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Our second annual ranking of the top fifty MFA programs; Monique Truong, the award-winning novelist, tells us why writers should think more like lawyers; novelist Darin Strauss tackles the tragic event that has shaped his life and his writing; Major Jackson, in his third collection, Holding Company, corrals the ecstatic in a ten-line form; and more.
In order to write Bitter in the Mouth, the long-awaited follow-up to her debut novel, The Book of Salt, Monique Truong returned to the place she'd sworn never to see again—home.
In a new memoir, best-selling novelist Darin Strauss tackles the tragic event that he has been forced to live with—and learn from—for more than half his life.
Moving into new poetic territory, Major Jackson, in his third collection, Holding Company, corrals the ecstatic in a ten-line form.
Size, funding, cost of living—there's plenty to consider when choosing a postgraduate creative writing program. In our second annual ranking of the top fifty MFA programs, contributor Seth Abramson measures sixteen distinct program features for the...
A list of authors who have recently joined the faculties of eighteen programs at colleges and universities across the country.
The personal statement—a document, required by most programs, in which you must demonstrate that you are a talented, determined writer—is the one thing that causes potential candidates more anxiety than the manuscript itself. Here's a list of dos...
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.
The top ten low-residency MFA programs in the United States, plus a ranking of the additional thirty-six low residencies in the United States and beyond.
Size, funding, cost of living—there's plenty to consider when choosing a postgraduate creative writing program. In our second annual ranking of the top fifty MFA programs, contributor Seth Abramson measures sixteen distinct program features for the 148 full-residency programs in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, and eight features for each of the 46 low-residency programs around the world.
In response to the Deep-water Horizon oil spill, writers Heidi Lynn Staples and Amy King created Poets for Living Waters, an online poetry forum featuring works written in response to the disaster, spurring a host of nationwide events that give poets not only an opportunity to take action against the catastrophe but also to speak out in support of our natural environment.
Despite the financial challenges of their vocation, writers have long found accessible, inventive ways to get work into the world. Among the benefit readings and bake sales, a new fund-raising option allows writers to tap into the fertile social networking landscape to find individuals who may be willing to donate the cost of a cupcake to give a project a boost.
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 Paul Murray's Skippy Dies and Ai's No Surrender, as the starting point for a closer look at these new and noteworthy titles.
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.
In June the San Francisco–based nonprofit Internet Archive partnered with several libraries across the country to allow e-book lending, taking the next step toward creating a one-stop online portal for digital reading and offering a hint of the new role libraries may play as the screen displaces the printed page.
Small Press Points highlights the happenings of the small press players. This issue features the new independent poetry press Birds, LLC, whose editors say an integral part of their mission is to build close relationships with authors and their work.
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 Upstreet, the Iowa Review, Fogged Clarity, jubilat, Granta, and Cellpoems.
A still from Howl, a new film centered on the drama of the obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights for publishing Allen Ginsberg's controversial poem, which is slated for release in New York City and Los Angeles on September 24.
American novelist Thomas Legendre, who has worked with British poet Matthew Welton to develop a new creative writing program at the University of Nottingham, speaks about what makes study in England unique and what writers can gain from attending the new graduate program.
Writers looking for real-world experience—beyond what an MFA program or a writers colony can offer—might be surprised to learn that the prestigious Fulbright grant, thought by many to support only scholars of academic projects, offers aid to...
In the fifth installment of our series Inside Indie Bookstores, contributor Jeremiah Chamberlin travels to Denver to speak with Joyce Meskis, owner of Tattered Cover Book Store.
The agent of authors such as Kevin Brockmeier and Marisa de los Santos offers her thoughts on self-publishing and what she looks for in the first five pages of a writing sample.
For today’s memoirist, it seems, the more sensational the story the better. But for former Newsday columnist Mike McGrady, the decision in the late 1970s to write Ordeal—the first-person story of Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace...
With so much uncertainty surrounding the publishing industry, writers need to dismiss notions of their own irrelevance and embrace the importance of their work.
While most writers feel vulnerable showing their work to first readers, the potential rewards far outweigh the risks. Contributing editor Kevin Nance asks esteemed authors such as Barbara Kingsolver, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Steve Yarbrough about...
After graduating from an MFA program, Renée K. Nicholson's focus on awards and publication credits began to affect her ability to write. It took knee-replacement and a reengagement with her other art form, dancing, to remind her of the real reason...
