Have a Story to Tell?

We’re Listening.
PlayMakers Repertory Company Announces
The International Thomas Wolfe Playwrighting Competition
To celebrate 100 years of playmaking at UNC-Chapel Hill, PlayMakers Repertory Company is soliciting
unproduced scripts that speak to the rich legacy of one of North Carolina’s most famous writers, Thomas Wolfe.

The prize will be awarded to a writer who captures Wolfe’s mix of highly original, poetic language with personal
Ã̜Àˆià ÀœœÌi` ˆ˜ }iœ}À>«…ˆV «>Vi° *>Þà ̅>Ì `i> ܈̅ 7œvi½Ã ˆvi >˜`ɜÀ >`>«Ì>̈œ˜Ã œv …ˆÃ wV̈œ˜ >Ài
encouraged. Preference will be given to plays that synthesize all the above criteria in bold and exciting ways.

• Winner will receive a $7,500 cash prize and development support from PlayMakers
• Submission period opens June 1, 2019 and closes September 1, 2019
• Visit www.playmakersrep.org/wolfe for details

The International Thomas Wolfe Playwriting Competition is administered by PlayMakers and sponsored by The
Thomas Wolfe Society and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville.

MAINSTAGE SEASON
Nambi E. Kelley Native Son | Heidi Armbruster Dairylandd | Aherns,
Flaherty, & McNally Ragtime | Branden Jacob-Jenkins Everybody | William
Shakespeare Julius Caesar | Karen Zacarias Native Gardens
playmakersrep.org
OCEAN
VUONG
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

First Fiction
Summer’s Best Debut Novelists

How to Get Paid

Jobs in Book Publishing

COURTNEY MAUM
Ode to a Copy Editor

JAMES P. BLAYLOCK
My Life in Books

Writing Prompts
Contest Deadlines

Lethem’s Legends
Alice Quinn’s Exit Interview
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 ABC
P O E T S & W R I T E R S M AG A Z INE • VO L U ME 47 • I S S U E 4 • J U LY/AU G U S T 2 0 19

FEATURES
30 BE BOLD
Following the acclaim of his debut poetry collection,
Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Ocean Vuong confronted
expectations for his second book. Rather than craft more
poems or turn to memoir, he found power in imagination
and freedom in embellishment and wrote a stunningly
original novel: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.
by r igoberto gonz á lez

39 FIRST FICTION 2019

R. O. Kwon, Yaa Gyasi, Melissa Febos, Helen Phillips, and
Jamel Brinkley introduce the summer’s best debut novelists:
Ruchika Tomar, Chia-Chia Lin, Miciah Bay Gault,
De’Shawn Charles Winslow, and Regina Porter.

49 FOUR LUNCHES AND A BREAKFAST

What I learned about the book business while
breaking bread with five hungry agents.
by k ev i n l a r imer

RUCHIKA TOMAR BY DAN DOPERALSKI

COVER: OCEAN VUONG BY JON CRISPIN
 ABC
P O E T S & W R I T E R S M AG A Z INE • VO L U ME 47 • I S S U E 4 • J U LY/AU G U S T 2 0 19
DEPARTMENTS
8 Editor’s Note
11 Reactions
NEWS AND TRENDS
12 Bringing poetry to the people; the
Backwaters Press finds a new home;
a new prize for thrillers sparks debate;
Lethem’s Legends uncovers forgotten
treasures; a Q&A with Alice Quinn,
departing executive director of the
Poetry Society of America; and more.
quinn: tony gale; bookmobile: asl an chalom
21
12
THE LITER ARY LIFE
23 The Time Is Now
Writing prompts and exercises.
25 My Life in Books
A meditation on the writer’s library.
by ja mes p. bl ay lock
THE PR ACTICAL WRITER
65 Ode to a Copy Editor
A writer’s best friend.
by cou rt n ey m aum
71 How to Get Paid
Book publishing.
by mich a el bou r n e
79 Grants & Awards
Over 60 upcoming deadlines, plus 4
new awards and 173 recent winners.
99 Conferences & Residencies
Retreats—from Pebble Beach,
California, to Lexington, Kentucky.
105 Classifieds
Calls for manuscripts, job openings,
and more.
120 Directory Assistance Since 1970
From Poets & Writers, Inc.
COM I NG SOO N
What should be taught in MFA programs…
historical fiction unbound…an interview
with a senior editor at one of the Big Five…
the fifth installment of How to Get Paid.
5 POETS & WRITERS
pw.org
Begin your search for an
agent with our carefully
curated Literary Agents
database, which includes
contact info, submission
guidelines, client lists, tips,
and Twitter feeds to follow
for daily dispatches from
the agenting world.
And don’t miss Agent
Advice, in which some of
the best literary agents in
the United States answer
the questions writers most
frequently ask.
Read exclusive excerpts
of the debut novels featured
in First Fiction 2019,
including The Travelers by
Regina Porter and In West
Mills by De’Shawn Charles
Winslow.
Hear more from Alice
Quinn in Dana Isokawa’s
extended interview with
the departing executive
director of the Poetry
Society of America.
Stay informed with
Daily News. We scan the
headlines—publishing
reports, literary dispatches,
academic announcements,
and more—for all the news
writers need to know.
Read Ten Questions,
our weekly series of
interviews with authors
on the release of their new
books. Explore the archive,
including interviews with
Nicole Dennis-Benn,
Mona Awad, and more than
fifty others.
 ABC POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE
Volume 47 • Issue 4

Editor in Chief Publisher

KEVIN LARIMER EL L I O T FIG M A N

Senior Editor Associate Publisher

DANA ISOKAWA TI M O ’SU L L I VA N

Production Editor Advertising Manager

ARIEL DAVIS A MY F ELT MA N

Art Director Advertising Assistant

MURRAY GREENFIELD RAC H EL B RIT T O N

Copy Editor Circulation

ANTOINE DOZOIS MA S T C IR CUL ATI O N GR OUP

Diana and Simon Raab Editorial Fellow Controller

SARAH AHMAD WI L L I A M F. HAYE S

Contributing Editors
MICHAEL BOURNE
FRANK BURES
JEREMIAH CHAMBERLIN
JOFIE FERRARI-ADLER
RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ
DEBRA GWARTNEY
PO ET S & WR I TER S , I NC .
TAYARI JONES
RUTH ELLEN KOCHER Executive Director
STEPHEN MORISON JR. EL L I O T FIG M A N
KEVIN NANCE
CLAUDIA RANKINE Founding Chair
CLINT SMITH GAL E N WI L L I AMS

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J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 6
 Writing Workshops
in Santa Fe, Havana &
San Miguel de Allende
© Sean Kernan
With Pam Houston, Rolf Po
s,
Luís Alberto Urrea,
Deborah Madison, Betsy Rapoport,
Jamie Figueroa, and Bill deBuys.
writerslab.santafeworkshops.com
-- ext 
Note
EDITOR’S
VOICES ABOVE THE NOISE
ON E OF T H E CH A LLE NGES OF PU T T I NG TOGE T H ER T H IS
issue’s feature on literary agents, “Four Lunches and a Breakfast:
What I Learned About the Book Business While Breaking Bread
With Five Hungry Agents” (page 49), was transcribing the in-
terviews that serve as the central framework of the piece. With
advances in automated transcription services such as Trint,
which enables a user to upload an audio file and let the platform’s
speech recognition technology do the rest, this should have been
a relatively simple part of the process. And that might have been
true if not for the environments in which I was recording those
interviews: loud Manhattan restaurants. Consequently, accurate
transcriptions required the ability to parse multiple simultaneous
conversations in order to isolate the ones I’d had with the agents.
Artificial intelligence is a fascinating field of computer science—
one that is altering the way we live our lives in both innovative
and horrifying ways—but for this project it was more artificial
than intelligent, and it made me appreciate how easily the human
ear can block out background noise. (It’s a built-in function of
the brain, specifically the “novelty detector” neurons, which store
information about patterns of sound and stop firing if a sound or
pattern is repeated.) So when you’re having that engaging con-
versation in a crowded restaurant, the babel of other voices, the
music, the clatter all recede into the background, simply ignored.
Can we so easily block out the distractions that accost us
through the screens and devices to which we are tethered every
day? “It’s going to be tough to bring back books in this current age
when even new titles are getting obliterated by the cacophony,”
says Bill Henderson, who has teamed up with Jonathan Lethem
(17) to reprint selected out-of-print titles. “I call it the censor-
ship of clutter. It’s hard for the average reader to find things that
are truly valuable.” Ocean Vuong, author of the novel On Earth
We’re Briefly Gorgeous, found something truly valuable in conver-
sations with peers during his formative years. In this issue’s cover
profile by Rigoberto González (30), Vuong shares an important
detail about the days during which he had those conversations:
“Afterward I went home to the page, not to Facebook or Twitter.”
In these loud times, the voices worth seek ing out and
elevating—the ones genuinely worth fighting to hear—belong
to our writers. They lift language up. The rest is noise.
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 8
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 Poets & Writers Magazine welcomes feedback
from its readers. Please post a comment
on select articles at www.pw.org,
e-mail editor@pw.org, or write to Editor,
Poets & Writers Magazine, 90 Broad Street,
Suite 2100, New York, NY 10004. Letters
accepted for publication may be edited for
clarity and length.
LETTERS
Feedback from readers
I cannot think of a more compelling or lucid expression
of the struggle to remain connected to our writing lives
than the essay “Say Yes to Yourself: A Poet’s Guide to
Living and Writing” (May/June 2019) by Camille
T. Dungy. Not only was her message to fellow writers
Camille T. Dungy
insightful, inspiring, and in all ways affirming, but the
virtuosity of her prose had me gasping, as I followed her
personal chronicle of actually drafting the essay that
we all ended up reading. Her cautionary notes about
surfing the web or answering e-mails hit close to home.
I am now committing to my twenty minutes each day
to put something (anything) down, with my best effort,
before all else. Thank you.
MARK RUSSELL GELADE
San Francisco, California
Camille T. Dungy’s “Say Yes to Yourself” provided me
with a key to breaking open my time crunch. Instead
of spending half an hour after breakfast reading the
rachel eliza griffiths
newspaper, I work on one of my many poems in process.
So I don’t know what the weather forecast is? Can’t tell
who won the Mariners game last night? So what? Many
thanks for the new way to think about time.
TRINA GAYNON
Portland, Oregon
11
Reactions
Thank you for Camille T. Dungy’s “Say Yes to
Yourself.” Brilliantly entertaining and useful. I don’t
think any piece in Poets & Writers Magazine has ever
resonated with me as strongly as this one.
MICHAEL TENBRINK
San Francisco, California
There I was, late at night, feet up on the ottoman,
reading Camille T. Dungy’s “Say Yes to Yourself,”
enjoying it, laughing out loud, admiring her writing,
envying it even. And in the back of my mind, a little
voice kept saying, “Wait for it, wait for it.” And boom!
There it was: her thinly veiled reference to despondency
after the last election. Now I am in no way suggesting
she shouldn’t write her truth. That’s what writers do:
share their truth. The question is, did it serve the essay?
For me, the answer was no because it distracted me
from the rollicking romp of encouragement to writers,
which was, I believe, her intent—an encouragement
that was definitely working for me. All I’m saying is
that when I’m reading an otherwise terrific piece, it is a
disservice to distract me in the middle of it. Writing can
be political, of course; but writing about writing doesn’t
need to be, unless that’s what you’re going for. Which
would be fine. Except when it isn’t.
PAMA L. BENNETT
Sioux City, Iowa
Following the excellent, albeit a bit idealistic, “A
Look Inside the System of Competition: What Really
Happens After You Hit Submit” (May/June 2019)
by Joey Franklin, you present six winners of literary
contests (“Winners on Winning”). I look at their faces,
and it appears there is not an author over forty in the
bunch. It looks like a youth contest. Does it mean that
the doors are closed to authors with more experience
and a more mature voice? In other words, is there
age discrimination? If so, Joey Franklin would have
to rethink his article and investigate literary contests
further.
MARIE-JO FORTIS
St. Petersburg, Florida
POETS & WRITERS
 Trends
NEWS A ND

Poetry to the People Tour

F
or the past two years the
literar y nonprof it House of
SpeakEasy has been bringing
books to neighborhoods in and
around New York City in the back of
its bookmobile, a festive maroon box
truck outfitted with bookshelves and
movable side panels that serves as a
pop-up bookstore and donation center
wherever it’s parked. This June, in col-
laboration with storytelling organiza-
nonprofit that connects potential do-
nors with teachers in public schools, to
identify classrooms with specific book
needs and help map the tour’s route.
Running from June 13 to June 21,
the tour will make stops in New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Ten-
nessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Spillman will share driving duties with
Jeff Waxman, partnerships director of
House of SpeakEasy, and a few guest
thousand books to prisons, libraries
such as the Floyd County Public Li-
brary in Kentucky, and schools such as
Plum High School in Pittsburgh.
While the donated books encompass
a range of genres from self-help to lit-
erary fiction, according to the needs of
each institution, events on the tour will
emphasize poetry, which Spillman and
Waxman agree is a particularly galva-
nizing outlet for young people today.

