Threads, Thrumming: A Profile of Kevin Wilson
In his fifth novel, Run for the Hills, Kevin Wilson returns to a theme that flows through much of his work: the threads that connect us to other people, even if we’ve never met them before.
Tags:
Genre: Fiction
Literary Awards
New Letters
Entry Fee:
$24
Deadline:
May 19, 2025
Three prizes of $2,500 each and publication in New Letters are given annually for a poem, a short story, and an essay. Using only the online submission system, submit up to six poems totaling no more than 30 pages or a story or essay of up to 8,000 words with a $24 entry fee, which includes a subscription to New Letters, by May 19. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
The Ungrateful Stranger: Whose Story Deserves Welcome?
An immigrant novelist reflects on the opportunities extended to her by the American publishing industry—and challenges the notion that she should be grateful to be given any kind of welcome.
Tags:
PEN/Bare Life Review Grants
PEN America
Entry Fee:
$0
Deadline:
June 1, 2025
Two grants of $5,000 each are given annually for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction works-in-progress “by immigrant and refugee writers, recognizing that the literature of migration is of inherent and manifest value.” Using only the online submission system, submit a writing sample of up to 40 pages of poetry or up to 75 pages of prose, a curriculum vitae, and an outline and description of the project by June 1. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize
American Short Fiction
Entry Fee:
$20
Deadline:
June 15, 2025
A prize of $2,500 and publication in American Short Fiction is given annually for a short story. The winner also receives a weeklong, all-expenses-paid writing retreat at the Tasajillo Residency in Kyle, Texas. Using only the online submission system, submit a story of 2,000 to 6,500 words with a $20 entry fee, which includes a copy of the prize issue, by June 1. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Caption:
“The only counsel that is acceptable is to work! To work very hard until you discover the kind of writer that you want to be.” Nobel Prize–winning Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa dispenses advice to emerging writers in this Louisiana Channel interview with Christian Lund. Vargas Llosa died at the age of eighty-nine on April 13, 2025.
Genre:
Ten Questions for Julia Elliott
“The short story form offers me a way to indulge my obsessions and experiment with various genres and narrative modes.” —Julia Elliott, author of Hellions
Tags:
Katie Kitamura: Audition
Caption:
In this Politics and Prose Bookstore event, Katie Kitamura talks about how a newspaper headline about a woman meeting her estranged son inspired her to write her latest novel, Audition (Riverhead Books, 2025), in a conversation with Kat Chow.
Genre:
The Great Gatsby at 100
Caption:
In this video from the University of South Carolina Irvin Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, scholars talk about their special exhibit celebrating 100 years since F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was published with items ranging from first editions of the novel, editions owned by writers like Sylvia Plath, and ephemera from the author’s life.
Genre:
The Thread Interview: Viet Thanh Nguyen
Caption:
In this interview for The Thread documentary series, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen talks about his childhood experiences as a refugee and overcoming trauma, his parents’ complicated reaction to his writing career, and how storytelling and writing changed his life from an early age. Read about Nguyen’s essay collection To Save and Destroy: Writing as an Other (Belknap Press, 2025) in our Best Books series.
Genre:
Pages
