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Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
Warren Wilson College’s low-residency MFA program is taking strides to address questions of diversity, having started a conversation among faculty and students about the intersection of race, culture, and craft in the MFA landscape.
Four young literary agents meet for an evening of food, drink, and conversation about how they find new authors, what they need to see in a query letter, and the common mistakes writers should avoid.
A breakdown of the numbers behind our Grants & Awards section, including the total amount of prize money given each year, the cost of entry, and how writing contests have changed over the past ten years.
Melissa Febos, Jay Baron Nicorvo, and nine other authors share their stories of the major turning points they experienced.
In our tenth annual look at debut poets, we’ve asked the more than one hundred poets previously included in this feature to nominate their favorite debut collections of 2014. From that longlist of outstanding work, we’ve selected ten poets to feature here, who share their inspirations and influences, how their books began, and advice to those hoping to get their own books out into the world.
A songwriter responds to literature—such as stories by Jonathan Lethem and George Saunders—with music, carrying the creative conversation across art forms.
A writer learns that letting go of the need for perfectionism and allowing the creative impulse to guide the mind fluidly and freely can revitalize the practice of writing.
Eleven small-press authors and their publishing partners discuss the independent approach—and all the passion, commitment, and love that comes with it—to bringing books into the world.
Graywolf Press executive editor Jeff Shotts discusses the power of patience in publishing, editing as an act of empathy, and why it’s an exciting time to be a poet.
PJ Mark, whose clients include Samantha Hunt, Wayne Koestenbaum, Dinaw Mengestu, Maggie Nelson, Ed Park, and Josh Weil, talks about what writers can do to improve their chances of success, why fiction is harder to sell than nonfiction, and the importance of trusting your heart.
After years of personal struggles including drug abuse and run-ins with the law, a poet meditates on the mentors who helped carry him toward the creative life.
Self-published author Jennifer Ciotta, literary agent Kristin Nelson, and independent publishing entrepreneur Richard Nash discuss the creative opportunities, challenges, and rewards of self-publishing.
A poet with two published books but no MFA, Leigh Stein has nevertheless benefited from the proliferation of creative writing programs.
A heavy-hitting agent who for twenty-two years has represented some of the biggest literary writers in the country, Eric Simonoff discusses recent changes in the publishing industry, the pitfalls of self-publishing, and what he's learned about staying creative.
Here are seven strategies for a more efficient (and hopefully more effective) process of submitting your work to contests.
To coincide with the publication of our Inspiration Issue in 2011, we began offering The Time Is Now, a weekly series of writing prompts posted online and available via e-mail. With the January/February 2013 issue, we bring The Time Is Now to print. Look for it as an ongoing column.
Having witnessed firsthand the merits of one student’s MFA education, author and creative writing teacher Gregory Spatz considers the well-worn debate on whether creative writing can be taught, and what he himself learned from his mentorship role.
A look at the risks and rewards of book-publication contests, including an overview of the contest model, a breakdown of the budgets behind three major book prizes, the intangible benefits of winning, and an interview with four frequent judges.
Organizers of writing contests are, perhaps not suprisingly, wary of publicizing details of their budgets, but the organizers of three contest programs offered to share the numbers behind their 2011 contests as part of contributing editor Michael Bourne's “The Economics of Competition,” which serves as the centerpiece of the current issue’s special section on the risks and rewards of writing contests.
Administrators offer insight into the mystifying process of applying to a writing retreat by answering some common questions: How do residency juries weigh a work plan? Would your boss make a better reference than a former writing teacher? Is published or unpublished work more desirable in a writing sample?
What creativity needs most of all is time for the mind to percolate, to mix old ideas together in new ways, and to find connections no one else has found. For this the mind must be left to itself.
Answers to the most commonly asked questions about our rankings of full-residency, low-residency, and doctoral programs in creative writing.
An additional twenty-five MFA programs in our annual rankings, from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, to San Diego State University in California.
The top fifteen creative writing doctoral programs in the United States, from the University of Denver in Colorado to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
The nation’s top fifty MFA programs based on popularity, funding, selectivity, fellowship-placement statistics, job-placement statistics, and student-faculty ratios, plus a look at other important program features, such as size, duration, cost of living, and foreign-language requirements.
