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If there’s one thing that bores Dean Young, it’s poetry that is consistent. “Consistency is for insects,” he declares. Which is why in his new collection, Shock by Shock, published this month by Copper Canyon Press, the poet doesn’t dwell on the traumatic heart surgery he endured four years ago, but instead embraces the freedom of unreason.
Dawn Davis—vice president and publisher of 37 INK, an imprint of Simon & Schuster’s Atria Publishing Group—talks about editing Edward P. Jones, the lack of diversity in publishing, and what some of the most successful authors have in common.
Her books, for readers of all ages, have been published in thirty-two languages and sold more than eighty-five million copies worldwide, but Judy Blume, whose new novel, In the Unlikely Event, was published by Knopf in June, has always taken a simple approach to her work: “I do what I have to do to tell the story.”
In our fifteenth annual First Fiction roundup, five debut authors—Rebecca Dinerstein, Naomi Jackson, Julia Pierpont, Chigozie Obioma, and Angela Flournoy—discuss the process of seeing their novels to completion, from navigating the difference between poetry and prose to faithfully portraying an image of Detroit. Introduced by Darin Strauss, Tiphanie Yanique, Elliott Holt, Helon Habila, and Tayari Jones.
Whether he is writing poems, essays on the craft of poetry, or a memoir about his dogs, award-winning poet Mark Doty applies a passionate intellect that drives his readers deep into uncharted territory.
In her ninth book, The Argonauts, published this month by Graywolf Press, Maggie Nelson explores the frontiers of thinking about love, language, and family, adding to a stunning body of work unconstrained by labels of form and genre.
Jennifer Joel, whose clients include Chris Cleave, Joe McGinniss Jr., Evan Osnos, and Shonda Rhimes, talks about the difference between selling fiction and nonfiction, what inspires her to go the extra mile for her authors, and what writers should really want out of publishing.
For T. Geronimo Johnson, whose second book, Welcome to Braggsville, was published in February, writing is a way to push himself, and his readers, into uncomfortable territory—to start a conversation, a communion, that could open up our hearts.
In Ordinary Light, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith embraces a fuller sense of herself as a writer while cementing the connection between her children and her ancestors using the best glue she knows: words.
Louise Glück says a poet must be surprised by what the mind is capable of unveiling, which may explain why her twelfth book of poems, Faithful and Virtuous Night, published in September by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, feels so startlingly alive with the wonder of discovery.
