Poets & Writers6 min read
What’s Left Out
AT A dinner table packed with writers and book people at the 2024 Western Carolina University Spring Literary Festival, held in April in Cullowhee, North Carolina, the cofounder of Gold Leaf Literary, Lauren Harr, told me that what she finds most int
Poets & Writers17 min readWorld
Decolonize the Novel
IN 2022 my debut novel, Border Less, was published in North America (7.13 Books) and South Asia (HarperCollins India), two spaces of diasporic life and aesthetic legacies that my fiction centers. When the novel was first released in the United States
Poets & Writers2 min read
The Luminous Life
SUBMIT yourself to the uncertainty and mystery of it all,” advises Darius Atefat-Peckham, one of the ten authors spotlighted in our twentieth annual debut poets feature. Of course, verse has always been known to have an enchanting quality, a certain,
Poets & Writers3 min read
The Moon
JEFFREY Ford, a good friend—and favorite writer—of mine once told me about two workshops he taught at Brookdale Community College, one scheduled in the daytime, one in the evening, and how the evening class became envious of the day class. Here’s wha
Poets & Writers3 min read
Reactions
I wish to thank you, profoundly, for featuring Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha in your November/December 2024 issue. As an activist for Palestine since 2003, and a loyal fan of Abu Toha’s work, I actually gasped aloud when I received my issue in the
Poets & Writers2 min read
Kenzie Allen
Tin House How it began: I wanted to find a way to speak to what felt unsayable at the time, to name the violences I’d experienced, to uncover the personal and cultural memories that had been buried, and to commemorate the connections I’d made with th
Poets & Writers3 min read
The Refrigerator Light
BEING a novelist means that you believe in magic. If that sounds too grandiose, feel free to puke on the floor. If you’re still with me, let me tell you about some cosmic wonder that might make you a magic believer too. I’ve been writing a trilogy of
Poets & Writers1 min read
We've Got Some Th Ngs To Say
We’ve Got Some Things to Say; Reshaping Narratives Around Sexual Violence begins with a simple hut profound mission: giving survivors back their stories, in their own words. Building on the work of IVeve Been Pul Through Tire & Come Out Divine: Stori
Poets & Writers3 min read
Jaquette Joins Words Without Borders
For English-speaking readers and translators of international literature, Words Without Borders (WWB) is a vital resource. Through its digital literary magazine, the nonprofit is the preeminent publisher of short translations from around the world; i
Poets & Writers5 min read
Black List Seeks Next Great Novel
The origin story of the Black List is almost mythic: In 2005, film development executive Franklin Leonard sent an anonymous survey to every Hollywood producer he had met with that year, asking them to name their favorite screenplays they’d passed on
Poets & Writers8 min read
Reflection: Twenty Years Of Debut Poets
FOR the past two decades Poets & Writers Magazine has celebrated noteworthy and spectacular emerging poets in an annual feature. This special coverage, which first appeared in our November/December 2005 issue, originated from the understanding that f
Poets & Writers3 min read
Literary MagNet
Writing funny stories lies at the center of Tiffany Midge’s artistic practice. “Humor writing is a kind of self-imposed apprenticeship I’ve designed for myself: How can I incorporate humor into poetry? Fiction? An essay?” she says. “And then there is
Poets & Writers25 min read
Deadlines
A prize of $10,000 is given biennially for the translation into English of a work of modern, standard (non-dialect) Italian poetry. Books by living translators are eligible. Anna Kraczyna, Jennifer Scappettone, and Charif Shanahan will judge. Using o
Poets & Writers3 min read
The Time Is Now
In his poem “Winter Walk,” nineteenth-century English poet John Clare meditates on both the wonders and the woes of observing nature during a brisk wintertime walk. He writes, “A single feather of the driving storm;/And in the bitterest day that ever
Poets & Writers2 min read
Matthew Gellman
BOA Editions (A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize) How it began: I had an intense desire to create order out of the internal chaos I felt as a young person, which I think is the reason so many young poets begin writing. I wanted poetry to serve as an anchor f
