“It’s the most personal novel I’ve ever written.” In this Penguin Random House Spring Book & Author Festival virtual event, Marlon James talks about his desire to present the world he grew up in through an exploration of queer life in Jamaica in the eighties and nineties in his new novel, The Disappearers (Riverhead Books, 2026), which is featured in Page One in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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.