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Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.
Find a home for your poems, stories, essays, and reviews by researching the publications vetted by our editorial staff. In the Literary Magazines database you’ll find editorial policies, submission guidelines, contact information—everything you need to know before submitting your work to the publications that share your vision for your work.
Whether you’re pursuing the publication of your first book or your fifth, use the Small Presses database to research potential publishers, including submission guidelines, tips from the editors, contact information, and more.
Research more than one hundred agents who represent poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers, plus details about the kinds of books they’re interested in representing, their clients, and the best way to contact them.
Every week a new publishing professional shares advice, anecdotes, insights, and new ways of thinking about writing and the business of books.
Find publishers ready to read your work now with our Open Reading Periods page, a continually updated resource listing all the literary magazines and small presses currently open for submissions.
Since our founding in 1970, Poets & Writers has served as an information clearinghouse of all matters related to writing. While the range of inquiries has been broad, common themes have emerged over time. Our Top Topics for Writers addresses the most popular and pressing issues, including literary agents, copyright, MFA programs, and self-publishing.
Our series of subject-based handbooks (PDF format; $4.99 each) provide information and advice from authors, literary agents, editors, and publishers. Now available: The Poets & Writers Guide to Publicity and Promotion, The Poets & Writers Guide to the Book Deal, The Poets & Writers Guide to Literary Agents, The Poets & Writers Guide to MFA Programs, and The Poets & Writers Guide to Writing Contests.
Find a home for your work by consulting our searchable databases of writing contests, literary magazines, small presses, literary agents, and more.
Poets & Writers lists readings, workshops, and other literary events held in cities across the country. Whether you are an author on book tour or the curator of a reading series, the Literary Events Calendar can help you find your audience.
Get the Word Out is a new publicity incubator for debut fiction writers and poets.
Research newspapers, magazines, websites, and other publications that consistently publish book reviews using the Review Outlets database, which includes information about publishing schedules, submission guidelines, fees, and more.
Well over ten thousand poets and writers maintain listings in this essential resource for writers interested in connecting with their peers, as well as editors, agents, and reading series coordinators looking for authors. Apply today to join the growing community of writers who stay in touch and informed using the Poets & Writers Directory.
Since our founding in 1970, Poets & Writers has served as an information clearinghouse of all matters related to writing. While the range of inquiries has been broad, common themes have emerged over time. Our Top Topics for Writers addresses the most popular and pressing issues, including literary agents, copyright, MFA programs, and self-publishing.
Let the world know about your work by posting your events on our literary events calendar, apply to be included in our directory of writers, and more.
Find a writers group to join or create your own with Poets & Writers Groups. Everything you need to connect, communicate, and collaborate with other poets and writers—all in one place.
Well over ten thousand poets and writers maintain listings in this essential resource for writers interested in connecting with their peers, as well as editors, agents, and reading series coordinators looking for authors. Apply today to join the growing community of writers who stay in touch and informed using the Poets & Writers Directory.
Find information about more than two hundred full- and low-residency programs in creative writing in our MFA Programs database, which includes details about deadlines, funding, class size, core faculty, and more. Also included is information about more than fifty MA and PhD programs.
Whether you are looking to meet up with fellow writers, agents, and editors, or trying to find the perfect environment to fuel your writing practice, the Conferences & Residencies is the essential resource for information about well over three hundred writing conferences, writers residencies, and literary festivals around the world.
Poets & Writers lists readings, workshops, and other literary events held in cities across the country. Whether you are an author on book tour or the curator of a reading series, the Literary Events Calendar can help you find your audience.
Discover historical sites, independent bookstores, literary archives, writing centers, and writers spaces in cities across the country using the Literary Places database—the best starting point for any literary journey, whether it’s for research or inspiration.
Search for jobs in education, publishing, the arts, and more within our free, frequently updated job listings for writers and poets.
Establish new connections and enjoy the company of your peers using our searchable databases of MFA programs and writers retreats, apply to be included in our directory of writers, and more.