jasmina tomic
tion Narrative 4, the bookmobile will poets will even take brief stints behind “Right now poetry feels incredibly
undertake its longest journey yet, trav- the wheel. Over the course of their urgent,” Spillman says. “It is able to
eling fifteen hundred miles from New winding southward journey, the mo- address the current, horribly unsettled
York City to New Orleans and making torists will distribute more than four moment better than most prose. The
stops in seven states along the way.
During this expedition, called the
Poetry to the People Tour, represen-
tatives from House of SpeakEasy and
Narrative 4 will host events and donate
books to local libraries, schools, and
prisons. The truck will then roll into
New Orleans on the first day of Narra-
tive 4’s annual Global Summit, a five-
day event for teens and young adults to
share stories and build leadership skills.
“I knew that we were heading to New
Orleans for the summit, so I had a wild
idea to drive there and give out books
in underserved spaces along the way,”
says Rob Spillman, who works with
Narrative 4 and is more widely known
as the editor and cofounder of Tin
House, which published its final issue in
June. “The House of SpeakEasy team
and the Narrative 4 team both loved The House of SpeakEasy’s bookmobile
the idea, so we joined forces.” Spillman at the Brooklyn Book Festival in 2017.
also contacted DonorsChoose.org, a

J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 12

poets on the rise today—Morgan
Parker, Danez Smith, Tommy Pico,
Solmaz Sharif, Natalie Diaz, Kaveh
Akbar, Ross Gay, Rickey Laurentiis—
are also reflective of the real diversity
of our country. Their poetry connects
with teens in an immediate, visceral
manner.” The tour’s schedule of events
ref lects that belief: On June 14 the
Free Library of Philadelphia will host
a story exchange, a workshop, and a
reading featuring local teens along-
side Philadelphia poet laureate Raquel
Salas Rivera and writer and educator
Rayna Guy. A nd on June 15 poets
Jenny Johnson and Rickey Laurentiis
will perform at the Carnegie Mellon
Library in Pittsburgh.
The tour has naturally grown out
of both organizations’ work to pro-
duce creative events that bring people
together through stories or books.
In addition to selling and donating
books from the windows of its book-
mobile, House of SpeakEasy hosts a
series of literary cabarets in New York
City that feature prominent writers
and thinkers reading and riffing on a
given theme. The organization also
subsidizes tickets for teachers and
students to attend literary events for
free and sends working writers into
classrooms and community centers
throughout the cit y. Narrative 4,
which has chapters in twelve coun-
tries on four continents, conducts
story exchanges—events in which
participants pair off to swap their
stories and then retell those stories to
the larger group—among people with
different perspectives who wouldn’t
otherwise meet, such as teens from
public and private high schools or
ref ugees and public opponents of
refugee resettlement.
The organizers want the tour to
bring this work to communities they
have not reached before. “The mis-
sion of Narrative 4 is to harness the
power of the story exchange to equip
and embolden young adults to improve
their lives, their communities, and the
world,” Spillman says. “We are all about
making connections through story, and
the Poetry to the People Tour allows
us to share stories and poems in per-
son and make in-person connections
across age, race, class, and geographic
differences.” –MAGGIE MILLNER
13 POETS & W R ITERS
CONTR IBUTORS
M A G G I E M I L L N E R is
a poet and teacher from
rural upstate New York.
Her poems have appeared
or are forthcoming in the
New Yorker, Ploughshares,
Gulf Coast, and ZYZZYVA.
Previously she was the Diana
& Simon Raab Editorial
Fellow at Poets & Writers
Magazine.
R A C H A E L H A N E L is the
author of We’ll Be the Last
Ones to Let You Down: Memoir
of a Gravedigger’s Daughter
(University of Minnesota
Press, 2013).
G I L A LY O N S has written
about feminism, mental
health, and social justice for,
among other publications,
the New York Times, Salon,
Vox, Cosmopolitan, Good, and
O, the Oprah Magazine. Find
her on Twitter, @gilalyons, or
on her website, gilalyons
.com.
J O N A T H A N V A T N E R is
a fiction writer in Yonkers,
New York. His novel,
Carnegie Hill, is forthcoming
from Thomas Dunne Books
in August.
D A N A I S O K A W A is the
senior editor of Poets &
Writers Magazine.
 TRENDS

New Home for the Backwaters Press

F
or more than twenty years
Greg Kosmicki and a tire-
less crew of volu nteers
shaped t he Back water s
Press into a well-k nown
haven for poets and writ-
ers in Nebraska and beyond. Under
Kosmicki the nonprofit press won
several Nebraska Book Awards and
published 115 books by writers such
as Lola Haskins, Denise Low, and
former Nebraska State Poets William
Kloefkorn and Twyla M. Hansen. So
when Kosmicki decided last year to
step back and focus on his own writ-
ing, he wanted to find a publisher to
continue the press’s well-regarded
work. Poet Kwame Dawes, editor of
Prairie Schooner, suggested he talk
to Donna Shear, the director of the
University of Nebraska Press (UNP).
When Kosmicki approached Shear,
she didn’t hesitate: In March, UNP
announced it had acquired the Back-
waters Press as its newest imprint.
“Our feeling was that it is something
here in Nebraska, it has a good rep-
utation and a lot of history, and we
wanted to be able to continue that,”
Shear says.
Kosmicki is happy with the deci-
sion, noting that it’s difficult for small
presses, even those that are nonprof-
its, to keep going without a steady
income stream and dedicated staff
of volunteers. “We’re really excited
about the legacy of the Backwaters
Press continuing on,” he says. “People
throughout the United States have
known about the press for years, so
we’re happy to hook up with UNP to
keep it going.”
Those familiar with the Backwaters
Press won’t see a lot of changes. The
logo remains, as does the popular an-
nual Backwaters Prize in Poetry and

Page “Even in death the boys were trouble.” The Nickel Boys (Double-

One Where New

day, July 2019) by Colson Whitehead. Ninth book, seventh novel.
Agent: Nicole Aragi. Editor: Bill Thomas. Publicist: Michael
Goldsmith.
XX
And Noteworthy “Just two years shy of thirty, Patsy has nothing to show for it
Books Begin besides the flimsy brown envelope that she uses to shade her-
self from the white-hot glare of the sun.” Patsy (Liveright, June
2019) by Nicole Dennis-Benn. Second book, novel. Agent: Julie Barer. Editor: Katie Adams.
Publicists: Cordelia Calvert and Michael Taeckens.
XX
“When I was a boy, my father, during our weekly phone conversations, used to tell me
stories about the mythical kingdom of Camelot.” Roughhouse Friday (Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, June 2019) by Jaed Coffin. Second book, memoir. Agent: Betsy Lerner. Editor: Colin
Dickerman. Publicist: Chloe Texier-Rose.
XX
“the blood is red the blues is red the blues / is blood the red is dirt the dirt is brown”
& more black (Augury Books, July 2019) by t’ai freedom ford. Second book, poetry collec-
tion. Agent: None. Editor: Kate Angus. Publicist: Joe Pan.
XX
“By the time we find him, he has been lying in a small pool of his own shit for several hours.”
Notes to Self (Dial Press, June 2019) by Emilie Pine. First book, essay collection. Agent:
Amelia Atlas. Editor: Whitney Frick. Publicist: Carrie Neill.
XX
“No matter which way we turned the girl, she didn’t have a face.” Song for the Unraveling of
the World (Coffee House Press, June 2019) by Brian Evenson. Fourteenth book, eighth story
collection. Agent: Matt McGowan. Editor: Chris Fischbach. Publicist: Daley Farr.

J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 14
 TRENDS

the emphasis on publishing quality History Nebraska, formerly known as

Fiction,
Poetry,
poetry and prose from the region and the Nebraska State Historical Society.
beyond. Shear says members of the And in the fall the journals division
staff at UNP are currently evaluating
the backlist, and some books likely will
at UNP partnered with North Dakota
Quarterly, a literary and public humani- Nonfiction,
Dual-Genre.

and
b e m ade av a i l- ties journal, to ex-
able in electronic pand its regional
for mat. I n No- reach. These re-
vember the press cent partnerships New England College
w i l l relea se it s r e f l e c t U N P ’s
first Backwaters commitment to MFA in Creative Writing
title, John Sibley telling the sto-
Williams’s poetry ries of the Great Low-residency
col lec t ion Skin Plains, a region
Memory, winner sometimes over- Low Faculty-to-Student Ratio
of the most recent looked by large Teaching Assistantships
Backwaters Prize commercial pub-
in Poetry. lishers, and car-
The acquisition rying on the work FACULTY
of the Backwaters of literary organi-
Press is just one of zations and small PAIGE ACKERSON-KIELY
several new ventures for UNP, which presses that struggle to stay in busi-
publishes about 150 scholarly titles and ness. “We felt a commitment to keep- JENSEN BEACH
trade books every year. In March the ing the Backwaters Press right here in
press started to distribute books by the state,” Shear says. –RACHAEL HANEL SARAH MANGUSO

JENNIFER MILITELLO
“Of my self-creation is this legend / of my betrayals, my disloyalty to my origins.” Sightseer
in This Killing City (Penguin Books, June 2019) by Eugene Gloria. Fourth book, poetry col- ANDREW MORGAN
lection. Agent: None. Editor: Paul Slovak. Publicist: Sara Chuirazzi.
XX
DAVID RYAN
“He said he could show me my ideal gate.” Vincent and Alice and Alice (Tyrant Books, July
ALLISON TITUS
2019) by Shane Jones. Eighth book, fourth novel. Agent: Sarah Bowlin. Editor: Giancarlo
DiTrapano. Publicist: Kieran Danielson.
XX RECENT VISITING WRITERS
“We lived overlooking the walls overlooking the cemetery.” The Milk Hours (Milkweed Edi-
tions, June 2019) by John James. First book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Joey ALYSIA ABBOTT
McGarvey. Publicist: Jordan Bascom.
XX LILLIAN-YVONNE BERTRAM
“When my mother was a young woman a man used to follow her to work every morning
and masturbate, in step behind her.” Three Women (Avid Reader Press, July 2019) by Lisa ANDRE DUBUS III
Taddeo. First book, nonfiction. Agent: Jennifer Joel. Editor: Jofie Ferrari-Adler. Publicist:
Meredith Vilarello.
XX New England College
“Everything has gender / in Arabic: / History is male.” In Her Feminine Sign (New Direc- Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing
tions, July 2019) by Dunya Mikhail. Fifth book, fourth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor:
Jeffrey Yang. Publicist: Mieke Chew.
XX necmfa.com
“Mother’s brought them all this time—the entire bin of loons.” Costalegre (Tin House
Books, July 2019) by Courtney Maum. Third book, novel. Agent: Rebecca Gradinger. Editor: 98 Bridge Street
Masie Cochran. Publicist: Molly Templeton. Henniker, NH 03242
XX 603.428.2309
For author readings and excerpts from books featured in Page One: Where New and mfa@nec.edu
Noteworthy Books Begin, visit www.pw.org

15 POETS & W R ITERS

 TRENDS

Prize for Thrillers Sparks Debate punished,” wrote best-selling thriller

B
writer Sophie Hannah in the Guard-
e i t S t i e g L a r s s o n ’ s huge prize pot, we felt that the public- ian in January 2018. “There is no life-
The Girl With the Dragon ity our shortlisted authors and winner changing experience that we should be
Tattoo or Paula Hawkins’s get is worth more to them in the long discouraged from writing and reading
The Girl on the Train, nov- run than the cash.” Lawless will judge about.” Hannah argued the prize could
els that feature violence this year’s award alongside actor, au- have instead honored the thriller that
toward women have dom- thor, and British Parliament member “most powerfully or sensitively tackles
inated the thriller market in recent Lola Young, who has served as chair the problem of violence against women
years, selling millions of copies and for the Orange Prize for Fiction (now and girls.” She went on to quote fellow
leading to major screen adaptations. called the Women’s Prize for Fiction), thriller writer Steve Cavanagh, who
Concerned about the popularization the Caine Prize for African Writing, offered an analogy in a tweet: “Which
of these kinds of stories and how they and the Booker Prize; psychologist book highlights racism and prejudice
might warp public perception of the Dominic Willmott, who specializes better? A book which is not about those
dangers women face, in issues or To Kill a Mocking-
early 2018 British author bird? Wouldn’t it be bet-
and screenwriter Bridget ter to celebrate a book that
Lawless created t he could challenge prejudice
Staunch Book Prize—an rather than celebrate a
award given to a fictional book which ignores it?”
t h r i l ler i n wh ich no In response, last year’s
woman is beaten, stalked, pr izew i n ner, t he Aus-
sexually exploited, raped, t r a l i a n n o v e l i s t Jo c k
or murdered. “I decided S er on g — h i s w i n n i n g
to launch a book prize t h r i l l e r, O n t h e J a v a
that didn’t reward vio- Ridge, follows a g roup
lence to women as enter- of refugees at sea trying
tainment,” says Lawless. to reach the Australian
“ T he or ig i n a l a i m of shore —told t he Wash-
the prize was to get the Bridget Lawless ington Post that the award
proliferation of violence isn’t designed to censor or
toward women in popu- silence real conversation
lar culture—books, film, “The original aim of the prize was to get the about v iolence against
and television—into the women but rather to ad-
conversation.... We soon proliferation of violence toward women in dress “that laziness that
learned how fed up with c r e e p s i n , t he t r o p e s
and genuinely concerned popular culture—books, film, and television— where women and girls
about graphic and sexual are used u nt h ink ingly
violence in fiction many into the conversation.” as default victims in the
people were.” story.”
The award is now in its second year, in legal and criminal psychology; and Lawless hopes the prize will en-
with submissions of thrillers (including editor Elaine Richard, who has worked courage a greater range of plots and
the subgenres of crime, mystery, his- at Little, Brown and Gourmet. themes in the thriller market, which
torical, science fiction, cyber, comedy, W hile many have applauded the she describes as being dominated by
psychological, spy, suspense, political, prize designed to challenge the nor- crime fiction, and notes that the in-
satirical, and disaster thrillers, with the malization of violence and recognize augural prize’s shortlist included a
notable exception of horror and fantasy) inventiveness in the thriller genre, mix of styles and subjects such as ter-
open until July 14. Although the con- the award has received some push- rorism, art theft, social media, police
test charges an entry fee of £20, or ap- back, particularly from thriller writ- corruption, racism, and global injus-
proximately $26, the prize of £1,000 ers. “If we can’t stop human beings tice. “There are so many really inter-
($1,300) comes straight from Lawless’s from viciously harming one another, esting settings and ideas—the scope
cl are park

pocket. “We aren’t sponsored, no one we need to be able to write stories in is endless,” she says. “I can’t wait to
on the team gets paid, and entry fees which that harm is subjected to psy- see what writers come up with in the
only cover costs,” she says. “As it’s not a chological and moral scrutiny, and future.” –GILA LYONS

