Toward the Sensuous Form: Transing the Essay
The author of Voice of the Fish: A Lyric Essay (Graywolf Press, 2022) reflects on what a trans essay might look like.
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Article Archive
Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
Toward the Sensuous Form: Embracing New Forms of Knowing in the Essay
The author of Voice of the Fish: A Lyric Essay (Graywolf Press, 2022) considers what it would mean for the essay to embrace new kinds of meaning-making.
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Small Press Points: Half Mystic
Founded in Singapore in 2015 and now based in New York City, Half Mystic Press publishes two books each year that engage with music—in theme or in spirit—as well as an annual journal.
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Truing the Narrative: Revising for Symmetry to Make Your Manuscript Sing
When a memoirist studies her manuscript for patterns in theme and style, the symmetries she cultivates bring powerful shape to her book.
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Dare to Defamiliarize: In Praise of Fluidity
The acclaimed fiction writer, essayist, comic book writer, and screenwriter cautions against growing too rigid in your practice and suggests kicking down some doors and using writing as a multi-tool.
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The Time Is Now: Writing Prompts and Exercises
Write a poem that reflects on the passing of time, a story that uses anonymity to build themes of disappearance and loneliness, or a personal essay about your relationship to a specific technology.
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Q&A: Sze Named U.S. Poet Laureate
The newly appointed U.S. poet laureate discusses how he learned his craft as a literary translator and his plans for promoting poetry in translation.
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The Written Image: Ediciones Vigía
Based in Matanzas, Cuba, Ediciones Vigía has transformed over forty years from an informal gathering of creatives into an inventive artisan book press and publishing workshop.
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Literary MagNet: Patricia Q. Bidar
Flash fiction writer Patricia Q. Bidar highlights journals, including Ghost Parachute and Flash Frog, that embrace the shortest of short fiction and have published her work.
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Study Shows Reading on the Decline
A study in iScience found a 43 percent drop over the last twenty years in the number of Americans who report reading for pleasure daily.
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The Literature of Illness, Healing
Bellevue Literary Review celebrates twenty-five years of platforming creative writing about health and the world of the body.
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Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including The Palace by Andrés Cerpa and The Flower Bearers by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.
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Writers’ History Lessons
The Depression-era Federal Writers’ Project enlisted writers to tell a nation’s stories. Now the People’s Recorder podcast explores the history of the project and its continued relevance.
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A Computer-Free Day: How One Small Mistake Changed My Perspective on Productivity
A writer of fiction and nonfiction forgets her laptop on a mini writing retreat and discovers new and productive paths through creativity without the constant pull of technology.
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Three-Day Writing Detox: Tips for Starting the New Year With Confidence
A poet recommends a three-day program to examine your writing, where you write, what you write with, and what your goals are as a way to refresh your spirit and energize your writing practice.
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New Ways of Seeing: Our Twenty-First Annual Look at Debut Poets
Ten debut poets, including Gbenga Adesina and Kalehua Kim, share the inspiration, advice, and writers block remedies that have sustained their literary practices.
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Brave New Metaphors: Lessons From Science Fiction
The celebrated writer shows how science fiction’s “novums”—the futuristic or fantastical developments a writer invents in their work—can delve into philosophical questions, explore contemporary issues, and help us see worlds that are not yet real.
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Seek the Unknown in the Familiar: Lessons From Historical Fiction
The best historical fiction “vibrates with a past that is in the present” and reveals the unseen in stories thought we knew—craft skills any writer can bring to their work.
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Cultivate Suspense: Lessons From Thrillers
The author of Winter Counts offers a masterclass in building suspense, whether your character is planning a heist or planting a garden.
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Embrace the “And Then”: Lessons From Fairy Tales
Fairy tales are built on their own enchanting associative logic. A maestro of magical realism explores what writers can unlock when they let readers leap between a story’s plot points—and where such a trail of breadcrumbs can lead.
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Conjure the Strange: Lessons From Horror
The award-winning writer studies how the most powerful horror stories are grounded in “deeply human dilemma,” and how daring the ghoulish can bring us closer to our characters.
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Inspiration From Across the Literary Landscape
Five acclaimed writers traverse the literary landscape, gleaning lessons from diverse genres of writing and bringing them back to bear on any work.
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Inspiration, Imagined
Since 2010 we have asked graphic designers and artists to create new, surprising, and uniquely inspiring covers for the first issue of the year; in this portfolio we look back at their work.
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Ten Writers on Writing Advice: 2025
Ten authors answer the tenth question in our Ten Questions series: What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?
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Toward the Sensuous Form: Origins and Possible Trajectories of the Essay
The author of Voice of the Fish: A Lyric Essay (Graywolf Press, 2022) reflects on the ancient origins of the essay form.
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