July/August 2025

For decades, the International Writing Program in Iowa City facilitated transformative connections for its resident writers—but the loss of funding worth nearly a million dollars challenges staff and students to find ways to keep going.  

The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including Florida Water by aja monet and I’ll Tell You When I’m Home by Hala Alyan.

In the wake of the California wildfires, literary community members grieve the loss of public spaces and personal archives, and reflect on the creative relief efforts that offer hope.

One poet’s personal reading goal gone viral, the Sealey Challenge invites participants to read a book of poetry every day in August and to share their reading lists publicly, offering sustained immersion in poetry and its community.

Based in North Carolina, the independent publisher Blair champions local narratives, overlooked stories, and perspectives outside of traditional publishing. The press publishes ten to twelve books yearly in poetry, nonfiction, and fiction.

The author of How to be Unmothered: A Trinidadian Memoir spotlights magazines and journals, such as Forge Literary Magazine and Kweli, that authentically welcomed excerpts of her work.  

Novelist and graphic designer Peter Mendelsund describes embracing imperfection through the creative practice of painting, including using his nondominant hand, smearing the paint with a trowel, and flipping the canvas.

Recently appointed judge of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, Monica Youn speaks about the value of publishing a debut collection regardless of age, how form helps poems come alive, and what she looks for as she reads submissions.

Write a poem that creates unexpected connections, a story from the point of view of someone older than you, or a pair of lyrical essays that explore your personal responses to losses and gains.

A Nigerian professor and fiction writer describes how a new place like Starkville, Mississippi, becomes a home and how the color, texture, and form of her surroundings make their way into her storytelling.

Writing a book is a daunting challenge—but the texts we know and love can help. A nonfiction writer describes how a methodically organized spreadsheet of favorite quotes aided her journey from proposal to finished memoir.

A writer discusses the impact of perceived literary success on her marriage to another writer, drawing attention to the domestic and quotidian labor behind the privilege of being able to pursue one’s creative dreams.