J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 16
 TRENDS

Rescuing Lethem’s Legends

I
IN MEMORIAM
n Fe b ruar y nove lis t Jonathan nine-by-t welve-foot bookstore in
Lethem joined Bill Henderson, Sedgwick, Maine. Lethem, who sum- Warren Adler
founder of the Pushcart Press, mers in nearby Blue Hill, met Hender- Chris Albertson
to launch a series of reissues of son at the local farmers market about Jonathan Baumbach
Lethem’s favorite forgotten books, fifteen years ago and occasionally vis- Robert L. Bernstein
start ing w it h Bad Guy, a 1982 its what Henderson calls “the smallest Wayson Choy
absurdist psychodrama by Rosalyn bookstore in the world.” After hear- David Brion Davis
Drexler. W. W. Norton, Pushcart’s ing Lethem talk about his passion for Rachel Held Evans
distributor, has signed on to distribute rediscovering forgotten writers and Tony Horwitz
the new series under the imprimatur books, Henderson proposed publish- Martin Kilson
Lethem’s Legends. ing a series of the author’s favorites. Chuck Kinder
Henderson and Lethem came up “It’s been my hope over many years John L’Heureux
with the idea for Lethem’s Legends to rescue books and rescue authors. John Lukacs
on the front porch of Henderson’s That’s what we’ve done at Pushcart for Vonda N. McIntyre
Lyra McKee
Les Murray
The Anthologist
Stanley Plumly
Mark Saunders
In 1992 editor Marga- In The Eloquent Maya Turovskaya
ret Busby compiled Poem: 128 Contem- Binyavanga Wainaina
Daughters of Africa, a porar y Poems and James Winn
landmark anthology Their Making (Persea Gene Wolfe
of writing by women Books, May 2019), Charles Rue Woods
of African descent. more than a hundred Herman Wouk
Twenty-seven years poets share previ-
later, Busby has put ously unpublished
together a follow-up poems along with
anthology, New Daughters of Africa: An In- micro-essays about the genesis of those
ternational Anthology of Writing by Women poems. Edited by poet Elise Paschen, the
of African Descent (Amistad, May 2019). collection is organized into different po-
One thousand pages long, the collection etic approaches such as persona poems,
features more than two hundred poets and eclogues, and ekphrastic poems. The
prose writers from the nineteenth century book opens with an ars poetica by Joy
to present day, including Edwidge Danticat, Harjo and ends with a collage poem by
Nawal El Saadawi, and Margo Jefferson. Kevin Prufer.

Deborah Miranda, “What we have here is

Terese Marie Mailhot, a new kind of music,”
and many more have writes editor Cynthia
contributed essays Cruz in the introduc-
to Shapes of Native tion to Other Musics:
Nonfiction: Collected New Latina Poetry
Essays by Contempo- (University of Okla-
rary Writers (Univer- homa Press, April
sity of Washington 2019). “A new genera-
Press, June 2019). Drawing on the craft of tion of Latina/x poets is making beautiful,
basket weaving, editors Elissa Washuta and smart, and interesting poetry, incorpo-
Theresa Warburton have organized the es- rating not just the Latino/a tradition but
says around four terms—technique, coil- also incorporating postmodernism, post-
ing, plaiting, and twining—to “establish the postmodernism and new attempts at lyri-
unique, pivotal work that Native authors are cism.” Contributors include Xochiquetzal
doing to explore the boundaries of form.” Candelaria and Ada Limón.

17 POETS & W R ITERS

 TRENDS

almost fifty years,” Hen- Rosalyn Drexler’s Bad

derson says, referring Guy fits that bill. The
to the annual Pushcart book revolves around a
Prize anthology, which psychoanalyst who tries
showcases the best writ- unconventional methods
ing published by small of curing her patient, a
pre s s e s a nd jou r n a l s teenage rapist and mur-
during the previous year. derer whose sociopathy
Pushcart Press also occa- has been fueled by tele-
sionally publishes books vision violence. Drexler
t hat i n-house ed itors boldly experiments with
loved but were rejected narrative and depicts sex
by their houses. Jonathan Lethem a nd v iolence w it hout
Lethem has long been apolog y or pussyfoot-
a champion of titles that have fallen ing. “It’s emotionally sophisticated and
out of print. He points out that books savvy and street-smart,” Lethem says,
by many of his favorite authors, from “and in another way, it’s raw, antic, off-
Philip K. Dick and Paula Fox to Mel- kilter, and unrefined.”
ville, were at one time out of print. He Drexler, who is ninety-two and lives
adores the New York Review Books in New York City, is best known as an
Classics series, which has republished early contributor to the pop art move-
hundreds of long-ignored gems and ment. She has won Obies for her play-
demonstrated that these books can still writing and an Emmy for cowriting
awaken the public imagination—and Lily, a 1973 Lily Tomlin TV special.
turn a profit. Lethem even coedited a She once toured the United States as
title in the series, a 2012 book of se- a professional wrestler named “Rosa
lected stories by science fiction master Carlo, the Mexican Spitfire,” and wrote
Robert Sheckley. Still, the novelist sees about the adventure in her 1972 novel,
plenty of room in the reprint market To Smithereens. Bad Guy is the seventh
for “scruffy books that are even more of her nine novels.
lopsided and wonky or peculiar.” Continued on page 20

Small Press Points

“A poem can exist in a specific cultural or emotional moment,
but it can also sustain and be revisited over and over again,” says poet
Adam Deutsch, the publisher of Cooper Dillon Books (www.cooperdillon
.com), a ten-year-old press dedicated to “the values that make poetry
timeless.” Deutsch and assistant editor Christine Bryant Cohen run the
press from San Diego and Seattle, publishing one or two books a year.
So far they have released six full-length poetry collections and eight
chapbooks by writers such as Jill Alexander Essbaum, Melody S. Gee, and
William Matthews. Cooper Dillon’s most recent titles are Linda Dove’s chapbook Fearn
(2019), a meditation on fear, and Mónica Gomery’s debut collection, Here Is the Night
and the Night on the Road (2018), which Lillian-Yvonne Bertram says is “an exquisite study
in the suddenness of numbered days and the radiant pain of living with love ‘tumbling
lethem: amy maloof

forth.’” The press eschews contests and instead welcomes submissions year-round via
Submittable with a $10 reading fee, which is waived if you purchase one of the press’s
titles. Deutsch believes standard book-contest entry fees, typically $20 or $25, are too
high and prefers the press to “remain open for when a writer feels that the time is right
to submit.” He adds, “We see poetry as community, not competition.”

J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 18
 Literary MagNet

In her debut essay collection, When You Learn the Alphabet (University of Iowa
Press, April), Kendra Allen blends personal anecdote and cultural commentary in poems and short essays
that address race, gender, and family. “I just really want readers to leave this book seeing Black women
of all intersections as human,” says Allen, “and to feel equal parts harm and healing.” Kiese Laymon,
who selected the book as winner of the 2018 Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction, praises it as “a roaring
meditation on what Black daughters in our nation do with what and how they’ve been taught.” Allen has
also published work in Brevity, the Rumpus, december, and the five journals below.

The first essay Allen placed in a journal
was “Father Can You Hear Me,” a
meditation on absent fathers and
different kinds of love; it appeared
in the print biannual Harpur Palate
(harpurpalate.binghamton.edu). Edited
by students in the English department
at Binghamton University in New York,
Harpur Palate features poetry, fiction,
and nonfiction. “Our editors seek to find
the best-quality work and acknowledge that oftentimes the best
work falls under categories most literary journals won’t consider,
such as genre fiction and longer verse poems,” says departing
editor in chief Heather Humphrey, who will be succeeded
by current fiction editor Kelly Neal. The editors are currently
working on increasing the journal’s web
and social media presence; submissions
in all genres will open in September. ◆◆ “I
like the way it brings together an anthology
of fiction and blends it with splashes of
photography, poetry, and essays to make
its theme come to life,” says Allen about
Hair Trigger (ht20.colum.edu), an online
quarterly edited at Columbia College
Chicago, where Allen was enrolled in the
undergraduate creative writing program
and graduated in 2017. Dedicated to publishing work that is
“reflective of the diversity of contemporary fiction,” the journal
also publishes some poetry and nonfiction, including “Full
Service,” Allen’s essay about her experience flying to Chicago and
being questioned at airport security. (“I am exhausted entirely
by the subject of my skin causing people of my flesh to deal
with unnecessary roughness,” she writes.)
The quarterly primarily publishes work by
Columbia students, but the editors devote
one issue each year to work by nonstudents;
submissions in all genres open in July via
Submittable. ◆◆ Throughout her book,
Allen considers what people—friends,
parents, classmates, strangers—are often
carl a lee
relationship with her mother: “We can talk
about her dying or me dying but we cannot
talk about the lives we are living.” Allen
placed the essay in Habitat (habitatlitmag
.com), an annual journal of poetry, fiction,
and nonfiction, in 2016. “Habitat is a place
that really cares about artists’ integrity and
pushing rising voices,” says Allen, who
also contributed to the magazine’s blog
for two years. Established in 2015 by poet
Josh Corson, the online publication is currently on hiatus; back
issues can be read on the website. ◆◆ “We love the hell out of
the cross-genre scientists, the visual inventors, plucky linguists,
non-narrative narrators, and especially the experimental weird
babies,” write the editors of the quarterly journal Five:2:One
(five2onemagazine.com). Allen clearly falls within that group,
because after she had received multiple rejections of her poem
“Mama Said on Motherhood” from other magazines, Five:2:One
published it in 2017. It was her first poetry publication. She
discovered the journal, which is dedicated to “the transgressive,
the progressive, and the experimental,” only after she started doing
“proper research,” skimming magazines and paying attention to
their aesthetic and goals. “Whenever I submit somewhere, I ask
myself if my work is for their particular audience, and are they
the type of publication that would be willing to take a risk if it’s
not,” she says. “Now that I understand those politics a little bit
better, I try to pitch and submit to places that pay and decide
what work I’m willing to sacrifice for no pay at all.” ◆◆ One journal
that does pay is Frontier Poetry (frontierpoetry.com), in which
Allen placed her poem “Your Name Was Supposed to Be Africa.”
The online publication features new poems every week and pays
$50 per poem (up to $150 for three poems) by poets who have
not published more than one full-length
collection of poetry. The editors also seek
to promote work by marginalized writers.
“We take our role as gatekeeper between
poet and world extremely seriously and wish
to use our platform as fairly and justly as
we can,” they write on the journal website.
Recent contributors include Isabel Acevedo,

unwilling or unable to acknowledge. In Leila Chatti, and Carlina Duan. Submissions

“The Cheapest Casket,” she writes of her are open year-round. –DANA ISOKAWA

19 POETS & W R ITERS

 TRENDS

Continued from page 18
Alhough Lethem’s wish list of po-
tential reissues could easily fill Hen-
derson’s tiny bookstore, the two are
proceeding cautiously. If Bad Guy
sells, readers can expect to see one or
two of Lethem’s Legends released per
year, beginning in 2020. “It’s going to
be tough to bring back books in this
current age when even new titles are
getting obliterated by the cacophony,”
Henderson says. “I call it the censor-
ship of clutter. It’s hard for the aver-
age reader to find things that are truly
valuable. That’s what we’re trying
to do with Lethem’s Legends: bring
back a few titles that deserve a second
chance.” –JONATHAN VATNER

◆ ◆◆

THE WR IT TEN IMAGE ◆ ◆ Books typically might seem out of place at a runway show,
but at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft’s Couture Night in April, one book had a
kentuck y museum of art and cr af t

moment in the spotlight. In celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of indie publisher

Sarabande Books and its Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature, designer Andrea
Hansen used copies of Joe Sacksteder’s recently published story collection, Make/Shift, to
create a couture dress, which she then modeled herself at the show. Challenging herself to
transform the stiff materials of books into something soft and flowing, Hansen turned the
books’ pages and covers into a feathered skirt and woven bodice. She then made erasure
poems out of the text on the skirt’s feathers. “Making the gown was a cathartic process,”
she says. “I’ve shared a bit of my own story within Joe’s.” Since the show, the dress has
been displayed at the Kentucky Derby and at other Sarabande events.

