May/June 2017

Alex Dimitrov takes us through five journals that first published poems appearing in his new book, Together and by Ourselves.

Radish, an innovative serial-reading app, publishes works of fiction one chapter at a time. Users can read original stories and pay to unlock more plot, putting money in the pockets of the writers who contribute.

Writer and artist Kristen Radtke’s debut graphic memoir, Imagine Wanting Only This, combines vivid illustrations with an unflinching investigation of loss, memory, and the construction and dissolution of the self.

The new executive director of the Cave Canem Foundation talks about her history with the organization, her vision for the future, and the role of poetry in a hostile political climate.

Small Press Points highlights the innovation and can-do spirit of independent presses. This issue features the Tallahassee, Florida–based Twisted Road Publications, which champions authors overlooked by mainstream publishing and “books that depict the shadowy places where the disenfranchised dwell.”

After the election, writers and editors around the country responded by launching new publications as outlets for both literary excellence and impassioned social critique.

Page One offers the first lines of a dozen recently released books, including Mary Gaitskill’s Somebody With a Little Hammer and Lesley Nneka Arimah’s What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky.

Since its inception in 1987, the Writers Studio has grown from a small workshop in the West Village of New York City to an indispensable literary institution offering online courses, programming for children, and readings, craft classes, and workshops in five cities in the United States and abroad.

Compose a collaborative renga with a friend, inject surreal motifs into your fiction, and explore your relationship with a parent or child through the lens of one embarrassing memory—three prompts to keep your pen on the page this spring.

Six writing instructors offer strategies for allaying students’ anxieties, engaging critically with their work, and responsibly giving them what they most desire: praise.