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"As the writers we're publishing are succeeding, that's where we are succeeding." Daniel Slager, publisher and CEO of Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis, speaks about the nonprofit, independent book publisher and their mission to identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature.
"I fell in love with any number of literary writers... but I never fell out of love with genre." Benjamin Percy talks about genre fiction, favorite authors, and his novel Red Moon (Grand Central Publishing, 2013). Percy will lead the seminar, Staging the Iconic Moment: Set-Pieces, on January 9 at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas.
"A writer is lucky because he cures himself everyday." In this recorded talk from November 1970, Kurt Vonnegut shared his thoughts on writing as a guest speaker for a class at New York University. This animated video by Patrick Smith is part of PBS Digital Studios' Blank on Blank series.
Literary Arts is a community-based nonprofit literary center located in downtown Portland, with a thirty-year history of serving Oregon’s readers and writers. Programs include Portland Arts & Lectures, one of the country’s largest lecture series; Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships, which celebrates Oregon’s writers and independent publishers; and Writers in the Schools, which hires professional writers to teach semester-long creative writing workshops in Portland’s public high schools.
The Pacific University Residency Writers Conference, sponsored by Pacific University’s creative writing MFA program, will be held from January 8, 2026, to January 18, 2026, at the Best Western Plus Ocean View Resort in the beachside resort town of Seaside, Oregon. The conference will feature craft talks, workshops, panels, roundtable discussions, and student and faculty readings for poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The faculty includes poets Ellen Bass, Leila Chatti, Adrienne Christian, Eduardo C. Corral, Kwame Dawes, Tyree Daye, Frank X.
Pacific University Residency Writers Conference, 530 NW 12th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209. (503) 352-1531. Scott Korb, Director.
"The Mariana Trench is 6.8 miles deep. Falling into that abyss is like falling from space." Inspired by his son's experiences with schizophrenia and depression as a teenager, Neil Schusterman's novel Challenger Deep (HarperTeen, 2015) explores the complex world of mental illness. The novel was awarded the 2015 National Book Award in Young People's Literature.
"The relationship between reader and writer is about trying to connect through honesty." Karen Bender speaks about expressing and processing complex emotions through her writing. Bender's debut short story collection, Refund (Counterpoint Press, 2015), is a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award.
Adam Johnson reads from his second short story collection at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. Fortune Smiles (Random House, 2015) is a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Fiction.
In a recent conversation with President Obama, Marilynne Robinson observes that "people are so complicated. It’s like every new person is a completely new roll of the dice." This week, select a work-in-progress and add a new character to the story. Maybe it’s a stranger who gets involved in the plot, or someone from your protagonist’s past who suddenly shows up. You might decide whether this new character makes things easier or more difficult for your protagonist, or you might remain undecided as you write and see where this new relationship takes the story.
"I wanted to do something with Paris because I thought that it was such a generous city." Jérémie Guez talks about what compelled him to write his noir novel set in contemporary Paris. Eyes Full of Empty (Unnamed Press, 2015), translated from the French by Edward Gauvin, is the first of Guez's books to appear in English.