J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 20

Q&A
Alice Quinn Bids Farewell to PSA
This summer Alice Quinn will step down
as the executive director of the Poetry
Society of America (PSA), a position she
has held for the past eighteen years. Dur-
ing her tenure, the PSA launched multiple
new poetry prizes, organized hundreds
of events across the United States, and
expanded the Poetry in Motion program,
which brings poetry into U.S. transit sys-
tems. Previously, Quinn was the poetry
editor at the New Yorker for twenty years
and an editor at Knopf for more than ten
years. She also teaches at Columbia Uni-
versity and is the editor of a book of Eliza-
beth Bishop’s writings, Edgar Allan Poe &
the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts,
and Fragments (Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2006), as well as a forthcoming book of
Bishop’s journals. A few months before
departing the PSA, Quinn, accompanied
by her dachshund, Daisy, talked about her
work at the nonprofit organization.
What are you most proud of achieving
at the PSA?
I’m proud of Poetry in Motion, which
recently celebrated its twenty-fifth an-
niversary in New York and its twentieth
in Los Angeles. We have a new tran-
sit initiative in partnership with San
Francisco Beautiful that is a wonder-
ful variation on the program involving
local artists and poets. I’m also thrilled
with our PSA Chapbook Fellowship
program, founded in 2003, which has
launched the careers of sixty-four new
poets selected and introduced by major
figures. We also have two splendid new
prizes to add to our distinguished ros-
ter of annual awards, the Four Quartets
Prize for a unified sequence of poems…
and the Anna Rabinowitz Prize for an
interdisciplinary project involving po-
etry and any other art.
Why did you choose to step down now?
I thought I might stay until I’d reached
tony gale
the twenty-year mark, but eighteen-
plus seems just fine. And I’ve been
21
TRENDS
working on the journals of Elizabeth much more excitement and openness
Bishop for too long. I have a new home about the field, and it just keeps getting
in the Hudson Valley not far from better and better. –DANA ISOKAWA
where Bishop’s papers are lodged at Vas-
sar, and I’m so excited about that. The
archive is closed during the week, so for
years I’ve had to use my vacations and a
day here and there to access the archive
for Bishop projects. I’m sure there will
be programming in my future because
I have a talent for it, and knowing an
audience has been swept up by poetry
in a lasting way matters to me. But new
leadership can be galvanizing, and I
know the PSA will find someone great
for this position.
There are a number of organizations in
New York City that support poetry,
such as the Academy of American
Poets and Poets House. What has
distinguished the PSA?
I think the PSA has always had a special
focus on enlightening people about the
power of poetry and the special space
it can have in your life—how if you
encounter it alone or by surprise in a
public place, you can be affected and re-
minded of actually how powerfully you
are able to receive the wisdom and force
of poetry. Our programs build on that
and send a message that poetry is not
too difficult or that it belongs to only
one moment in college or to a fervid
moment when you were a child.
In a Q&A for this magazine in 2008, you
said poetry had gotten “swervier.” Do you
think it has continued to get swervier?
I think poetry has gotten more tradi-
tional as well as swervier. There’s a lot
of white space. There are many more se-
quences that hearken back to traditional
poetry. There’s a lot of going back and
rediscovering and recontextualizing and
learning from moments when the voice
in literature sounded different and the
use of argument was more profound. Ar-
gument matters in poetry. There’s also
POETS & W R ITERS

TheTimeIsNow
Suggested Reading:
Don’t Read Poetry: A Book
About How to Read Poems
(Basic Books, May) by
Stephanie Burt
Award-winning poet and critic
Stephanie Burt, who was the
subje c t of a 2 016 ins t all-
ment of Reviewers & Critics
by Michael Taeckens, offers
an accessible introduction to
reading, understanding, and
appreciating poetr y, from
Shakespeare’s sonnet s to
“non-book forms of poetry”
shared via social media. “Don’t
Read Poetry is for readers
hunting sharp, nimble thinking
about culture, comprehension,
and poems,” writes National
Book Award – winning poet
Terrance Hayes. “Whether dis-
cussing an ancestral Hawai’ian
language, a canonical poet
like Langston Hughes, or con-
temporary poets like Rodrigo
Toscano and Jennifer Chang,
Stephanie Burt manages to il-
luminate ‘the difficult process
of turning paired marks into
words.’ Don’t read poetry, she
suggests, read poems.”
the literary life
Writing Prompts and Exercises
Poetry: Happy Babbling
“Language is a living being. I think that language came before humans, not the
other way around…. It might not have been a particularly logical language; more
likely, it was paradisiacal and timeless, a kind of happy babbling for the sake of
babbling, a kind of music.” In her essay “Language and Madness,” translated from
the Swedish by Johannes Göransson and Joyelle McSweeney and posted on the
Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, Aase Berg writes about the influence of power
and patriarchy on language and describes an evolution by which language has
become self-conscious and utilitarian, “more descriptive instead of creative.” How
has your own language output—in both everyday and poetic usage—been tamed?
Write a poem that plays with the idea of a timeless, illogical language. What does
happy babbling look or sound like? What expressive potential can you tap into to
write with childish madness about the banalities of private life?
Fiction: The Best Gift
“We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are
worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and
this sense of somebody-ness.” In Colson Whitehead’s seventh novel, The Nickel Boys
(Doubleday, 2019), the protagonist, Elwood Curtis, replays these powerful words
by Martin Luther King Jr. from a record album he received as a young boy in the
early 1960s, which he considers “the best gift of his life.” Throughout the book
Elwood repeatedly refers to King’s words as a source of guidance, inspiration,
and morality. Write a short story in which your main character is similarly
inspired by an important historical figure’s words—words of wisdom written
or spoken by an artist, author, or activist. How did your character first come
across these words? Are they comforting or provocative? Does the meaning or
significance of the words change over time as the character evolves?
Nonfiction: Photo Op
Amanda Lee Koe’s debut novel, Delayed Rays of a Star (Nan A. Talese, 2019),
begins with a photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt at a party in Berlin
in 1928, a chance snapshot of Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, and Leni
Riefenstahl during their early years of celebrity. Koe’s novel explores each of
their lives and worlds, as they navigate womanhood in Berlin, Hollywood, the
Alps, and Paris. Taking inspiration from this idea of drawing narrative—both
historical and mythological—from a single image, search through your old
photos and select one that depicts a few people from your past. Consider the
period and its conventions, and research news events that were occurring at the
time. Write a personal essay that examines your relationship with each person
and their relationships with one another while also weaving in historical events
and your memories about the particular occasion.
For weekly writing prompts delivered via e-mail, sign up for our The Time Is Now newsletter
at www.pw.org/writing-prompts-exercises, where you’ll find more writing prompts and The Best Books for
Writers, a list of suggested reading for creative writers.
23 POETS & WRITERS
 THE LITERARY

Life
My Life in Books
A M E DI TAT ION ON T H E W R I T E R’S L I BR A RY

A
WRITER’S library is more than just a collection
of books. It is also a piecemeal biography of
that writer’s life, and measurably so, as most
writers have spent countless hours reading the
books that they own or have borrowed, hours that add up
to years, perhaps decades, given a long-enough life. My
library, accumulated over the past sixty years, makes per- JAMES P. BLAYLOCK,
fect sense to me: It is a living illustration of my life, which one of the pioneers of
may or may not have to do with killing time, literary value, the steampunk genre, is
collectability, books as attractive objects, information, and the author of more than
nostalgia. It has served as a barrier against the howling twenty-five books, most
chaos that complicates the world. It has no apparent rhyme recently the novel River’s
or reason: a labyrinth of eccentricities. Its monetary value Edge and the novella
is literally incalculable, since it’s essentially a storehouse collection The Further
of memories that are worth a fortune to me, and yet it’s Adventures of Langdon
true that the vast majority of the books in my collection St. Ives, both published
were bought cheap from used bookstores. No two writers’ by Subterranean Press.
libraries are alike, and it’s interesting what you can discover Blaylock has taught literature
about a writer’s life simply by looking at the books the and writing since 1976
writer has elected to keep on hand. and was a recent winner
Not long ago I was reading a collection of essays by of the U.S. Presidential
Hilaire Belloc titled One Thing and Another, and, as is Scholars Program Teacher
sometimes the case when I read other people’s essays, I Recognition Award. He
got the idea of writing this one. The “idea,” such as it was, teaches writing at Chapman
had nothing to do with the subject matter of any of the University in Orange,
forty essays contained in Belloc’s book; what struck me California.
was that the pages smelled as if they had been soaked in
gasoline. I remembered abruptly that it had smelled that
way when I’d bought it, and although it has sat on the
shelf in my study for twenty years, waiting to be read, the
odor hasn’t diminished. It could be fatal to light a match
anywhere near it.
This olfactory discovery sent me off in a nostalgic search
for my copy of Philip K. Dick’s Dr. Bloodmoney, which Phil
gave to me in 1975. My wife, Viki, and I took off on a road
trip a few days later in our old Volkswagen Bug, and I
brought the book along. It mysteriously disappeared early
one rainy morning in central Canada, and I didn’t find it
again until a year later, after the car’s battery died. The
VW’s battery was under the back seat, and when I pulled
out the seat to get at the battery, there was Dr. Bloodmoney,

25 POETS & WRITERS

The author’s book-filled study. “My favorite books are kept in my study, under the stairs in my house,” he writes.
its cover partly eaten by battery acid.
I was monumentally happy to find it.
The book is inscribed to “Jim Blaylock,
a hell of a neat dude,” the only existing
written evidence of that allegation.
Looking at the book again called to
my mind elements of the wild storm
that our cotton tent weathered on a
hilltop between Winnipeg and Re-
gina on that long-ago road trip and
the landscape along Lake Superior
and down into Chippewa Falls, Wis-
consin. Viki and I took turns read-
ing The Wind in the Willows aloud
while the other one drove—the 1960
Scribner edition with maps on the
end pages and both color and black-
and-white illustrations by Ernest H.
Shepard. I’ve reread it two or three
times since. The bookmark advertis-
ing the bookstore where we’d bought
it still lies safely inside: Austen Books,
1687 Haight Street, San Francisco. It’s
one of the thousands of quirky book-
stores that have vanished over the
past decades, leaving no traces aside
from dwindling human memories and
paper bookmarks.
A canny reader might point out that
I’m conf usedly considering books
as objects while failing to consider
t he contents, and of course I am,
except that there’s no actual confu-
sion involved. Unless books are read
in various translations, the contents
are pretty much the same for every
reader, and an e-book will serve the
purpose as well as paper and ink. As is
true of angels, ten thousand e-books
can dance on the head of a pin, which
some readers see as an advantage. But
that’s the only angelic thing about in-
visible books. Even en masse, e-books
cannot add up to a library. An e-copy
of a book cannot smell of gasoline or
be disfigured by battery acid and so is
inarguably imaginary and not a proper
book at all. An e-reader crammed with
such “books” is merely a bucket of elec-
trons, and it’s a little-known fact that if
you shake your e-reader too hard, the
words will simply collapse into heaps
J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 26
of letters. A cardboard bookmark has
more substance.
B
ACK in the 1970s I took to
buying two copies of every
“impor ta nt” book t hat I
could get my hands on—
literary novels and collections of essays
and stories and poems; that is to say,
books likely to be recommended by
university literature professors noto-
rious for insisting that their students
think. I was a political creature in those
days and worried that the Forces of Ig-
norance would someday see fit to burn
books in the street. It seemed sensible
that I should squirrel away my hard-
cover books in the crawl space beneath
the house. I’d keep my paperback read-
ing copies of the same books in plain
view on the shelf. When the dreaded
day came, I’d hand over hundreds of
danny blaylock
visible books, weeping convincingly
and promising to propagate stupidity
rather than a library. My plan hit the
reef, however, when it dawned on me

