Since 2016, Poets & Writers Magazine has showcased authors who have made their literary debuts after the age of fifty in our annual 5 Over 50 series. This beloved feature began with our belief that “new” does not necessarily mean “young” and that there is beauty in writers who have allowed the ebb and flow of life to transform them and their words such that they produce brilliant works of poetry and prose, arriving on their own time. In the list that follows we present the fifty writers over fifty, alongside their debut books, who have appeared in our pages over the past ten years. A look back at this series through the decade reveals exciting talent with distinct literary and life stories. These authors have proved writing to be a lifelong art form, if one is patient and determined enough to stay the course day after day, year after year, and, yes, decade after decade.
Yael Valencia Aldana, Black Mestiza (University Press of Kentucky, 2025)
Tommy Archuleta, Susto (Center for Literary Publishing, 2023)
Uchenna Awoke, The Liquid Eye of a Moon (Catapult, 2024)
Daniel Becker, 2nd Chance (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2020)
Sari Botton, And You May Find Yourself: Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo (Heliotrope Books, 2022)
Jennifer Eli Bowen, The Book of Kin: On Absence, Love, and Being There (Milkweed Editions, 2025)
Timothy Brandoff, Cornelius Sky (Kaylie Jones Books, 2019)
Vinod Busjeet, Silent Winds, Dry Seas (Doubleday, 2021)
Susan Buttenwieser, We Were Lucky With the Rain (Four Way Books, 2020)
Jane Campbell, Cat Brushing (Grove Press, 2022)
Tina Carlson, Ground, Wind, This Body (University of New Mexico Press, 2017)
Desiree Cooper, Know the Mother (Wayne State University Press, 2016)
David Santos Donaldson, Greenland (Amistad, 2022)
Vishwas R. Gaitonde, On Earth as It Is in Heaven (Orison Books, 2025)
Megan Culhane Galbraith, The Guide of the Infant Saviour: An Adopted Child’s Memory Book (Mad Creek Books, 2021)
Alma García, All That Rises (University of Arizona Press, 2023)
Madhushree Ghosh, Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory, and Family (University of Iowa Press, 2022)
Vivian Gibson, The Last Children of Mill Creek (Belt Publishing, 2020)
Jimin Han, A Small Revolution (Little A, 2017)
Paul Hertneky, Rust Belt Boy: Stories of an American Childhood (Bauhan Publishing, 2016)
Jeffrey J. Higa, Calabash Stories (Pleiades Press, 2021)
Peter Kaldheim, Idiot Wind (Canongate, 2019)
Parul Kapur, Inside the Mirror (University of Nebraska Press, 2024)
A.H. Kim, A Good Family (Graydon House, 2020)
Michael Kleber-Diggs, Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions, 2021)
Julie Langsdorf, White Elephant (Ecco, 2019)
Chin-Sun Lee, Upcountry (Unnamed Press, 2023)
A. G. Lombardo, Graffiti Palace (MCD Books, 2018)
Jeanne McCulloch, All Happy Families (Harper Wave, 2018)
Sawnie Morris, Her, Infinite (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2016)
Suzette Mullen, The Only Way Through Is Out (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024)
Shareen K. Murayama, Housebreak (Bad Betty Press, 2022)
Karen E. Osborne, Getting It Right (Open Lens, 2017)
Princess Joy L. Perry, This Here Is Love (Norton, 2025)
Ursula Pike, An Indian Among los Indígenas: A Native Travel Memoir (Heyday Books, 2021)
Peg Alford Pursell, Show Her a Flower, a Bird, a Shadow (ELJ Editions, 2017)
Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (Milkweed Editions, 2019)
Valencia Robin, Ridiculous Light (Persea Books, 2019)
Dorsía Smith Silva, In Inheritance of Drowning (CavanKerry Press, 2024)
Donna Spruijt-Metz, General Release From the Beginning of the World (Parlor Press, 2023)
Deborah Jackson Taffa, Whiskey Tender (Harper, 2024)
Laura Hulthen Thomas, States of Motion (Wayne State University Press, 2017)
Paul Vidich, An Honorable Man (Emily Bestler Books, 2016)
Lauren K. Watel, Book of Potions (Sarabande Books, 2025)
Bernardine “Dine” Watson, Transplant (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 2023)
Elizabeth Wetmore, Valentine (Harper, 2020)
Paula Whyman, You May See a Stranger (TriQuarterly Books, 2016)
Maw Shein Win, Invisible Gifts (Manic D Press, 2018)
Laura Esther Wolfson, For Single Mothers Working as Train Conductors (University of Iowa Press, 2018)
Anne Youngson, Meet Me at the Museum (Flatiron Books, 2018)
