Jump to navigation Skip to content
In the Inspiration Issue we present our twentieth annual feature on ten of the year’s best debut poets; eight inspired authors illuminate new possibilities in our work; writing against Western strictures of realism; advice on giving and effectively receiving constructive feedback; meditations on the poems that don’t make it into the book; an interview with the executive director of Words Without Borders; plus writing prompts, contest deadlines, writers retreats, and more.
When it seems impossible to find a way into writing, a robust community can be a beam of light in the darkness. The author of Ghost Hour describes the ways that a new writers group helped rekindle and guide her creative practice.
When “normal” fails, embrace the strangeness and possibility the night can provide. A renowned fiction writer recounts the uncommon delight of inviting others to join her in writing under the moon.
Many things bring light; some bring just enough to keep the monsters at bay. When ideal circumstances are scarce, focus on the dim, constant light that helps you get the work done, even if it comes from an unusual source.
Writing and revising often seem to hinge on bringing new possibilities into focus. A poet considers the camera obscura as a metaphor for how an inversion of the light can transform and attune us to the moment.
Inspired by the bioluminescence of the anglerfish, the author of Something New Under the Sun encourages writers to furnish their own light and plumb the unknown depths of their text with the hunger of a deep-sea predator.
A novelist shares the way a writer builds intimacy between readers and characters, and how the peculiar glow of the refrigerator light brings warmth to an audience of one.
What does it mean to truly let loose as a writer? The author of I’m Not Hungry but I Could Eat urges us to lean into the fire and pressure head-on, to let everything out on the page and offer it up to the world.
Taking inspiration from a creature of the summer, a seasoned writer suggests a few approaches to stimulate, refresh, and gather your thoughts for the next stage of writing and spark your imagination with play.
Ten debut poets who published in 2024 generously share the inspiration, advice, and writers block remedies that have sustained them through their literary journeys.
Since 2005, Poets & Writers Magazine has highlighted emerging poets in an annual feature on first poetry books. In celebration, we gathered a list of the 222 poets and their debut collections that have graced our pages.
A century-long art project that pledges a grove of spruces in Norway to print one hundred sealed manuscripts, the Future Library is a source of optimism in the looming climate crisis that we can still build a future full of stories.
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including The World With Its Mouth Open by Zahid Rafiq and What It’s Like in Words by Eliza Moss.
Continuing its legacy of helping industry professionals discover untapped talent, the Black List has added fiction to the roster of manuscripts shared through its site—a move that could create a new pathway to publication for novelists.
More than sixty years after her passing, Zora Neale Hurston’s newly published novel, The Life of Herod the Great, reimagines archival materials and prompts reflection on the legacies of historical figures and literary objects.
Publishing around half a dozen novellas, poetry collections, and graphic novels yearly, Driftwood Press resists narrowing itself to a specific niche; instead, the press is defined by its diversity in stories, styles, and perspectives.
The author of The Dreamcatcher in the Wry spotlights journals and platforms that have published her work and appreciate her wry sense of humor, including the Belladonna and Hunger Mountain.
Christine Sun Kim’s art practice uniquely melds different mediums with ASL to address her experience as a Deaf individual in a hearing-centric world, prompting viewers to reflect on accessibility and ableist exclusion.
The new executive director of Words Without Borders, Elisabeth Jaquette, speaks on translation as an art and a profession as well as her goals to spotlight new global voices and help set best practices in the field.
Workshop isn’t about fixing, but building together—instead of giving prescriptive suggestions on a piece, a widely published poet recommends offering specific notes as an invitation to explore further possibilities.
Write a poem about the pains and pleasures of cold weather, a short story that brings together an unexpected series of events, or an essay that contemplates companionship.
The author of Border Less describes how audience responses to her debut novel’s play with form led her to wonder about the greater implications of the Western fixation on realism as the accepted novel style.
Every poetry collection has its “maybes” and “almosts,” the poems that didn’t make it to publication. A debut poet considers the poems that haunt a book from the outside.