that I’d be able to own only 50 percent
as many books as I might own other-
wise, and so my political motivation
collapsed under the weight of book
greed. I sent ten crates of the second
copies to the Palisade High School li-
brary in Colorado, where my cousin
Tom was teaching. That opened up
shelf space in my own library, thereby
creating a vacuum that immediately
began to fill with more books.
I’ll admit t hat I didn’t ment ion
this notion of storing books beneath
the f loorboards to Viki, who might
have considered the idea peculiar.
Throughout our marriage she has
cheerfully abided by a nonaggression
pact concerning my books. She’s an in-
veterate reader herself, but she some-
times wonders how many thousands
of books a person needs. “O, reason
not the need,” I tell her, quoting King
Lear’s plea to his daughter Regan a
short while before he goes stark star-
ing mad. It’s true that there’s a faint
line between the bibliophile, who trea-
sures books for rational reasons—for
their monetary value or literary value,
say—and the bibliomaniac, a biblio-
phile who, as P. G. Wodehouse put it,
has gone off his chump.
A number of people over the years
have asked whether I’ve “read all those
books,” when they cast their eyes on
my library. To my mind that’s a little
like asking salt-and-pepper shaker
collectors whether they’ve filled their
eight hundred shakers with salt and
pepper. I answer the question by point-
ing out that I’m not dead yet, which
is factual but not altogether truthful
in what it implies. I have no intention
of reading all my books, although I
might tackle any one of them tomor-
row. In fact I tackled one today, Robert
Graves’s autobiography Goodbye to All
That, which I first read in 1976. It turns
out that it’s even better than I remem-
bered, although it’s possible that, as
C. S. Lewis wrote, “being now able to
put more in, of course I get more out.”
It’s true that rereading further reduces
the chance that I’ll read the rest of the
books in my library. If one is simply
the literary life MY LIFE IN BOOKS
trying to get through a shelf of books
as if eating one’s way through a loaf
of bread before it molds, the backward
step of rereading brings about a variety
of Zeno’s paradoxes.
In any event I thought I would read
all my books back when I bought
them. Some I’ve insisted I would read,
although it turns out that the more
insistent I become, the less likely I’ll
actually do so. Every summer I decide
to reread The Pickwick Papers, and I
make it about halfway through be-
fore the summer ends. I’ve taken to
bookmarking the best chapters and
rereading those, which compounds
the problem, because I never really
get anywhere, and yet I’m satisfied
with the result. And every decade or
so I decide to tackle the single-volume
collection of Thomas Mann’s Joseph
and His Brothers, a twelve-thousand-
page rat whacker. I admit that I’ve
failed. It turns out, alas, that I get
lazier with age, and recently I made
a firm decision to save the Joseph
quartet for deathbed reading, simply
for the fun of keeping the grim reaper
fidgeting in a bedside chair, picking
his teeth with his scythe while the
reading drags on. Like Charles II, I’d
apologize to him for taking an “un-
conscionable time a-dying.”
I n t he 1970 s a nd early 1980 s I
used to make regular runs into Long
Beach, California, with Tim Powers,
friend and fellow writer, to spend a
couple of hours wading through the
stacks at Bertrand Smith’s Acres of
Book s, which allegedly held well
over a million volumes. It was impos-
sible to find any particular book, but
finding a book that you suddenly had
to own was inevitable. On one trip I
stumbled happily upon a signed copy
of the Collected Poems of Alfred Noyes
for fifteen dollars. That one emp-
tied my wallet, which was fairly thin
back then. Neither of us had much
money—ten bucks, say, maybe five—
but that would often score us a paper
shopping bag full of books. We’d tem-
per our spending to have a few bucks
left for a beer and sausage sandwich at
27 POETS & WRITERS
Joe Jost’s, our favorite bar.
I was a fan of William Gerhardie’s
novels in those days and still am. Ger-
hardie was proclaimed a genius by H.
G. Wells, Evelyn Waugh, and Vladi-
mir Nabokov, among other luminar-
ies. His star was at its zenith in the
1920s. After World War II, however,
his books became “unfashionable”
(the bane of writers), and he died in
obscurity. At Acres of Books I paid
two dollars for a copy of Gerhardie’s
Pending Heaven, inscribed “To Mad-
eline, New York, 1930.” I wonder
sometimes what happened to Made-
line. Did she value this copy of Pend-
ing Heaven as much as I do and keep
it on the shelf until she died, or did
she sell it when Gerhardie’s signature
was still worth something? How did
the book find its way to Long Beach?
Why the cheap two-dollar price for a
signed first American edition of the
book? Are all books destined to go out
of fashion?
If I had to run from a fire carry-
ing only ten books, my signed copy
of Pending Heaven would be among
them, although I can’t begin to justify
saying so: mere sentiment, nostalgia,
nuttiness. It’s entirely likely that who-
ever has to shovel my books into trash
bins after my death will not give the
book a second glance, or a first glance
for that matter, and it’ll go the way of
all f lesh, taking a remnant of Mad-
eline (and me) along with it.
It was at Acres of Book s t hat I
bought my first book published with
uncut pages. In the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, when
such books were popular, readers
needed a knife to cut open the pages
as they read, which is an adventurous
idea. The trendiest knives were often
dull, letter openers or butter knives
that would leave a particularly ragged
edge as if the book were made of hand-
made paper. In Fitzgerald’s The Great
Gatsby, Jay Gatsby owns a library full
of uncut books, very elegant, mint-
condition volumes that had obviously
not been read. Students of literature
have remarked on this tirelessly since

CALL FOR ENTRIES
Tucson Festival of Books
and Masters Workshop
Fiction, nonfiction and
poetry entries are now being
accepted for the FJHIth
annual writing competition,
offering more than $5,000
in prize money.
In addition to cash prizes,
first- through third-place
winners in each category get
scholarships to the March
2020 Masters Workshop.
This competition is the
avenue to two days of
hands-on workshopping
with a faculty of top U.S
authors following the
Tucson Festival of Books.
The top 50 entrants are
invited to the workshop, the
faculty for which is drawn
from the Festival’s presenters.
Past faculty includes
Ann Hood, Marilyn Chin,
Andre Dubus III, and
Luis Alberto Urrea.
Deadline for entries is 5 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019
To enter, go to
TucsonFestivalofBooks.org
the literar y life
the book was published—that Gatsby
wanted to appear elegantly bookish
although in fact he had no interest in
reading. The alternative view is that
Gatsby was a canny collector who
didn’t want to spoil his books by tak-
ing a knife to them. That poses an
interesting question: If one purchased
Gatsby’s library, would one prefer the
valuable, uncut, mint-condition books
or the cut-open, well-read books with
Gatsby’s greasy fingerprints all over
the pages?
If I had the choice of buying an
old, cut book as a reading copy or a
newer, smooth-edged volume, I’d buy
the cut book every time. I like the look
of them and the smell of the old, dusty
paper, which has a texture to it. Often
they’re illustrated, which adds to their
charm. The translation of Balzac’s
The Thirteen that I own, published in
1899, has cut pages that are admirably
ragged, as if the reader had haggled
them apart with a rusty pruning saw.
The book reads especially well. It was
an Acres of Books bargain at 95 cents.
I was a sucker for the central notion of
the book: a secret society made up of
thirteen rich and powerful men who
controlled the workings of France in
the early nineteenth century. In the
years that followed my first reading
of the book, I used The Thirteen as the
working title for three different nov-
els. In the back of my mind hovered
the notion that if my anticipated plot
failed, I could shoehorn a thirteen-
member secret society into the book
to jazz it up.
In another of my books the pages
are cut until page 49, where the reader
had apparently run out of patience
and made a critical statement about
the book simply by putting down the
knife. My all-around favorite is a vol-
ume given by my great-aunt Esther to
my uncle Paul when he was a boy—the
1926 Scribner edition of Kidnapped,
illustrated by N. C. Wyeth. The book
was passed down to my cousin Tom
when he was a boy and then on to me.
All the pages are cut except the final
two, which are blank, something I
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9
MY LIFE IN BOOKS
could ascertain only by pulling them
carefully away from each other and
peering into the mysterious, eye-
shaped void bet ween. W hy hadn’t
Uncle Paul simply slit them apart, if
only to finish the job? Why not make
that final cut? I’m tempted to believe
it was some variety of superstition,
which prevents me from picking up
a knife and cutting open the pages
myself.
M
Y F AV O R I T Ebook s
are kept in my study,
under the stairs in my
house. I’m looking at
them now. There’s a copy of Between
Pacific Tides by Ed Ricketts and Jack
Calvin, the 1962 edition revised by
Joel Hedgpeth, whose last name I
gave to two different characters in
two different books. In my youth I
kept aquariums and badly wanted
to be a marine biologist and spend
my life poking around in tide pools.
Every creature that has ever crawled
or walked or swum in a tide pool or
lived in near-shore waters along the
California coast is pictured in Between
Pacific Tides. The foreword was written
by John Steinbeck, my first “favorite
writer” out of what has become scores
of favorites, just as I have scores of
favorite books, including Steinbeck’s
Canner y Row. Ed R icketts puts in
an appearance as Doc, the owner of
Western Biological Laboratories,
the inspiration for which still stands
in Monterey. The original building,
where Ricketts worked and later lived,
burned in a cannery fire in 1936, only
a short time after the manuscript of
Between Pacific Tides had fortuitously
been sent to Stanford University for
publication.
I first read Cannery Row when I was
twelve or thirteen years old, and I can
still remember how the place looked
in the old days, before Monterey was
modernized. I came close to buying
the mummy of an “Indian princess” in
a junk store on Cannery Row in 1972.
The colorful, old cannery buildings
were being knocked down and hauled
28

away, and I was on a sent imental
journey, looking for the ghosts of Doc
and Ed Ricketts. They still haunted
the place, although what passes for
progress has very nearly obliterated
them in the years since.
The thing about books, of course,
is that the stories they contain are not
ghosts but rather living things, which
is a comfort for both the reader and
the writer in me. There’s some small
chance that fifty years from now some-
one will happen across a dusty copy of
one of my own long-out-of-print books
in their grandfather’s library and will
read it on a whim. I’ll be a mere mem-
ory by then, and a fading memory at
that, but the characters in my books
will still be walking and talking, trying
to make their way in the sometimes
perilous world of the novel, which, all
those years ago, was my world, at least
as it existed in my imagination.
L
AURENCE Sterne’s Tristram
Shandy rests on a set of
shelves built into my study
in what was once a window.
I read the book for the second time
in Ireland, sitting in front of a peat
fire while Viki and our two traveling
companions, Bill and Beth, were out
driving around the Irish countryside.
I stayed behind because I had eaten
some dubious ground beef the night
before, a bad idea from the point of
view of my stomach, but what might
be called a fortunate mistake. I can
still smell the peat fire in my memory,
and I fondly recall rereading particu-
larly good paragraphs, with nothing
to interrupt the solitude but my own
occasional laughter and the bleating
of goats cropping grass on the lawn.
There’s an old copy of The Return of
Sherlock Holmes in that same window
bookcase, published in 1905, one of the
very first books I borrowed from my
mother’s library. She was eager to aid
and abet my reading habit, and when
she saw that I was roaming the house
looking for likely books, she decided
to take my sister and me to the local
library every other Tuesday afternoon.
the literary life MY LIFE IN BOOKS
“Perhaps you’d like this book by Jules
Verne,” she said to me on the first trip,
and I came home with Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea, which turned
out to be a gateway book. It opened
my eyes and my mind to what a story
could do—what it could teach you,
where it could take you—and I was, as
they say, hooked.
Later in life I tried to return the
favor. When I was in college in the
late 1960s, my mother was bedrid-
den for a few weeks, and I supplied
her with books out of my own library.
She was particularly fond of Lawrence
Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet but
not at all fond of his novel The Black
Box, although she read it anyway. She
was reading through Agatha Christie
at the time, and so I gave her two or
three Raymond Chandler novels, but
she preferred the more cheerful streets
of golden-age detective mysteries to
the mean streets of Chandler’s mid-
century Los Angeles. I could recall
being quite happy when she’d given
me Ivanhoe to read all those years ear-
lier but not being half as happy with
Mrs. Astor’s Horse. I remember all the
books she gave me to read, whether I
understood them or not, and I remem-
ber those sunny spring days years later
when I’d get home from school and
knock on her door to get a report on
the day’s reading.
O
N THE east wall of my
study there are shelves
built between the studs,
and there sits the twenty-
volume set of Scottish author and an-
thropologist James George Frazer’s
The Golden Bough. I inherited the set
from my bookseller pal Roy Squires
after he died in 1988. Frazer’s inter-
pretation of the nature of myth is
another thing that has gone out of
fashion, but his books contain thou-
sands of strange entries of interest
to a certain sort of writer: “The Sky
Considered as a Heavenly Cow,” for
instance, or, more in keeping with my
own sensibilities,“The Sanctity of the
Threshold.”
29 POETS & WRITERS
Squires’s friends, including me,
divvied up a number of his books one
evening, a sort of impromptu wake
that included opening a bottle or two
of Laphroaig. Roy had stockpiled
a half dozen of the old clear-glass
bottles of the Scotch preceding the
infamous Laphroaig drought in the
1980s. It seems to me that the whis-
key was subtly diminished when it
reappeared in the world in its now-
familiar green-glass bottle, but it’s
equally likely that the world itself had
diminished with Roy’s death. I’ve still
got those books, though, and I think
of Roy every time I pull one down
from the shelf.
And now I’m nearly at the end of this
story, this short look at one writer’s life
in books. The long version, much like
my library itself, isn’t to be counte-
nanced, to use the old phrase. Open-
ing that Gasoline Edition of the Belloc
essays didn’t just kindle this medita-
tion of mine but sparked a greater
discovery: that virtually every book
I’ve kept close at hand conjures up a
story to accompany it.
Here’s one more for the road: Two
linear feet away f rom The Golden
Bough sits the thirteen-volume Works
of John Ruskin, the Sidney Library
Edition, illustrated throughout and
published in a quarter-leather binding
in the late 1800s. Viki gave me the set
as a Christmas present sometime in
the 1980s, when I was keen on reading
all of Ruskin but ultimately failed to
do so. I opened him up a month ago,
however, and read a lecture in which
he lambastes the people of Edinburgh
for having too few Gothic windows
in their buildings. I’m fond of the
man’s arcane passions—the world
badly needs arcane passions, which
in today’s digital age some might
argue would include a library—and I
might tackle Ruskin again when I re-
tire. But perhaps even more than their
contents, I’m particularly fond of the
books themselves, and the memory
of the Christmas morning when I
found them wrapped in a bow under
the tree.

