Poet Franz Wright has ascended over the past decade from the abyss of personal crisis to the pinnacle of a writer's career—winning the Pulitzer Prize. It's a distinction shared by only the brightest literary lights, among them, his own father.
March/April 2006
Features
The Son Also Rises: A Profile of Franz Wright
Poet Franz Wright talks about his newest book, God's Silence, and his father's legacy.
The Art of Adaptation: A Profile of Terese Svoboda
Poet and novelist Terese Svoboda ventures beyond the conventions of genre.
Conferences and Residencies
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
The Blue Ridge mountain retreat expands to the south of France.
The FLIP Festival
A literary festival shakes up Brazil's literary scene.
Strangers in a Strange Land
When writers retreats don't live up to expectations.
The Edward F. Albee Foundation: The Barn at the End of the World
The Edward F. Albee Foundation in Montauk, New York, gives writers room to write—in one of the most inspiring barns in the country.
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News and Trends
NEA Responds to "Reading at Risk"
In response to its 2004 report "Reading at Risk," which found that significantly fewer people read serious literature now than in years past, the National Endowment for the Arts recently launched an ambitious program designed to reverse the trend.
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Q&A: Chang Signals New Era in Iowa
On the eve of her departure from Somerville, Massachusetts, for Iowa City, Lan Samantha Chang spoke about her new role as the leader of the country's oldest creative writing program.
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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 Fairy Tale Review, Alimentum, Lost, Dislocate, Tameme, Double Change, Storie, and Terra Incognita.
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Comic Adventure Takes Poetic Form
Among the many poetry collections that have been published in the weeks leading up to National Poetry Month, Jim and Dave Defeat the Masked Man, a collaborative book of sestinas by James Cummins and David Lehman released by Soft Skull Press in February, features perhaps the most prestigious and, simultaneously, zany cast of characters to appear in a book of poems since Alan Kaufman's Outlaw Bible of American Poetry was published by Thunder's Mouth Press seven years ago.
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Small Press Points
Small Press Points highlights the happenings of the small press players. This issue features Hourglass Books, Hanging Loose Press, and Chiasmus Press.
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Four-Legged Fiction
It used to be that when a writer bestowed human qualities on an animal—the ability to speak, for instance—it almost always meant trouble. Today, animal lit is broader in scope and occasionally even benevolent in nature.
Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin
In celebration of National Poetry Month, we present this all-poetry edition of Page One, featuring excerpts from Black Lab by David Young and Drive: The First Quartet by Lorna Dee Cervante.
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The Written Image: “Categories”
In an effort to promote scientific literacy, foster an appreciation of the humanities, and encourage readers to make "informed and imaginative connections" between the sciences and the arts, New York City–based Vernacular Press recently launched a series of books titled "Categories."
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The Practical Writer
First: Janice Erlbaum's Memoir, Girlbomb
An author's hard-knock life leads to the publication of her memoir.
Inside Publishing: A Publicist's Guide to the Business
When I first began working in book publishing—an odd job somewhere between editorial and production at a big commercial house—I remember being intrigued by the department that sent e-mails, company-wide, in large font, announcing a particular...
The Literary Life
In the Field: Writing Lessons at 826NYC
The nonprofit writing center 826NYC helps kids with their writing.
Cabin Fever: My Own Private Walden Pond
From Thoreau to Arthur Miller for centuries writers have been escaping to personal cabins—some even hand built by the writers themselves—for the solitude necessary to slip inward.
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