Jump to navigation Skip to content
"The mission of Deep Vellum is... to promote and foster the art and craft of translation." Will Evans, founding publisher and executive director of Deep Vellum Publishing, speaks about the need for translation in contemporary literature and his hopes for a more vibrant literary culture. The Dallas-based press is featured in Small Press Points in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Write a letter to a friend you’ve lost touch with for at least ten years—perhaps you haven’t spoken to each other because of a falling-out or one of you moved to a new town. What do you remember about the last time you saw this person? Reflect upon the ways in which you have changed and remained the same from who you were ten years ago. Examine the emotions that surface when you think about this old friend and your relationship, and the physical places that your memories take you.
"If you think the human mind is a wonderful thing, there is an infinite interest in cultivating it." Marilynne Robinson speaks with Bill Moyers about her novel Lila (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014), and her thoughts on faith, democracy, and creativity. Robinson discusses her new book of essays, The Givenness of Things (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"The mind is a much more generous resource than we're in the habit of considering it to be." The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist speaks about accessing imagination through writing and her teaching experiences at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Robinson discusses her new book of essays, The Givenness of Things (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
The term “urban legend” refers to contemporary myths often connected to popular culture that are recounted to entertain and/or explain random events. Write an essay using an urban legend as a jumping-off point for probing into what you find entertaining or unsettling. For inspiration, you might consider the stories of Bloody Mary, exploding Pop Rocks, bodily spider infestations, or alligators in the sewer.
"It's hard to protect a person you love from pain, because people often choose pain. I am a person who often chooses pain. An animal will never choose pain." Mary Gaitskill, whose new novel, The Mare (Pantheon Books, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from her personal essay "Lost Cat" (Granta, 2009) at Baruch College.
"Write Around Portland just ignited that fire in me: to write, to get back to writing, and to really find my voice." Reuben Alvarez-Paris speaks about his experiences with the nonprofit organization dedicated to community and writing. Jenny Chu, program coordinator at Write Around Portland, will lead a panel at Poets & Writers Live on October 17 in Portland, Oregon.
"As readers we can't simply witness or observe a book from afar—we have to live inside it, we have to go through it, and every time we do, we expand a version of our own lives." Carrie Brownstein talks about the relationship between readers, books, and writers in her introduction to the 2013 National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 ceremony. Brownstein's debut memoir, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl (Riverhead Books, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"At the ocean's edge, which feels like a kind of conclusion to the clumsy whisper of names we read onto the land—we are left with no words for the choppy shove of the waves..." Jeffrey Thomson's debut memoir, Fragile (Red Mountain Press, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"Sometimes it's important for us to journal, or to create, or give voice to the things that we're even afraid to think about." Sandra Cisneros, author of the new memoir, A House of My Own: Stories From My Life (Knopf, 2015), talks about the transformative power of creative expression.