BE
BOLD
Following the acclaim of his debut poetry collection,
Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Ocean Vuong
confronted expectations for his second book.
Rather than craft more poems or turn to memoir,
he found power in imagination and freedom in
embellishment and wrote a stunningly original novel:
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.
Ocean Vuong made his literar y
debut in April 2016 with Night Sky
With Exit Wounds, a poetry collection
that chronicles a family’s journey as
refugees from Vietnam to America,
where the poems’ young speaker
grows up attuned to the turmoil of
his family’s traumas while becoming
aware of his sexual identity. Vuong’s
meteoric rise in popularity was im-
mediate, and so was the positive criti-
cal response to his lyrical voice.
In the New York Times, Michiko
Kakutani raved about “his ability to
capture specific moments in time
with both photographic clarity and a
sense of the evanescence of all earthly
things.” The book’s warm reception
was accompanied by a number of
prizes and honors from the Whiting
Foundation (Whiting Award), the
Lannan Foundation (Lannan Literary
Fellowship), the T. S. Eliot Foundation
(T. S. Eliot Prize), Publishing Triangle
(Thom Gunn Award), Forward Arts
Foundation (Felix Dennis Prize for
Best First Collection), and others.
The New York Times went on to name
it one of the top ten books of 2016. All
for a first book of poems by a relative
newcomer to the literary scene.
Rather than follow it up with an-
other book of poems, however, Vuong
shifted gears and turned his attention
to a different genre entirely—fiction,
in the form of a novel, On Earth We’re
Briefly Gorgeous, out in June from Pen-
guin Press. The book centers around
the strained relationship between a
mother, who struggles with PTSD
induced by memories of the Vietnam
War and her abusive marriage, and
her son, who is contending with his
sexuality as he comes of age on the
drug-ravaged streets of Hartford,
Connecticut. I recently sat down
with Vuong to discuss his path from
poet to novelist, a story that begins
with—as Vuong puts it—“a little gay
kid from Hartford, who read in the
library with his head down so that
people didn’t know he was reading.”
BY RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JON CRISPIN
31 POETS & WRITERS
 profi le
B
OR N in Saigon in 1988 to a
family of rice farmers, Ocean
Vuong was only two when his
extended family left Vietnam
and traveled to Connecticut after mak-
ing a brief stop in the Philippines. The
seven-member household included
his grandmother, “who would start
to sing any time there was conflict,”
Vuong says. “Since she was the elder,
it cast a kind of spell over us so that
we could survive our problems.” The
cultural adjustment for this mostly il-
literate refugee family was not easy, to
say the least. Vuong’s father returned
to Vietnam not long after their ar-
rival, and his mother found a job as a
manicurist, a profession she still prac-
tices. “Everything was erupting all the
time,” Vuong recalls, “but it was our
shared journey that kept us together.”
Though the Vuongs were the only
Vietnamese family in a mostly Black
and Puerto R ican neighborhood,
they were embraced with generos-
ity and kindness, which made them
more comfortable with the reality that
they now lived in a different country.
“I didn’t know that most of America
was white until I was eight or nine,” he
says. The concept of white supremacy
was encountered much later, when he
eventually left the working-class side of
Hartford to seek job opportunities as
an adolescent in the more affluent and
commercial areas of the city.
In the meantime, he was having
to contend with two life-changing
realizations: that he was gay and that
he had, despite a love of reading, dys-
lexia. The learning disorder is a family
affliction; Vuong’s mother and brother
also have it. Much later he would find
out that so did Octavia Butler and F.
Scott Fitzgerald, which helped him rec-
oncile with the possibility of becom-
ing a writer. “I would insist it’s not a
setback or an illness,” he says. “It’s just
a different angle of looking at language
R I G O B E R T O G O N Z Á L E Z is a
contributing editor of Poets & Writers
Magazine.
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9
OCEAN V UONG
that actually reveals a lot and was very
advantageous for me as an artist.”
Vuong says he also sees his queer-
ness as a source of strength in the way
he thinks about the world. “For queer
kids, when the world around you is
dangerous, you go into your own ref-
uge,” Vuong says. For him it was books.
Coming out to his mother, however, was
a different kind of challenge—one that
he didn’t think would end well for him.
In fact he was prepared for the worst
and planned his exile from his family.
“I waited until I was seventeen,” he
recalls. “I had enough for a bus ticket
and $2,000 in my pocket saved up
from my job at Panera Bread. I had my
bag with me when I sat down with my
mother. I was ready for rejection.” But
that rejection never came. At this point
the family had already suffered serious
losses to drug overdoses, victims of
the opioid epidemic that was affecting
this working-class community, a harsh
reality he weaves into his new novel.
“Where would you go?” his mother
asked. “What would we do without
you?”
Relieved, Vuong set down his bag and
began to imagine a future in Hartford
the way his family had so many years
ago. His mother suggested he try col-
lege first because her son “had a belly
full of English.” And if not, she sug-
gested, “You can always come work at
the nail salon.” Vuong jokingly adds, “I
thought, ‘Well, it’s not a bad job. Where
else can you work and watch Oprah all
day?’”
His time at Manchester Community
College was brief but instrumental in
changing his perceptions about who
had the right to dream big. “I was for-
tunate to walk into my first class, a com-
position course, and be met by single
mothers, people with two jobs, people
in their forties—all walks of life—and it
felt like for the first time I saw a teacher
have faith in this community of outsid-
ers, investing in our imaginations, and
challenging us,” he says. “Folks that
were not supposed to be having these
discussions were allowed to.” By now
he had started to keep a journal, feeling
32
 profi le OCEAN V UONG

the magnetic pull to poetry—Rimbaud, of reading. But I also began attending ended up attending Brooklyn College.
Lorca, Vallejo, Neruda— copying open mics to read from my scribbles A lt hough he c red it s Brook ly n
poems from library books to his note- in my notebook. I wasn’t ready to call College with giving him access to the
book because he couldn’t afford to buy it poetry.” literature he needed to finally feel well-
books of his own. It was at one of these events that he read, it was the cafés, bookstores, and
Encouraged by his communit y- heard about MFA programs, in which he other venues that held poetry readings
college education, Vuong decided to could not only nurture his passion but that gave Vuong the community he was
pursue a degree—one that could even- perhaps also fund it. He was also eager looking for, forging friendships that
tually lead to a job that would help his to get back to college so he could stop fortified his resolve to keep going. “I
family—so in 2008 he enrolled in deceiving his mother about his activities met Saeed Jones,” he recalls, “who was
business school at Pace University in in New York City. Unbeknownst to her, fabulous and glorious, with a big, hearty
Manhattan. After two weeks, keenly he had been couch surfing since leaving laugh. And when he told me he was at-
aware that he didn’t fit in among the Pace. But first he needed to complete his tending an MFA program at Rutgers in
men in business suits and internships, undergraduate degree. “I applied to the Newark, I knew that it was possible.”
he dropped out. “I still had my library most affordable place I could find: City Soon after, he connected with poet
card,” he says, “so I rekindled my love University of New York,” he says. He Eduardo C. Corral, who at the time
was living in his family’s double-wide
EXCERPT in Casa Grande, Arizona, working at
Home Depot, and running a popular
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous blog called Lorcaloca. Corral’s blog
That night, bellydown on the hardwood, your face resting on a pillow, you asked gave Vuong a glimpse into the ways
me to scrape your back. I knelt beside you, peeled your black T-shirt over your the writing profession welcomed or
shoulders, unhooked your bra. Having done this hundreds of times by now, my rejected writers of color. When Corral
hands moved on their own. As the bands fell away, you grabbed the bra, pulled announced he was moving to New York
it out from under you, and tossed it aside. Heavy with sweat from the day’s work, City in late 2011, Vuong knew this too
it landed on the floor with the thud of a knee brace. was a sign: “We had similar stories—
The chemicals from the nail salon rose from your skin. I fished a quarter both of us gay boys from working-class
from my pocket, dipped it into the jar of Vicks VapoRub. The bright eucalyptus immigrant parents. He became a kind
scent filled the air and you started to relax. I dunked the coin, coating it with of mentor because his journey was like
the greasy ointment, then dabbed a thumb’s worth across your back, down your a map for me.”
spine. When your skin shone, I placed the coin at the base of your neck and pulled Corral recalls their first meeting:
it outward, across your shoulder blades. I scraped and rescraped in firm, steady “Ocean’s attentiveness is what first
strokes, the way you taught me, until russet streaks rose from under the white caught my attention. He was kind and
flesh, the welts deepening into violet grains across your back like new, dark ribs, curious, always asking questions, eager
releasing the bad winds from your body. Through this careful bruising, you heal. to listen, to learn. This attentiveness
I think of Barthes again. A writer is someone who plays with the body of his mother, also extended to language.” Since then
he says after the death of his own mother, in order to glorify it, to embellish it. they have stayed in touch, though Cor-
How I want this to be true. ral contends that theirs is a bond not
And yet, even here, writing you, the physical fact of your body resists my forged by literary success but by the
moving it. Even in these sentences, I place my hands on your back and see how amazing truth that they are sons of non-
dark they are as they lie against the unchangeable white backdrop of your skin. English speakers, who have been able
Even now, I see the folds of your waist and hips as I knead out the tensions, the to shape careers and help their families
small bones along your spine, a row of ellipses no silence translates. Even after financially through a profession that, in
all these years, the contrast between our skin surprises me—the way a blank effect, excludes their loved ones. “We
page does when my hand, gripping a pen, begins to move through its spatial now get to write about our immigrant
field, trying to act upon its life without marring it. But by writing, I mar it. I families and claim a place for them in
change, embellish, and preserve you all at once. poetry,” he adds.
You groaned into the pillow as I pressed along your shoulders, then worked In 2014, prompted by his intimate
down through the stubborn knots. “This is nice.... This is so nice.” After a while, but inf luential writing community,
your breathing deepened, evened out, your arms slack, and you were asleep. Vuong applied to MFA programs, but
only in the New York City area because
From On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. Reprinted by arrangement with he wanted to remain close to friends.
Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, a Penguin Random House He chose NYU because it offered him
Company. Copyright © 2019 by Ocean Vuong. funding without teaching obligations.

33 POETS & WRITERS

 profi le OCEAN V UONG

But on that fateful first day

of class, he received a call
from Michael Wiegers at
Copper Canyon Press, let-
ting him know the press had
accepted his book for publi-
cation. “What people don’t
understand,” Vuong says, “is
that I had been working on
Night Sky With Exit Wounds
for eight years. And one of
the reasons I sent my manu-
script to that press was that
they promised a personal
rejection, and since I wasn’t
enrolled in school yet, I was
craving feedback.”
For Wiegers there was no
doubt the manuscript needed
to be in the world. “I was
struck by his ability to risk
toeing the edge of sentimen-
tality, without crossing over
it,” he says. “His poems were Ocean Vuong and his partner, Peter Bienkowski, along with their dog, Tofu.
open and v ulnerable and
bold enough to take on the big topics she sits in the room so that she can look students focused on the art of writing
of love and grief and war and familial at the audience responding to my work. during the era of social media, which
legacy. These were gentle poems that She calls me a scholar, not a poet, be- he believes fuels competitiveness.
were graceful and confident—and did cause in Vietnam, scholars are revered.” “My interactions with Saeed and
not need to perform themselves toward What did he get for himself after that Eduardo and Rickey Laurentiis were
the deep desire they contained.” flurry of fellowships? “My only splurge i mpor t a nt , but af ter wa rd I went
The prospect of publication would was a coat,” he says. home to the page, not to Facebook or
give Vuong something tangible to show Vuong, who now lives in Northamp- Twitter,” he says. Nevertheless, he is
his mother. “Since my mother could not ton, Massachusetts, credits his Bud- determined to give his students the
read, I insisted that the book have my dhist upbringing with his ability to kind of positive experience he had with
picture so that she could see it was re- navigate all the attention in stride. He his own teachers like Ben Lerner, Yusef
ally me and show all of her customers at meditates five times a week and keeps Komunyakaa, and Sharon Olds.
the nail salon,” Vuong says. A few days reminding himself of the person he was What also keeps him centered is the
later, Don Share from the Poetry Foun- when he first fell in love with writing. reality of his family’s urgencies. “They
dation called to offer him the $25,800 “I bring him to the present,” Vuong still need my support,” he says, par-
Ruth Lilly Prize. The timing was per- explains, “not the person who won the ticularly now as the current adminis-
fect for Vuong, who could now proceed awards—he has nothing to teach me. tration implements a policy to revoke
with confidence, fine-tuning his book So when people ask what is the secret residency from Vietnamese refugees
for the next two years without dealing of my success, I say Submittable.” deemed “violent-crime aliens.” Vuong
with financial stress or the anxieties of He has maintained t h is sober- says, “Those are my people! We come
an uncertain future. Two years later, ing stance as he steps into the role of from a troubled history, and with such
Night Sky With Exit Wounds was pub- teacher and mentor at his new job as as- trauma come problems. It’s unfair to
lished to considerable fanfare. sistant professor of English at the Uni- penalize a community for an afflic-
Besides giving his mother a book and, versity of Massachusetts in Amherst. tion exacerbated by this country’s
after years of financial hardship, a down “I tell my students that I didn’t have a participation in the Vietnam conflict.”
payment for a house, Vuong also had social life. I had a library card,” he says. While he waits to find out how these
the opportunity to show her a bit of the “I sit down with them and ask them to policies will directly affect his family,
literary world he had just entered: “She privilege intention over motivation.” Vuong turns to his first love, poetry,
has come to a few of my readings, and But he admits it’s a challenge to keep for solace. In May 2018 he partnered