Poets & Writers5 min read
A Library Grows in Norway
On the outskirts of Oslo, just beyond the point where the city dissolves into forest, one thousand spruce saplings reach feathery green fingers toward the sky. Just over ten years ago this clearing was just another part of Norway’s vast woodlands. To
Poets & Writers4 min read
The Camera Obscura
ONE of the great delights of the camera obscura, which means “dark chamber” in Latin, is its physical simplicity relative to the complexity of the image it renders. Taken to the extreme, a properly punctured shoe-box might hold the clear but inverted
Poets & Writers2 min read
Page One
“And then I went to seek The Great Unity.” The Ocean in the Next Room (Milkweed Editions, January 2025) by Sarah V. Schweig. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Daniel Slager. Publicist: Morgan LaRocca. “Two men in white robes stand
Poets & Writers2 min read
EDITOR’S Note
TWENTY YEARS AGO I PUT TOGETHER THE INAUGURAL debut poets feature, highlighting the early work of Victoria Chang, Tyehimba Jess, and Matthew Shenoda, as well as others who may be less familiar but are no less notable for the verse they put out into t
Poets & Writers3 min read
The Anglerfish
OUT there in the pure deep dark of the ocean is a small scrap of light dancing: Look how it twists and turns, drawing disappearing shapes against the water, raising the question of what it could be trying to say. You might wish to examine this wisp o
Poets & Writers2 min read
Diego Báez
University of Arizona Press How it began: I have always written about language, family, inheritance, and heritage as it pertains to my own experiences as a Paraguayan American. But the birth of my child fundamentally changed my relationship to all th
Poets & Writers3 min read
The Volcano
I HAVE never stood at the mouth of a volcano or watched one erupt in real time, thank God, but whenever I come across footage of one at its best, which is to also say at its absolute worst and most destructive, I am in awe. At well over a thousand de
Poets & Writers2 min read
Darius Atefat-Peckham
Autumn House Press (Autumn House Poetry Prize) How it began: The poems in Book of Kin are both love poem and elegy, always beginning, like a ghazal, with an implicit address: to my beloveds, the universe, the self. Always in search of deeper connecti
Poets & Writers2 min read
Christian J. Collier
Four Way Books How it began: In 2019 I finally abandoned a manuscript I’d been working on for years because it just wasn’t coming together in the way I wanted it to. I spent a week at the Frost Place working with Tyree Daye, and I wrote every day. Th
Poets & Writers3 min read
A Message From the Executive Director
Things are changing at Poets & Writers. If you are a subscriber to this magazine or a frequent visitor to our website, perhaps you’ve already noticed that some things are different. As we ring in the New Year, I’m excited to tell you about the new in
Poets & Writers2 min read
Sarah Ghazal Ali
Alice James Books (Alice James Award Editor’s Choice) How it began: I was on the prelaw track in college and considered adding literature as a double major. When I took a course in ancient political thought, I was surprised to find the books of Genes
Poets & Writers1 min read
Poets & Writers Magazine
KEVIN LARIMER SERENA ALAGAPPAN EMMA KOMLOS-HROBSKY MARVA SHI INDIA LENA GONZÁLEZ LUCIANO GRIGERA NAÓN MURRAY GREENFIELD ANTOINE DOZOIS KAYVAN TAHMASEBIAN DESTINY O. BIRDSONG MICHAEL BOURNE JEREMIAH CHAMBERLIN JOFIE FERRARI-ADLER RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ DE
Poets & Writers2 min read
Yalie Saweda Kamara
Milkweed Editions (Jake Adam York Prize) How it began: I wanted to write a book that examined, complicated, and dignified parts of the communities to which I belong. I am from Oakland and Sierra Leone, two places that are susceptible to stigma and wh
Poets & Writers21 min read
Recent Winners
Octavio Quintanilla and Natalia Treviño, both of San Antonio, Texas, won the 2024 Ambroggio Prize for Quintanilla and Treviño’s translation of Quintanilla’s Las Horas Imposibles/The Impossible Hours. They received $1,000, and Quintanilla and Treviño’
Poets & Writers4 min read
The Lighthouse
WHO was the first person to cry out in relief at the sight of a lighthouse? Disoriented and afraid, their wooden boat thrashed by black waves, what was it like for them to suddenly see a point of light in the distance? When I’m thinking about the ver
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