Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Forecasts

10.27.16

“He walked warily, stopping often to scan the clouds for clues to an impending downpour...” A recent article in the New York Times explores why the National Weather Service is not able to better predict and track storms like this fall’s Hurricane Matthew, and speaks to a meteorologist and professor of atmospheric sciences about the need for improvement. Write an essay exploring an experience that disrupted plans in your life—perhaps an illness, a breakup, or an unexpected opportunity—that you were not able to predict. How did you respond to the challenge? In retrospect, were there signs or clues of the change to your forecast?

Legs Get Led Astray

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“Never in my mind did I think I was writing about love. Now I look at it and there’s no question, it’s all about the intimacies of love...” Chloe Caldwell reads from and talks about her first collection of essays, Legs Get Led Astray (Future Tense Books, 2012). Caldwell’s second essay collection, I’ll Tell You in Person (Emily Books, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Chloe Caldwell’s Women

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“‘Sometimes on American Idol, Nicki Minaj says I’m obsessed with you,’ she says. ‘I’m obsessed with you right now,’ I say.” Chloe Caldwell, whose second essay collection, I’ll Tell You in Person (Emily Books, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from her novella, Women (Short Flight/Long Drive Books, 2014).

Queer Futures

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“Do we always go and attend funerals and then after the funerals you go home and wait for another funeral, what? You have to document. You are forced to document.” In this video from the 2015 PEN World Voices Festival, Shireen Hassim moderates a conversation with Kehinde Bademosi, Zanele Muholi, and Binyavanga Wainaina to survey today's African gay rights landscape.

Reshelving at the New York Public Library

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After undergoing more than two years of renovation at the New York Public Library’s main branch, this time-lapse video captures over fifty thousand books reshelved in two minutes. The reopening of the historic Rose Main Reading Room and the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room was celebrated in October 2016.

All Tomorrow's Parties

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In this book trailer for his debut memoir, All Tomorrow’s Parties (Grove Press, 2016), Rob Spillman recounts defining experiences from time spent as a child in Berlin, Aspen, and Baltimore. Spillman, who serves as the editor of Tin House and the executive editor of Tin House Books, is featured in Agents & Editors in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Jennifer Bartlett

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“You do not believe you are sexy. You do not believe you are beautiful. You believe you are intelligent, but sometimes the effort to convince others isn’t worth it.” Jennifer Bartlett, whose essay "A Call to Action: Working Toward Inclusiveness for Poets With Disabilities" is in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from “The Hindrances of a Householder” at the 2016 Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington, D.C. 

Surprising Sense

10.20.16

“Self of steam,” “from the gecko,” and “lack-toes intolerant” are examples of the verbal errors that became points of inspiration for editor and writer Daniel Menaker, whose book collaboration with cartoonist Roz Chast, The African Svelte: Ingenious Misspellings That Make Surprising Sense (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), is featured in News and Trends in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. Keep your eyes peeled for a verbal error in signs or newspapers, or think back to one you remember encountering in the past—perhaps even song lyrics you once misheard. Write a short essay inspired by the poetry of the mistake noting the memories, images, and idiosyncrasies that allow the error to “make surprising sense” to you.

Of Poetry and Protest

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For the launch of the poetry and essay anthology Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin (Norton, 2016) edited by Phil Cushway and Michael Warr, devorah major reads Angela Jackson's contributions, as well as from her own work. major's new poetry collection, and then we became (City Lights Publishers, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

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