J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 34

with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific
American Center to launch the Center
for Refugee Poetics at the Asian Arts
Initiative, an organization and venue
in Philadelphia, with a day of activities
exploring poetry and the refugee expe-
rience. Its next symposium has yet to
be scheduled, but the center hopes to
expand the reach of the conversation,
which began with the Southeast Asian
refugee diaspora.
W
ITH the publication of an
acclaimed debut comes
the inevitable expecta-
tion of the second book.
Shortly after the release of Night Sky
With Exit Wounds, as the accolades
came pouring in, Vuong was courted
by a number of literary agents, who
suggested he write prose. But Vuong
hesitated moving on from his previous
project when deep inside he knew, he
says, that the first book, “an eighty-
five-page paperback, did not answer all
of my questions. How does it contain
everything I have been asking all of my
life, like what does it mean to be a queer
American body, or poor, or a refugee?”
So he decided to investigate those con-
cerns further in a different genre, to
find out if he could learn anything new.
While on a residency in Italy, cour-
tesy of the Civitella Ranieri Founda-
tion, Vuong found himself browsing
the castle’s extensive library, where
he connected to other poets who also
wrote prose, such as Anne Carson and
Maggie Nelson. “I realized then that I
wasn’t out in the sea by myself,” Vuong
says. “Poets have been there and thrived
with the sentence and the paragraph.”
Vuong chose to explore fiction writ-
ing because he wanted “the book to be
grounded in truth but realized by the
imagination. That’s why the opening
chapter reads like an essay.” He also
credits his education as a poet with the
skills necessary to move into prose. In
both he could “orchestrate an entire
world,” he says. Nonfiction, he notes,
would have presented issues he wanted
to avoid: “As a person of color, when
it comes to memoir, we are seen as
profi le OCEAN V UONG
anthropological conduits, a vehicle of
exotic information. I wanted to insist on
agency as an artist, with the freedom to
embellish, and then claim it as my own
rendition.”
A n early role model was Maxine
Hong Kingston, who had set out to
write the great American novel but
whose book The Woman War r ior
(Knopf, 1976) was presented as non-
fiction. He decided not to erase that
effort and succumb to the pressure to
write a memoir. “I wanted to insist that
these lives—yellow, brown, poor—
inspired me to create art as I wanted
to create it, not as others wanted me
to create,” he says.
Page after page, he allowed memory
to shape the fabric of the fictional nar-
rative. He understands the impulse of
readers to want to make direct con-
nections between the writer and the
writing, and he expects many will also
want to draw lines between the poetry
book and the novel, but that’s beyond
his control. He’s more invested in his
right to invent. “Writers of color are
not supposed to have the musculature
of an imagination,” he says. “When we
use it, we’re being bold, and that’s what
I want to do—be bold, make things up.
I’m not here to give people the juicy
bits of my community. I’m not a jour-
nalist; I’m an artist.”
That said, he set out to write a book
with a clear mission: “I wanted a voice
in the conversation about what it means
to be a body inhabiting this incredibly
complicated, violent, and precarious
country.” His inspiration was the com-
munity he hailed from: “When I moved
to New York City and I’d tell people
I came from Connecticut, there was
this perception that I had come from
a place of wealth. But I was a refugee.
So I wanted to expand on working-class
identity in a place where people lived
rich and diverse lives. There are im-
migrant populations from all over the
world in Connecticut. I want to shift the
telescope and show that this world has
always existed.”
Two years and four drafts later, a
manuscript of the complete novel made
35 POETS & WRITERS
its way to Frances Coady from the Aragi
Agency. “I explained to Frances that I
was a poet, that a poet doesn’t submit
anything until it’s finished,” he says. For
Coady, it was worth the wait: “When I
read an early draft of On Earth We’re
Briefly Gorgeous, I experienced one of
those glorious privileged moments in
publishing when you know that what
you are holding in your hand will affect
readers in the most profound ways you
can imagine.” The novel was sold to Ann
Godoff at Penguin Press in April 2018.
Though the book was acquired for
a notable sum, Vuong doesn’t want to
dwell on that. He’s got more immediate
concerns, like his family’s well-being—
“the distress signals arrive and I have
to answer,” he says—as well as his own.
Diagnosed with agoraphobia, an anxiety
disorder in which one experiences fear
of places and situations that might cause
panic, helplessness, or embarrassment,
which at times keeps him from per-
forming the most basic functions, like
going to the grocery store, he has had
to rely on his partner, Peter Bienkowski,
for support. A former copyright lawyer,
Bienkowski quit the profession to help
Vuong through the demands of travel
and presentations. He drives Vuong to
and from the university so that he can
teach his courses and meet committee
obligations, because, as Vuong admits,
“I failed my driver’s test five times.” On
difficult days, Vuong stays home, at the
cost of canceling appearances or meet-
ings. “People have been surprisingly
understanding,” he adds.
As for his own expectations with
the release of his novel, Vuong doesn’t
care to fantasize about its future or the
rewards that might come with further
success: “I don’t see myself as a success
story even though I’ve experienced
success. Everything I learned along the
way was a strength. If I didn’t have my
communities, that many consider bro-
ken or forgotten, I wouldn’t be where
I am. I don’t want to be a sob story or
anybody’s project. I want to show that
you can have pride no matter where
you come from and joy without for-
saking the pain it took to get here.”
 A Prayer for Travelers
by Ruchika Tomar
introduced by
R. O. Kwon
page 40

The Unpassing
by Chia-Chia Lin
introduced by
Yaa Gyasi
page 41

Goodnight Stranger
by Miciah Bay Gault
introduced by
Melissa Febos
page 42

In West Mills
by De’Shawn Charles Winslow
introduced by
Helen Phillips
page 44

The Travelers
by Regina Porter
introduced by
Jamel Brinkley
page 46

39 POETS & WRITERS

 FIRST FICTION 2019

Cale would tell her story, and I believe

Ruchika Tomar this is the only way she could. I con-

sidered the way my friends and I tell
whose debut novel, A Prayer for stories—elliptically, episodically. When
Travelers, will be published by you’re telling a story out loud, it’s very
Riverhead Books in July. hard to remember every detail in order.
You might begin by saying, “Oh, let me
INTRODUCED BY tell you about”—but then remember
something else the listener ought to
R. O. Kwon know, too. The nature of grief is frac-
author of the
novel The turing. I was employed by a psychiatrist
Incendiaries, for several years and became familiar
published by with various psychiatric approaches for
Riverhead Books confronting trauma. Therapists might
in 2018. ask about your experience in general
terms, but they’re trained to spend a lot
of time not talking about the event. It’s
weeks or months of talking around it,
of working up to it and away from it, of
preparing the person to confront it and
’ve long believed that there isn’t novel, which was followed by a terri- creating coping techniques for return-

I enough fiction about friendships

being published these days. Which
means, of course, that there’s an even
shorter supply of books about friend-
ships among women and girls. Fortu-
nately Ruchika Tomar’s debut novel, A
Prayer for Travelers, is one such book.
It is the profound story of a haunting,
complicated, life-changing friendship
between two young women: Cale Lam-
bert, a bookish loner who waits tables
at a local diner in the Nevada desert,
where she reconnects with Penny
Reyes, a friend from high school. They
fying dormancy. When I had the first
inklings of what would become A Prayer
for Travelers, my expectations were low,
and the process was cautious and ex-
ploratory. The story changed many
times, but the friendship between the
girls was the consistent through line.
What was the first idea, or group of
ideas, that led to A Prayer for Travelers?
I wanted to write about the West that I
had grown up in and the kind of friends
you make in your hometown—that en-
during bond that forms before either of
ing to the moment. Though traditional
therapy is out of socioeconomic or cul-
tural reach for many, women have al-
ways talked to each other and held space
for each other. I wanted to create this
oratory structure, in a physical record,
for these girls.
Has anything surprised you—or de-
lighted you, or unsettled you—about
the process of publishing A Prayer for
Travelers?
I’m incredibly grateful that my book will
be published with Riverhead. I admire

become close—until Penny goes miss-
ing after an act of violence, and Cale
sets off to find her friend. After read-
ing A Prayer for Travelers, I was excited
to learn more about the woman behind
the book. Raised in Southern Califor-
nia, Ruchika attended the University of
California in Irvine and the MFA pro-
gram at Columbia University. A recent
Wallace Stegner Fellow, she is currently
a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University.
Can you take us through your book’s
journey to publication? When did you
start it, and did the novel change a lot
along the way?
From inception to publication, it will
be ten years. I spent four years prior
trying—and failing—to write another
you even know who you’re going to be.
I had an image of two girls waitressing
in a dusty town off the highway, and I
wanted to explore that unique tension
of late adolescence, when some aspects
of your personality are al-
ready set, but the shape your
adult life will take is still a
mystery. For women, this age
is pressurized by society’s
obsession with female youth
and sexuality. These years
are intensely formative, for
better or worse.
Can you talk about the intrigu-
ing back-and-forth structure
of the novel?
I thought a lot about the way Publicist: Ashley Garland
tomar: dan doper alski; k won: smeeta mahanti; books: david hamsley
what they do. I despaired many times
in the process, and as the book became
stranger over the years, I wasn’t sure
it would ever find a home. As a writer
all I want is to continue to experiment
boldly and grow in new and
exciting ways and have that
artistic journey respected.
If you could go back in time
to the you who was starting
to write this novel, what ad-
vice might you give her?
I would tell her to listen to
the girls [of the novel]. The
work has its own rich life and
is indifferent to any autho-
Agent: Joy Harris
Editor: Cal Morgan rial desires to control. The
only way out is through.

J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 40
 FIRST FICTION 2019

maybe even reductive, since the novel

Chia-Chia Lin itself is, of course, what I have to say—

there’s no shorter way for me to say
whose debut novel, The Unpassing, it. I know many writers feel this way.
was published by Farrar, Straus Still, some—like you—manage so well,
and Giroux in May. and I’d like to learn from that. All that
said, the experience of receiving ques-
INTRODUCED BY tions has been incredibly gratifying. I
can feel a shift happening—my novel
Yaa Gyasi leaving the realm of manuscript. Now,
author of
the novel instead of questioning my own writ-
Homegoing, ing decisions all day long, I’m asked
published to consider new questions that have
by Knopf arisen from the story itself. This makes
in 2016. it seem like a real book more than any
physical binding could.

I’ve been a fan of your writing since

the day I read a short story of yours in
workshop at Iowa, and so I was so very
n the day before the Chal- it is to read Chia-Chia, to find myself,

O
lenger is set to launch, ten-
year-old Gavin, the narrator
of Chia-Chia Lin’s stunning
debut, The Unpassing, falls ill and
drifts out of consciousness. W hen
he wa ke s up, a week ha s pa ssed,
the Challenger has exploded, and
his sister Ruby has died from t he
very illness he just survived. Gavin,
who once believed that “things that
had been splintered could be intact
ag a i n,” wa kes up to a spl i ntered
world. The novel is set in Alaska, a
fitting frontier for this book about
a family of Taiwanese immigrants
who are staking their claim on a new
country, grappling with grief, and
trying to reconstitute, relearn.
Chia-Chia, who lives in the San
Francisco Bay Area, is a graduate of
Harvard College and the Iowa Writers’
Workshop, where we met. Reading
The Unpassing reminded me of all that
lin: f. yang; gyasi: michael lionstar
once again, in her capable hands.
Can you talk a little bit about your path
to becoming a writer? How does it feel
to be talking about this book, to be wait-
ing for it to be published?
It pains me a little to say this, but I’ve
been writing for two decades. During
that time I’ve tooled around in several
careers, become a mother, and seen my
life reshape itself in other ways. My
preoccupations have changed; when I
read my old work now, I feel somehow
both mortified and bored. So despite
the festering anxieties associated with
writing for so long without publishing
a book, it’s now a deep relief to me that
I did not publish one sooner.
Talking about my book is hard for
me. When I’m writing, all I
know and care about are these
characters. Their tics. How
they harm one another. How
excited to read The Unpassing. How did
you come to write this particular novel?
Did you know you were writing a novel
from the start, or did it come together
slowly?
In the beginning stages there were
enough ideas fighting their way in
that a short story could not have held
them all. In this way I knew it was a
novel, though I didn’t know exactly
what a novel was—and, let’s be hon-
est, I still don’t. But I wanted to write
about this particular family. I knew
the family would be permanently frac-
tured. I knew the woods would both
engulf them and comfort them. I also
had unfinished business with Alaska;
I’d written previously about the inte-
rior, but the region that kept calling
me was south-central Alaska, where
I’d lived and worked for a
stint. I wanted to look at
the landscape—mountains
and mudf lats and forests

I loved about her short stories back
then—the way that landscape isn’t in-
cidental but rather central and alive,
the way the characters are never easy
and never bend to our expectations,
the boundless wisdom. There is a
chapter in the novel in which one of
the characters gets lost in the woods.
As chaotic and bleak as those scenes
are, I was struck mostly by what a joy
they reach out and whether and water—from the eyes
others notice when they do. of a child. And not a par-
But when people ask you ticularly complex or clever
about your book, they want child but simply a child who
to know about the sweeping was grieving.
topics: Alaska, grief, family
trauma, immigration. And You have such a masterful
it feels like anything I could command of setting. Some
Agent: Richard Abate
possibly say on those topics Editor: Emily Bell of my favorite passages
would be insufficient and Publicist: Lauren Roberts are those that take place