Each year the Readings & Workshops program provides support to hundreds of writers participating in literary readings and conducting writing workshops. Learn more about this program, our special events, projects, and supporters, and how to contact us.
Get the Word Out is a new publicity incubator for debut fiction writers and poets.
The Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award introduces emerging writers to the New York City literary community, providing them with a network for professional advancement.
Find information about how Poets & Writers provides support to hundreds of writers participating in literary readings and conducting writing workshops.
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Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.
Every day the editors of Poets & Writers Magazine scan the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know.
In our weekly series of craft essays, some of the best and brightest minds in contemporary literature explore their craft in compact form, articulating their thoughts about creative obsessions and curiosities in a working notebook of lessons about the art of writing.
The Time Is Now offers weekly writing prompts in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction to help you stay committed to your writing practice throughout the year. Sign up to get The Time Is Now, as well as a weekly book recommendation for guidance and inspiration, delivered to your inbox.
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Read select articles from the award-winning magazine and consult the most comprehensive listing of literary grants and awards, deadlines, and prizewinners available in print.
Mike Figliola is a writer, television/radio reporter, and producer who has called New York City—specifically Queens—his home for more than thirty years. He has written hundreds of poems and has read them on a regular basis at such venues as the famed Cornelia Street Café in NYC with Famed Classical Composer, Conductor, and Multi-instrumentalist David Amram, actor John Ventimiglia and poet Frank Messina, and has been a featured poet in the Brooklyn Poet Laureate’s “Brooklyn Poetry Outreach” in Park Slope Brooklyn. He has served as a producer, writer, and reporter in radio and TV on both local and national platforms.
PRAISE FOR MIKE FIGLIOLA:
"Mike Figiola's The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue is a street level gaze at Queens, New York in the offbeat tradition of Henry Miller and Charles Bukowski. There is a raw honesty to this three part novel which kept me spellbound. Figliola is an irrepressible writer with the heart of a poet and the eyes of a journalist Highly recommended!" --Douglas Brinkley is editor of Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouacand is literary executor of the Hunter S. Thompson estate
"Consistently captivating audiences with his youthful dynamism and sincerity. Mike is a natural writer and poet, and everyone who has ever read his work or heard him read it himself knows it." -- David Amram, Famed Classical Composer, Conductor, and Multi-instrumentalist
"I spent five seasons in Queens, NY, prowling center field of Shea Stadium. Mike Figliola captures the heartbeat of NYC better than any book I know." -- Lenny Dykstra, New York Times Bestselling Author of "House of Nails"
"Mike Figliola's debut novel The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue is the untapped prose of both people and place rarely given life in the way newcomer Figliola has accomplished. The relationships between the characters are so tangible you can almost sense their presence rise up from the pages, centered around the life of a veteran whose all-seeing eyes on his front stoop help intertwine this story of humanity, horror, aspiration, loss, and hope." -- Salena Zito, Author, "The Great Revolt" and national political reporter for the Washington Examiner and NY Post
"It's been over a decade since Mike Figliola was my producer on WOR's hit show Food Talk, but his daily witticisms, brilliant storytelling, and creative genius are as fresh a memory as my first day of school. The Slow Midnight on Cypress Avenue is the happy benefactor of Mike's years of toil as a writer. It's set in a reluctant neighborhood in Queens, New York, and features characters and stories only found in a Manhattan-adjacent 'hood' like Ridgewood. Part magic, part audacious, and always impossible to believe, Mr. Figliola keeps it very interesting on Cypress Avenue." -- Rocco Dispirito, James Beard Award-winning celebrity chef and author of "Rocco's Keto Comfort Food Diet: Eat the Foods You Miss and Still Lose Up to a Pound a Day
"Only a real Queens guy could ever have written this book. It oozes authenticity: the larger-than-life characters and egos, the gruff spoken word poetry of the dialogue, the world-weary swagger, the A train, the dope and the booze—there's just no faking this stuff. Filled with humor and heartbreak, Figs makes you feel like you're actually part of a neighborhood where nothing comes easy, but beauty abounds in gritty everyday reality." -- Elie Honig, CNN Legal Analyst and former federal prosecutor