Jump to navigation Skip to content
How do you handle research? How indebted do you feel to stick to the historical record? Two novelists discuss their experiences researching, imagining, and depicting earlier times.
“I had to imagine the life of characters who shared some of my own history but had their own unique ways of being in the world.” —Jeffrey Colvin, author of Africaville
“Sometimes at the end of an eight-hour day I’d have a single paragraph to show for it.” —Dexter Palmer, author of Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen
“I didn’t always feel like writing but I still made myself sit down and do it. I practiced discipline and worked towards inspiration.” —Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King
A prize of $5,000 is given annually for a novel published in the previous year that is set in a period when the United States was at war. Publishers or authors may submit seven copies of a book published in 2019 by December 1. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for the required entry form and complete guidelines.
A fiction writer’s habit of imagining the lives of people who live in her favorite houses leads to serious research for her novel.
New anthology modeled after The Canterbury Tales features stories of refugees in the U.K.; a poet and a novelist respond to the Orlando shooting; the trope of masculine genius; and other news.
Musician creates punk album from William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch; why “translated fiction” is not a genre; Raymond Carver’s brother writes the author a birthday tribute; and other news.
Rigoberto González on the marginalization of Latino poets; celebrities and their “book selfies”; Pulitzers boost book sales; and other news.
Prince announces upcoming memoir; Europe’s first print-on-demand bookstore; women poets to read right now; and other news.
