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In this Poets & Writers event, 2025 Jackson Poetry Prize winner Cyrus Cassells reads a selection of poems from his first book, The Mud Actor (Henry Holt, 1982), and his most recent book, Everything in Life Is Resurrection: Selected Poems, 1982–2022 (TCU Press, 2025), and joins Pádraig Ó Tuama for a conversation about his evolution as a poet.
The O‘ahu Writers Mini-Retreat will be held on November 29 and November 30 at a historic vacation property in the town of Waialua, on the North Shore of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. The retreat features generative writing workshops, critiques, and arts and crafts breaks for poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The faculty includes poet Tamara Leiokanoe Moan, fiction writer Tom Gammarino, and creative nonfiction writer Constance Hale. Tuition is $120 for one day and $200 for both days; lodging is not included, but lunch is.
O‘ahu Writers Mini-Retreat, 1040 56th Street, Oakland, CA 94608. (617) 909-1439. Constance Hale, Director.
In this video from the Sage-sponsored “Banned Books From the Big Chair” booth at the American Library Association’s 2025 annual conference, authors and attendees respond to the dangers of book banning and the importance of supporting public libraries and the freedom to read.
A prize of $1,000, bilingual publication in English and Spanish by Gunpowder Press, and 10 author copies will be given annually for a poetry chapbook by a Latinx poet who is a c
In this Alaska Quarterly Review virtual event, poet and naturalist Elizabeth Bradfield reads from her collection SOFAR (Persea Books, 2025) and discusses the relationship of her poetics to ocean ecologies, memories of queer love, and both human and natural histories.
For the Poetry Society of America’s “In Their Own Words” series, Suzanne Buffam writes about her poem “Trying,” which circles around the effort to conceive a child. “The poem became, in a sense, a meditation on effort, in which the suspension of effort was the aim of my efforts,” writes Buffam. “I gave myself one constraint. Each paragraph I wrote would have to contain some form of the verb ‘to try.’” Taking inspiration from Buffam’s constraint for her piece, compose a poem that explores your process trying to reach a goal, whether big or small, tangible or more abstract. Play around with different forms of the verb “to try,” or another verb that gestures at effort, paying careful consideration to how the word conveys a sensation of persistence over the course of time and through various obstacles and setbacks.
In this video, George Takei, honorary chair of Banned Books Week 2025, talks about how “access to books and knowledge is essential to democracy” and how reading provides a way to see ourselves reflected in stories and to discover the stories of others. To learn more, visit the Banned Books Week website.
A prize of €2,000 (approximately $2,353) and publication in Southword is given annually for a single poem. The winner will also receive a four-night hotel stay, including meals, to give a featured reading at the Cork International Poetry Festival in Cork, Ireland, in May 2026 and will be featured on the Southword Poetry Podcast. Submit a poem of up to 40 lines with a €7 (approximately $8) entry fee or five poems of up to 40 lines each with a €30 (approximately $35) entry fee by November 30. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
