Our annual Inspiration Issue features essays on the origins of storytelling, historical fiction as an invitation to wonder, the challenges of facing difficult material on the page, taking risks in creative nonfiction, and our eleventh annual look at the year’s best debut poets; plus writing prompts for the new year, daring to discover your dangerous writing, the art of biography, questioning self-promotion, interviews with Kay Ryan and Saeed Jones, and more.

Our Independent Publishing issue highlights the small-press champions of literature in translation, including New Directions, Two Lines Press, Open Letter Books, Europa Editions, and Archipelago Books; a profile of novelist Marilynne Robinson; an installment of Agents & Editors featuring Copper Canyon Press editor in chief Michael Wiegers; Donald Hall on a life in poetry; advice from literary agent Betsy Amster; pro self-publishing tips; new and noteworthy books; and much more.