Article Archive

Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.

The Invisible Library

by
Alex Dimitrov
9.1.09
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The Invisible Library, the blog that invites readers to submit the titles of unwritten books they’ve discovered in their own reading, served as the primary inspiration behind the Invisible Library exhibition, which ran from June 12 to July 12 at the Tenderpixel Gallery in London.

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World’s Largest Thesaurus Published

by
Adrian Versteegh
9.1.09

This month Oxford University Press is publishing the world's most comprehensive thesaurus. The two-volume, 4,448-page Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is not only twice the size of Roget's version, the current standard, but it also lays claim to being the first historical thesaurus compiled for any language.

A New Genre in Chinese Fiction

by
Stephen Morison Jr.
9.1.09

A new genre of fiction known as the Officialdom novel has become increasingly popular in China. Fans claim that the novels offer rich entertainment while providing valuable insights into the byzantine system of manners and etiquette that is the key to success at white-collar jobs in China, but the trend might signal a much more significant shift in the culture—one that goes beyond matters of literary taste.

Literary MagNet

Literary MagNet chronicles the start-ups and closures, successes and failures, anniversaries and accolades, changes of editorship and special issues—in short, the news and trends—of literary magazines in America. This issue's MagNet features Annalemma Magazine, Oxford American, Ninth Letter, Opium Magazine, the Iowa Review, Slice Magazine, Poet Lore, Fence, and Electric Literature.

 

Can Flarf Ever Be Taken Seriously?

by
Shell Fischer
7.1.09

Almost a decade after its creation, the experimental poetry movement Flarf—in which poets prowl the Internet using random word searches, e-mail the bizarre results to one another, then distill the newly found phrases into poems that are often as disturbing as they are hilarious—is showing signs of having cleared a spot among the ranks of legitimate art forms.

Literary MagNet

by
Kevin Larimer
7.1.09

Literary MagNet chronicles the start-ups and closures, successes and failures, anniversaries and accolades, changes of editorship and special issues—in short, the news and trends—of literary magazines in America. This issue's MagNet features Wag's Revue, Poet Lore, the Glut, Portrait, Argosy, can we have our ball back?, DoubleTake, Midnight Mind Magazine, Mot Juste, Cue, and Black Clock.

Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

With so many good books being published every month, some literary titles worth exploring can get lost in the stacks. Page One offers the first lines of a dozen recently released books, including Rachel Levitsky's Neighbor and Stephen D. Gutierrez's Live From Fresno y Los, as the starting point for a closer look at these new and noteworthy titles.

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Bennington Band Honors Late Poet

by
A. N. Devers
7.1.09

A group of writing instructors and students who over the years formed a ragtag band during late-night impromptu jam sessions at the Bennington Writing Seminars released their first CD earlier this year. Titled Let's Doghouse: A Tribute to Liam Rector, the compilation serves as a memorial to the founding director of the Writing Seminars, a poet, who passed away two years ago.

Summer Stimulus

by
Kevin Nance
7.1.09

For many writers groups and nonprofit literary organizations battered by the recession, help is on the way. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law by president Barack Obama in February, included fifty million dollars in arts funding that is being allocated by the National Endowment for the Arts.

A Summer Reading List

by
Staff
7.1.09

In anticipation of our "Summer Reading Issue," we asked which books you, as writers who read deeply year-round, turn to in the warm months ahead. Culled from readers' responses on pw.org and our Facebook page, here are the results.

Lit Crawl: Postcard From New York City

by
Suzanne Pettypiece
5.21.09

Contemporary literature lovers invaded ten beer-soaked bars scattered throughout Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village as part of the second annual Lit Crawl NYC—a two-hour bar hop serving up an eclectic taste of the New York City literary scene.

From Page to Pixels: The Evolution of Online Journals

by
Sandra Beasley
5.1.09

Creative writers stand at the edge of a digital divide. On one side: the traditions of paper. On the other: the lure of the Internet. As glossy magazines die by the dozen and blogs become increasingly influential, we face the reality that print venues are rapidly ceding ground to Web-based publishing. Yet many of us still hesitate to make the leap.

Small Press Points

by
Kevin Larimer
5.1.09

Small Press Points highlights the happenings of the small press players. This issue features New Directions, Burning Deck, Siglio Press, Calyx Books, Fence Books, Hanging Loose Press, Slope Editions, Canarium Books, Octopus Books, Ugly Duckling Presse, Clear Cut Press, Featherproof Books, Paper Egg Books, Soft Skull Press, and Tupelo Press.

Literary MagNet

by
Kevin Larimer
5.1.09

Literary MagNet chronicles the start-ups and closures, successes and failures, anniversaries and accolades, changes of editorship and special issues—in short, the news and trends—of literary magazines in America. This issue's MagNet features Witness, the Massachusetts Review, Calyx, River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, and Oxford American.

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