawyer Kirsten Wolf.
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The Written Image: Kerry Mansfield’s “Expired”
Ex-library books are catalogued in a new home.
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Instapoets Prove Powerful in Print
The influence of Instagram on the way we read poetry.
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Barbershop Books
Creating local reading spaces for young black boys.
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Craft Capsule: Tao Te Ching
Simon Van Booy considers writing as a process of instinct rather than thought.
My Past and Future Assassin: A Profile of Terrance Hayes
In his sixth book, a sonnet sequence published by Penguin in June, Terrance Hayes cuts deep, to the marrow of the American moment, in a form with a razor’s edge: love poems for the forces trying to kill you.
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Severe Weather in the Sunshine State: A Profile of Lauren Groff
Florida isn’t just the title of Lauren Groff’s new story collection, published in June by Riverhead Books; it’s also a bad joke, a good home, a source of inspiration, a set of contradictions, and, perhaps, ultimately a state of mind.
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