When the destruction of Israel commenced, Isaac Bloch was weighing whether to kill himself or move to the Jewish Home.” Here I Am (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2016) by Jonathan Safran Foer. Fourth book, third novel. Agent: Nicole Aragi. Editor: Eric Chinski. Publicists: Brian Gittis and Jeff Seroy.
“This book is a moment-by-moment account of the twenty-eight days I spent as the lowest-ranking participant in American education: a substitute teacher.” Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids (Blue Rider Press, September 2016) by Nicholson Baker. Sixteenth book, sixth nonfiction book. Agent: Melanie Jackson. Editor: Sarah Hochman. Publicist: Gwyneth Stansfield.
“a bird / falls off / a balcony / panicked grasping / fistfuls of / air” Blackacre (Graywolf Press, September 2016) by Monica Youn. Third book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jeff Shotts. Publicist: Caroline Nitz.
“I began the day with a group of characters, who were sometimes people in the world with real names and jobs that let them out for the summer; some of these characters wrote books in which the world was never mentioned, the world where one took a bus or walked through snow to buy eggs; it seemed better that the reader not know the details.” Calamities (Wave Books, September 2016) by Renee Gladman. Tenth book, first essay collection. Agent: None. Editor: Heidi Broadhead. Publicist: Brittany Dennison.
“The first time Caesar approached Cora about running north, she said no.” The Underground Railroad (Doubleday, August 2016) by Colson Whitehead. Eighth book, sixth novel. Agent: Nicole Aragi. Editor: William Thomas. Publicist: Michael Goldsmith.
“I don’t know when you came into being, / inside me, when I was inside my mother— / maybe when the involuntary / muscles were setting, like rose jello.” Odes (Knopf, September 2016) by Sharon Olds. Eleventh book, poetry collection. Agent: Frances Coady. Editor: Deborah Garrison. Publicist: Josefine Kals.
“The christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin.” Commonwealth (HarperCollins, September 2016) by Ann Patchett. Tenth book, seventh novel. Agent: Daniel Kirschen. Editor: Jonathan Burnham. Publicist: Jane Beirn.
“Most children have two whole legs and two whole arms but this little six-year-old that Dinesh was carrying had already lost one leg, the right one from the lower thigh down, and was now about to lose his right arm.” The Story of a Brief Marriage (Flatiron Books, September 2016) by Anuk Arudpragasam. First book, novel. Agent: Anna Stein. Editor: Caroline Bleeke. Publicist: Amelia Possanza.
“This man is going to die without telling me.” Wannabe Hoochie Mama Gallery of Realities’ Red Dress Code: New & Selected Poems (Persea Books, September 2016) by Thylias Moss. Tenth book, ninth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Gabriel Fried. Publicist: Gabriel Fried.
“Sitting on a bench in the Parque Santander, having his shoes shined before it was time for the tribute to begin, Mallarino was suddenly sure he’d just seen a long-dead political cartoonist.” Reputations (Riverhead Books, September 2016) by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean. Fifth book, fourth novel. Agent: María Lynch. Editor: Laura Perciasepe. Publicist: Jynne Dilling Martin.
“It was like riding in a treasure chest, Ling thought.” The Fortunes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 2016) by Peter Ho Davies. Fourth book, second novel. Agent: Maria Massie. Editors: Jenna Johnson and Lauren Wein. Publicist: Megan Wilson.
“Would I love it this way if it could last” Garden Time (Copper Canyon Press, September 2016) by W. S. Merwin. Thirty-seventh book, twenty-ninth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Michael Wiegers. Publicist: Kelly Forsythe.
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.