Article Archive
Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
Inside Indie Bookstores: McNally Jackson Books in New York City

In the sixth installment of our series Inside Indie Bookstores, contributor Jeremiah Chamberlin travels to New York City to speak with Sarah McNally, owner of McNally Jackson Books.
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 Pleiades, Nashville Review, Sycamore Review, One Story, the Oxford American, the Awakenings Review, Fairy Tale Review, and Bound Off.
The Written Image: Beyond the Words
Portraits of Henry Miller “as a demon” and Guillaume Apollinaire, two of the thirty pieces featured in Beyond the Words: Author Portraits by Carl Köhler, currently on exhibit at the University of Chicago’s Joseph Regenstein Library.
VQR’s Future in Doubt After Tragedy
The Virginia Quarterly Review was rocked by the July 30 suicide of its managing editor, Kevin Morrissey, leaving the award-winning magazine’s future in doubt, as well as that of its editor.
The New Broom
A survey of professional opinions, including those of the New Yorker's Paul Muldoon and the Southern Review's Jeanne Leiby, about the Paris Review's decision to reject previously accepted poems.
Digital Digest: Writers Rolling Back the Revolution
A look at the retro text editors and Web applications that more and more writers are using to roll back the reach of new media.
Facing the Facts: A Profile of Heather Sellers
Staring down a disorder that prevents her from recognizing faces offers ample material for a memoir, but Heather Sellers tackles much more in You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know.
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 Leslie Marmon Silko's The Turquoise Ledge and Julia Franck's The Blindness of the Heart, as the starting point for a closer look at these new and noteworthy titles.
Introducing the Teachable Lit Mag
The new Lit Mag Adoption Program is designed to introduce journals into creative writing course curricula and engage student writers as readers and members of a national literary community.
Small Press Points
Small Press Points highlights the happenings of the small press players. This issue features Sidebrow, the San Francisco–based independent press that publishes "works by multiple authors who aren’t timid about crossing genre boundaries."
The Story of Dzanc Books
Contributor Jeremiah Chamberlin profiles indie innovator Dzanc Books, which in four short years has gone from a start-up to a publisher with five imprints, three literary magazines, and a list of over fifty titles.
Agent Advice: Terra Chalberg of the Susan Golomb Literary Agency
When is the best time in your career to look for representation, and when should you call off an author-agent relationship? Terra Chalberg, whose clients include Lori Ostlund and Glenn Taylor, tackles these questions and more.
Digital Digest: Libraries Reinvent to Stay Relevant
In June the San Francisco–based nonprofit Internet Archive partnered with several libraries across the country to allow e-book lending, taking the next step toward creating a one-stop online portal for digital reading and offering a hint of the new role libraries may play as the screen displaces the printed page.
Inside Indie Bookstores: Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver

In the fifth installment of our series Inside Indie Bookstores, contributor Jeremiah Chamberlin travels to Denver to speak with Joyce Meskis, owner of Tattered Cover Book Store.
2011 Poets & Writers Magazine Ranking of MFA Programs: A Guide to the Methodology
Size, funding, cost of living—there's plenty to consider when choosing a postgraduate creative writing program. In our second annual ranking of the top fifty MFA programs, contributor Seth Abramson measures sixteen distinct program features for the 148 full-residency programs in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, and eight features for each of the 46 low-residency programs around the world.
3 for Free
In this regular feature, we offer a few suggestions for podcasts, smartphone apps, Web tools, newsletters, museum shows, and gallery openings: a medley of literary curiosities that you might enjoy.
Small Press Points
Small Press Points highlights the happenings of the small press players. This issue features the new independent poetry press Birds, LLC, whose editors say an integral part of their mission is to build close relationships with authors and their work.
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 Upstreet, the Iowa Review, Fogged Clarity, jubilat, Granta, and Cellpoems.
The Written Image: Howl
A still from Howl, a new film centered on the drama of the obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights for publishing Allen Ginsberg's controversial poem, which is slated for release in New York City and Los Angeles on September 24.
Writers Mine Crowdfunding Sites
Despite the financial challenges of their vocation, writers have long found accessible, inventive ways to get work into the world. Among the benefit readings and bake sales, a new fund-raising option allows writers to tap into the fertile social networking landscape to find individuals who may be willing to donate the cost of a cupcake to give a project a boost.
Q&A: Legendre Starts New MA in U.K.

American novelist Thomas Legendre, who has worked with British poet Matthew Welton to develop a new creative writing program at the University of Nottingham, speaks about what makes study in England unique and what writers can gain from attending the new graduate program.
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 Paul Murray's Skippy Dies and Ai's No Surrender, as the starting point for a closer look at these new and noteworthy titles.
2011 MFA Rankings: The Top Fifty
A combination of hard data from programs that release funding and admissions figures to the public and a vital survey of what the individuals comprising the next generation of U.S. poets and writers have to say about their own priorities in choosing a postgraduate program, here is a ranking of the nation's top fifty MFA programs.
Exalted Utterance: An Interview With Major Jackson
Moving into new poetic territory, Major Jackson, in his third collection, Holding Company, corrals the ecstatic in a ten-line form.



