Agents & Editors: Ibrahim Ahmad
The former editorial director of Akashic Books, now an executive editor at Viking, talks about his experience moving from an indie press to one of the Big Five publishers.
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Article Archive: Feature
Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
Agents & Editors: The Complete Series
This series of interviews with over forty book editors, publishers, and agents offers a unique look at the past, present, and future of the book industry and what writers can do to thrive in today’s publishing world.
The New Nonfiction 2024
Excerpts from Bones Worth Breaking by David Martinez, Little Seed by Wei Tchou, The Lucky Ones by Zara Chowdhary, The Exit Is the Entrance by Lydia Paar, and Come by Here by Neesha Powell-Ingabire.
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First Fiction 2024
Laura van den Berg, Jessamine Chan, Akil Kumarasamy, Ayşegül Savaş, and Julie Buntin introduce the authors of this summer’s best debut fiction: ’Pemi Aguda, Jiaming Tang, Michael Deagler, Yasmin Zaher, and Gina María Balibrera.
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Agents & Editors: Tanya McKinnon
The principal agent of McKinnon Literary talks about how publishing can be a form of activism, the different ways agents and authors can use comp titles, and how the future of the book business still holds many wonderful possibilities.
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5 Over 50: 2023
Essays by debut authors Alma García (All That Rises), Bernardine “Dine” Watson (Transplant), Tommy Archuleta (Susto), Chin-Sun Lee (Upcountry), and Donna Spruijt-Metz (General Release From the Beginning of the World).
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Agents & Editors: Jamia Wilson
Random House executive editor and vice president Jamia Wilson talks about her passion for publishing as a craft, how being a writer informs her work as an editor, and the importance of keeping an expansive interest in books.
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The New Nonfiction 2023
Essays by debut authors Eirinie Carson (The Dead Are Gods), Leah Myers (Thinning Blood), Andrew Leland (The Country of the Blind), Jen Soriano (Nervous), and Jami Nakamura Lin (The Night Parade).
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First Fiction 2023
Interviews with debut authors Tyriek White, Ada Zhang, Mihret Sibhat, Shastri Akella, and Rebekah Bergman, along with excerpts from their books.
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Bringing the Joy: A Profile of Luis Alberto Urrea
Luis Alberto Urrea always knew his mother had a story; he just didn’t know how to tell it. But in researching his new novel, Good Night, Irene, he gained a deeper understanding of the person she was and the happy ending she deserved.
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Blooming How She Must: A Profile of Camille T. Dungy
With roots in nature writing, environmental justice, poetry, and photography, Camille T. Dungy’s new book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, delves into the personal and political act of cultivating one’s own green space.
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Agents & Editors: Rakia Clark
Mariner Books executive editor Rakia Clark talks about unlocking the full potential of an author, how writers can shine in the query letter, and effecting meaningful change in the publishing industry.
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Ravenous With Story: A Profile of Celeste Ng
In her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, best-selling author Celeste Ng continues to explore the social and political pressures that shape family dynamics—this time in a story set in a contemporary dystopia that feels frighteningly familiar.
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5 Over 50: 2022
Essays by debut authors Madhushree Ghosh, Sari Botton, David Santos Donaldson, Shareen K. Murayama, and Jane Campbell.
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My Life in Book Banning
The author of one of last year’s most challenged books confronts a campaign of threats, cyberattacks, and doxing in the post-truth era.
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Agents & Editors: Annie Hwang
Annie Hwang of Ayesha Pande Literary talks about community building, professional burnout, the questions writers should ask when querying agents, and the demanding work of advocating for diversity in publishing.
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How It Felt: A Profile of Namwali Serpell
In The Furrows, Namwali Serpell draws readers into the roiling nature of grief in a powerful narrative that explores memory, loss, and Black identity without resting on what she calls the “meaningless platitude” that art promotes empathy.
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First Fiction 2022
Interviews with debut authors Leila Mottley, Tsering Yangzom Lama, Arinze Ifeakandu, Paige Clark, and Morgan Talty, as well as excerpts from their books.
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Keeping the Stories: A Profile of Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s new novel, Women of Light, chronicles five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West and is imbued with her rich sense of history and pride in her own mixed ancestry: “The story of who I am is inextricably tied to this country.”
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Life Goals: A Q&A With Elif Batuman
Elif Batuman, the best-selling author of The Idiot and its sequel, Either/Or, talks to Porochista Khakpour about the new novel, being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and what she learned on a trip to Russia and Ukraine.
Resistance and Reclamation: Three Poets Revise the Narrative of Transracial, Transnational Adoption
Three poets discuss writing, survival, and community as Asian American adoptees.
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5 Over 50: 2021
In this online supplement to our annual print feature celebrating debut authors over the age of fifty, Jeffrey J. Higa, Ursula Pike, Megan Culhane Galbraith, Michael Kleber-Diggs, and Vinod Busjeet share excerpts from their first books.
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The Field of Stories: A Q&A With Joy Harjo
In a new memoir, Poet Warrior, published by W. W. Norton in September, U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo travels the roads, rivers, and rhythms of her life, taking readers on a journey across generations.
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The Wide Question: A Q&A With Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh Akbar, the author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf, returns with Pilgrim Bell, a collection of poems that dissolves the border between knowing and not knowing and interrogates ideals of justice, the self, and the divine.
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First Fiction 2021
Excerpts from the titles by Eric Nguyen, Lee Lai, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Joss Lake, Pik-Shuen Fung, and the late Anthony Veasna So featured in our annual roundup of the summer’s best debut fiction.
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