Article Archive

Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.

2011 MFA Rankings: The Top Fifty

by
Seth Abramson
9.1.10

A combination of hard data from programs that release funding and admissions figures to the public and a vital survey of what the individuals comprising the next generation of U.S. poets and writers have to say about their own priorities in choosing a postgraduate program, here is a ranking of the nation's top fifty MFA programs.

New Book Club Gets a Jump on Critics

by
Kevin Canfield
8.3.10

The Rumpus Book Club, launched in May by Stephen Elliott, offers a compelling twist on the traditional model of online book clubs. Members pay for two things: advance copies of new books, which they’ll receive a month before the official publication date, and access to the people who’ve written them.

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The What and the How of It

by
John Biguenet
7.1.10

An excerpt from “The What and the How of It” by John Biguenet (in Before During After, edited by Elizabeth Kleinveld, to be published by the University of New Orleans Press in 2010).

Writers, Interrupted

by
Katheryn Krotzer Laborde
7.1.10

One writer's monthlong journey with her family from her home on the Gulf Coast to three different cities as she searches for a respite from the storm, meeting others along the way whose loss puts hers in perspective.

Necessary Agent

by
Jofie Ferrari-Adler
7.1.10
Molly_Friedrich_for_Web.jpg

An editor reveals how the best agents—Molly Friedrich, Jud Laghi, Chris Parris-Lamb, Scott Moyers, and Jennifer Joel among them—work behind the scenes to help their clients’ books get the attention they deserve.

Literary MagNet

Literary MagNet chronicles the start-ups and closures, successes and failures, anniversaries and accolades, changes of editorship and special issues—in short, the news and trends—of literary magazines in America. This issue's MagNet features Isotope, Gigantic, Bombay Gin, Ploughshares, the Harvard Review, and Prairie Schooner.

Literary New Orleans, Post-Katrina

by
Nicole Cooley
7.1.10

On the 
fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, several local and national arts organizations, including the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society and the Poetry Society of America, are presenting readings in New Orleans to commemorate all that was lost—the lives, homes, businesses, and communities—and to celebrate a flourishing of the literary arts in the area since the storm.

Small Press Points

Small Press Points highlights the happenings of the small press players. This issue features Blue Hour Press, an independent poetry publisher in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, that is “dedicated to bridging the gap between the beauty and tradition of print and the accessibility and possibility of the Web, releasing digital chapbooks that are satisfying, respectable, and innovative.”

3 for Free

In this regular feature, we offer a few suggestions for podcasts, smartphone apps, Web tools, newsletters, museum shows, and gallery openings: a medley of literary curiosities that you might enjoy.

Roosevelt's Writers

by
Kevin Nance
7.1.10

The Federal Writers' Project was established seventy-five years ago, and according to one author and documentary filmmaker, it was a watershed event, if not a turning point, in the history of American literature. Employing up to 7,500 people annually during its four-year run, the Writers’ Project nurtured a generation of authors who otherwise might have been forced into nonliterary careers.

Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

With so many good books being published every month, some literary titles worth exploring can get lost in the stacks. Page One offers the first lines of a dozen recently released books, including Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and Joshua Mohr's Termite Parade, as the starting point for a closer look at these new and noteworthy titles.

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American Wins Rolex Mentorship

by
Alex Dimitrov
7.1.10

The Rolex Mentor and 
Protégé Arts Initiative recently announced that this year’s mentor in literature, German writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger, has chosen as his protégée American poet Tracy K. Smith. This is the fifth year a mentorship has been awarded to a writer, and the first time the winning writer has hailed from the United States.

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