AMONG THE UNEXPECTED BY-PRODUCTS OF THE WRITING life in quarantine—along with the fear, anxiety, and overall stress of trying to survive a global pandemic with one’s physical, emotional, and financial well-being intact—has been something resembling c

“Nothing’ll ever fix what’s broken in this town, but it would be nice if they’d at least get the dead bear out of the parking lot at Food Country.” F*ckface (Henry Holt, July 2020) by Leah Hampton. First book, story collection. Agent: Julia Kenny. Ed

In addition to reading countless books, queries, and manuscripts, many literary agents also read or browse literary journals to find new clients. After all, journal editors are often the first to discover and publish talented new writers. “The writin

FOR too long, poets have largely been left out of the creative calculus that informs our understanding of how literary agents contribute to the economics of the book business. The familiar equation—reductive in its variables, misleading in its simpli

“I like to think that each chapbook is a journey,” says editor Shaun Levin of the immersive, imaginative volumes he publishes at the A3 Press (www.writingmaps.com/pages/the-a3-press-review). Founded in 2019 as an offshoot of the A3 Review and based i

FOR most of the past decade, indie publisher Gray-wolf Press has been on a roll. One of its authors, Anna Burns, from Northern Ireland, won the 2018 Man Booker Prize for her novel Milkman. Before that the nonprofit press in Minneapolis had breakout h

In his third book, A History of My Brief Body (Two Dollar Radio, July 2020), Billy-Ray Belcourt says he “marshals the forces of poetry and theory to create a kind of memoir that stretches well beyond the boundaries of my individual life.” The poetic

CREATIVE WRITING AWARD Two prizes of £1,000 (approximately $1,235) each and publication in the Aes-thetica Creative Writing Annual are given annually for a poem and a short story. The winner in poetry also receives a membership to the Poetry Society

In January the oldest literary magazine in the Pacific Northwest welcomed a new editor to the helm. Former senior editor Keetje Kuipers succeeds Aaron Barrell and Erin Malone as editor in chief of Poetry Northwest, which was established in 1959 and i

STONE CANOE Poetry Award COMSTOCK REVIEW Muriel Craft Bailey Award THE STORY PRIZE LEDBURY POETRY FESTIVAL Poetry Competition NARRATIVE Poetry Contest STONE CANOE Fiction Award SIXFOLD Poetry and Short Story Awards F(R)ICTION Short Story Contest HOWL

Suggested Reading: 25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way (Norton, August) by Geraldine Woods Culling examples of “beautiful, creative, or resonant” sentences from a variety of sources—fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry, song lyrics, speeches—W

STORIES OUT OF SCHOOL FLASH FICTION CONTEST Jennifer Kaplan of New York City won the 2020 Stories Out of School Flash Fiction Contest for “Field Trip.” She received $1,000. Allie Torgan of Los Angeles was the runner-up for “The Sub.” She received $50

Poets & Writers gratefully acknowledges this group of generous Poets booklovers who have made donations of $1,000 or more to support our programs and publications for writers. Arlene Alda Francine and David Alexander Stuart Applebaum Ellen Archer Rea

By Juli Delgado Lopera Feminist Press This “ebullient and assertive” novel follows a Colombian teenager’s coming-of-age and coming out as she plunges headfirst into lust and evangelism (The New York Times). Lit by the hormonal neon glow of Miami and

In late March the Poets & Writers Board of Directors held its first-ever remote meeting. We had canceled our annual fundraiser, scheduled for March 16, and closed our office but continued all of our programs for writers, even as our staff worked remo

Editor in Chief KEVIN LARIMER Senior Editor DANA ISOKAWA Managing Editor ARIEL DAVIS Associate Editor EMMA KOMLOS-HROBSKY Assistant Editor SPENCER QUONG Art Director MURRAY GREENFIELD Copy Editor ANTOINE DOZOIS Diana and Simon Raab Editorial Fellow I