41 POETS & WRITERS

 FIRST FICTION 2019
near the ocean or in the forest. Alaska “The image of this house on the edge of a spruce forest
truly comes alive in these pages, but
so too do the quieter, more intimate lodged itself in my mind very early on. We think of the
spaces within the Alaskan landscape. walls of a house as defining our domestic space, but in
I’m thinking particularly of the family’s
house, which feels like a character in the novel these boundaries start to soften, for inside the
itself. The father used to tell the fam- house it’s as wild as outside.”
ily “that other houses would be built
around” their house, but this never
comes to pass, and this absence of The image of this house on the edge of
neighbors only stands to further our a spruce forest lodged itself in my mind
sense of the family’s isolation—“in a very early on. We think of the walls
country where we had no ancestors, of a house as defining our domestic
in a state only twenty-some years old” space, but in the novel these boundar-
and in a house inhabited only by ghosts ies start to soften, for inside the house
and one another. Why was the house it’s as wild as outside. A nd nature
important to you? constantly infiltrates the house: rain,
Miciah
Bay Gault whose
debut novel, Goodnight Stranger,
will be published by Park Row
Books in July.
INTRODUCED BY
Melissa
Febos
author of two
books, most
recently
Abandon Me,
published by
Bloomsbury
in 2017.
iciah Gault and I grew up in graduate of the MFA program at Syra-
M the same town on Cape Cod.
We swam at the same secret
beaches, rode the same ferry
through the fog to Martha’s Vineyard,
saw movies at the same local theater.
cuse University, Miciah now teaches
at Vermont College of Fine Arts and
lives in Montpelier. When I read an
advance copy of her first book, Good-
night Stranger, I was mesmerized by ev-
Our mothers were pals, and Miciah was erything I recognized: It is steeped in
one of the first writers whose sentences the textures and images of our home-
I admired. We are both writers who town. Beyond that it is a captivating,
heard our calling early and were lucky character-driven thriller with dazzling
enough to have families and a commu- sentences. I couldn’t wait to talk to her
nity who supported our obsessions. A about it.
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 42
forest animals, mushrooms. Added to
the mix is a haunting, both in the house
and in the woods—the kind of haunt-
ing we create by projecting our human
needs and desires onto our inhuman
surroundings.
The process of maintaining a house,
of keeping the elements outside, is
One of the distinct pleasures of this
novel—and there are so many—is your
handling of the setting. Place functions
as character in Goodnight Stranger, and
the book is rife with evocative descrip-
tions that seem to externalize so much
of the story’s meaning, its symbols, and
the characters’ interior states. It was
also impossible not to see the similari-
ties to the place you and I both grew up
in. Can you talk a little about the impor-
tance of place in the book and how you
developed it?
The book is set on a fictional island
off Cape Cod, and the Cape of course
is where we both grew up. I love its
color palette, its textures, the sounds
it makes, the way it smells. I haven’t
lived there for a long time, but I still
visit often. I some-
times experience gault: daryl burtnet t; febos: k atrina del mar
this sense of long-
ing for the Cape,
e v e n w he n I ’m
t here. It a l mo s t
feels like u nre-
qu ited love, or
maybe more like
old love, love from
t he past , ha lf-
forgot ten love. I
Agent: Jenni Ferrari-Adler
think you explore Editor: Laura Brown
this feeling a little Publicist: Laura Gianino

never-ending; the roof needs patching,
then the furnace breaks down, then the
door gets warped from weather, and by
the time you’ve tended to these things,
the roof needs patching again. There’s
both futility and optimism in our ef-
forts. It’s a strange combination. Some-
times I think our fixation on houses is a
way of focusing our wide-roaming fears
onto one very concrete object with one
very specific purpose. So then of course
I was curious in this novel about what
would happen when the house was
compromised or taken away.
I didn’t read the description of the
novel before I started reading, so I was
in Abandon Me: it’s an intensely physi-
cal experience to live on the Cape. The
sand, wind, salt. You’re always in salt
water, half the time naked, skinny-
dipping. You leave and the taste of
it is on your skin, in your hair. So I
wanted to set the book in a Cape Cod–
ish place in part because I wanted to
spend time there, smelling the salt
and seaweed. The sensory nature of
the setting made it easier for me to
slip out of my present life and into that
imagined world. An island setting also
made sense for the story. My charac-
ters Lydia and Lucas are brother and
sister, and live this very insular life,
literally surrounded, bounded by
ocean, their daily life circumscribed
quite literally by water. That physical
boundary was important—the safety,
securit y, familiarit y of the island,
which they both resent and take com-
fort in, the way so many of us do with
home. In the book a stranger shows
up, and his presence shatters the fa-
miliarity, renders their home almost
unrecognizable.
I am forever looking for novels with
a perfect combination of propulsive
tension, meticulously developed char-
acters, and gorgeous sentences—so I
thank you profoundly for delivering such
FIRST FICTION 2019
shocked when Ruby died in the first
chapter. The novel then became some-
thing else entirely. Rather than leading
up to this moment, it circled around it.
Ruby’s death became the silent center.
What made you decide to have Ruby’s
death occur so early in the book? Was it
different in earlier drafts?
It was very different at one point. I
wrote several chapters leading up to
Ruby’s death. But I realized that those
chapters were stagnant. My intent was
not to play with readers’ emotions—to
force them to know her just enough
to be devastated when she was taken
away. The death of a four-year-old
child is sad. It doesn’t take a whole lot,
a book. Did the novel start out as a “lit-
erary thriller,” or did the mystery ele-
ments emerge over time? Did you know
the ending when you began, or did you
write your way into it?
I had no idea what I was doing most
of the time I was writing this book.
I’m frankly shocked that I managed
to write a book with “propulsive ten-
sion.” It definitely didn’t come eas-
ily. Most of what I write starts with
a premise. I love a strange or unset-
tling premise, love the words what if.
This book first presented itself to me
as a what-if scenario: What if there
were grown up siblings whose brother
had died when they were babies, and
they’d been haunted their whole lives
by that loss, and what if when they’re
twenty-eight a stranger shows up and
he’s eerily familiar to them, and he
knows about their lives, their home….
At first that was all I had. I saw the
characters. I saw the setting. I knew
the premise. The rest was a mystery
to me. I 100 percent had to write my
way into it.
Although the book didn’t start as a
literary thriller, it makes sense to me
now that that’s where it ended up—I
wanted to write something the right
readers could fall in love with, the
way I fall in love when I’m reading:
43 POETS & WRITERS
as a writer, to move the reader. But
the reader’s sadness was not the point.
When I cut those chapters and moved
her death to the very beginning, it was
as though the story received a surge of
energy. We jump right into the most
confounding questions or press on the
most tender spots. Ruby’s death sets
each family member off on a differ-
ent journey of grief. No one seems to
grasp exactly what anyone else is going
through. Why are they so alone when
they’re constantly surrounded by one
another and coping with the same
event? It felt good, to cut off the false
beginning and immediately see the
story more clearly.
that infatuation, the pounding heart,
dilating eyes. I think I was almost
trying to trick readers into love—I
wrote something scary, so their hearts
would beat faster. I wrote surprises to
make them catch their breath. I had
no idea how the novel was going to
end when I started writing it.
I know that this book has been in the
works for a long time. Can you talk a
little about your process and how it de-
veloped over the years?
This book took fifteen years to write.
I did other things during that time—
got an MFA , got married, had two
babies, bought a hundred-year-old
house, edited a magazine, helped start
an MFA program. But always there
was this book, and I wrestled with it
all those years. I worked on it when-
ever I could, which often meant lunch
breaks, nap time, dawn. Sometimes
I’m amazed that I continued working
on it for so long, but there was some-
thing in it that kept me interested.
I’ve always believed that obsessions
or preoccupations are good for writ-
ers, and I was pretty obsessed with
this story—which I’m so grateful for.
It would have been easy to give up
on it years ago. In fact at one point I
told my agent I didn’t think I had it
 FIRST FICTION 2019
in me to do one more draft. And she, of years ago, and it didn’t sell. I was,
with a kind of genius understanding of course, devastated. Several editors
of writer psycholog y, said, “Okay, gave helpful, encouraging feedback
that’s fine. You can just shelve this though, and we decided to revise and
one and start a new project.” Shelv- send it out again. I remember Jenni
ing it seemed unacceptable, so I dug telling me that every writer has a dif-
in again. I spent so much time with ferent path to publication and that
the novel, I used to go there in that this could very well be mine. When
dream state before falling asleep, drift it sells, she said, this will make a great
off to Wolf Island. story. I’m lucky to have an agent who
is super hands-on, whose input I trust.
Was your path to publication a circuitous Jenni and I spent two years trying to
one, or did things fall into place pretty address issues with narrative tension
quickly after you finished the novel? in the novel—it slowed down, sagged,
I wouldn’t call it circuitous, but I defi- in the middle. We spent hours on the
nitely wouldn’t say it was smooth. My phone talking through the plot, and
agent, Jenni Ferrari-Adler of Union I rewrote it dozens of times, but I
Literary, sent the novel out a couple couldn’t get it right.
De’Shawn
Charles
Winslow whose debut
novel, In West Mills, was published
by Bloomsbury in June.
INTRODUCED BY
Helen
Phillips
author of five
books of fiction,
most recently
the novel The
Need, which
will be published
by Simon &
Schuster in July.
first had the privilege of reading all feels so accurate and true. I also ad-
I
De’Shawn Charles Winslow’s writ- mire the ambition of this tale, covering
ing eight years ago, when he was a the cyclical story of a large family. You
student in my undergraduate cre- do an excellent job portraying the ties
ative writing seminar at Brooklyn that bind us to our families, for better
College. “Your dialogue is filled with and for worse.” A lot has changed in
vitality, and through it your characters the intervening years: De’Shawn at-
spring to life,” I wrote to him then. “It tended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 44
Fi n a l l y, de s p er at e , I s e nt t he
manuscript to my dear friend the
novelist Dan Torday, and he gave me
some of the smartest advice I’ve ever
received. He told me to leave the plot
alone and focus on character. Things
were just happening to her, he said—
she lacked agency. He said to revise so
that things happened to her because of
her decisions and actions. It was a pro-
found realization—maybe obvious to
most writers but bizarrely elusive for
me—that a character’s agency creates
urgency and narrative tension. Once
I revised with that in mind, the book
became more fun to write. And, hope-
fully, to read. After finishing that final
draft, it sold within weeks.
and became a teacher in his own right.
What I love about his debut novel,
In West Mills, is what I’ve always loved
about De’Shawn’s work: the vibrant
dialog ue, the searingly insightf ul
evocation of relationships over long
periods of time, and the focus on
powerful female characters. During
his childhood, De’Shawn says, “The
women in my life are who I spent all
my time with and learned everything
from.” In West Mills covers the complex
but devoted, forty-plus-year friend-
ship between West Mills outsider and
nonconformist Azalea “Knot” Centre
and West Mills family man Otis Lee
Loving. Despite various betrayals and
secrets, and despite their very different
approaches to life,
winslow: julie r. keresztes; phillips: david barry
they each receive
sustenance from
t heir u nlikely
connection.
Knot’s last name is
Centre, and she is
indeed the center
of In West Mills. Did
K not c ome eas-
ily to you, or did it
Agent: PJ Mark
take you a while to Editor: Liese Mayer
find her? Publicist: Lauren Hill
 FIRST FICTION 2019

A few of Knot Centre’s interests and
personalit y traits came easy to me
because the character is inspired by a
woman I knew during my childhood
who had the same nickname. But the
Knot I knew passed away shortly after
my tenth birthday, and I knew very
little about her. I created 99 percent
of Knot Centre’s character. I wanted
her to be smart, independent, selfish,
and selfless all at the same time.
Even back at Brooklyn College you
were grappling with the question of
how to evoke relationship dynamics
over time. What was your journey in
terms of crafting the structure of In
West Mills, which makes ver y bold
leaps in time?
I had to f irst accept t hat I’m not
good at writing short stories. Then I
learned to give stories room to grow
so that things such as the minutiae
of relationship dynamics could actu-
ally make it onto the page. In West
Mills started out as a thirty-five-page
story, with a different title. An awful
title. After workshopping the piece
twice, I accepted that I was trying to
stuff a mattress into a pillowcase. But
I didn’t want to write a long novel,
either. I tossed and turned over how
to show the relationship dynamics
without going year by year.
You were born in Elizabeth City, North
Carolina, and came to New York City in
2003 to, as you wrote to me recently,
“escape the conser vative culture.”
Place is very important in this book.
What influence has place had on you
as a writer?
Being a writer living in New York
City allows me to see how different
and, surprisingly, how similar cit y
folk and rural folk are, if that makes
any sense. These contrasts are helpful
when I want to avoid creating a one-
note character.
A lso I’ve found that I can write
better about the South when I’m not
there. And when I was in Iowa, I could
visualize New York City better. It’s
funny.
What is the publishing story behind In
West Mills?
I got a lot of rejections from agents
and a couple of conditional offers of
representation. But PJ Mark at Jank-
low & Nesbit saw promise in the man-
uscript. When the time was right, he
shopped it around and found a few
interested editors. Liese Mayer at
Bloomsbury helped me chisel In West
Mills into sharper shape. She’s great,
and she enjoys hearing about my dat-
ing experiences—a win-win situation.
If you could give any writing advice to
the De’Shawn of eight years ago, what
would it be?
I’d tell the De’Shawn of eight years
ago to not try to cram a novel into a
short story if he doesn’t have to. If the
characters and subject matter demand
more room, give them all the room
they need.

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45 POETS & WRITERS

 FIRST FICTION 2019

Tin House Summer Workshop Scholar

Regina Porter and is a recent graduate of the Iowa

Writers’ Workshop, which awarded her
whose debut novel, The Travelers, an Iowa Arts Fellowship.
was published by Hogarth in June.
Many writers say their art is in conversa-
INTRODUCED BY tion with the art of other writers. Which
writers do you think your debut—in its
Jamel scope, ambition, and subject matter—is
Brinkley talking to, and what is the nature of the
author of the
conversation?
story collection
A Lucky Man, I’ve spent a great deal of time think-
published by ing about Edward P. Jones, who breaks
Graywolf Press the rules of the “well-crafted” story. I

porter: liz l azarus; brinkley: ar ash saedinia

in 2018.
n her debut novel, The Travelers, a A mer ic a n woma n f rom Buck ner
believe he has fully engaged the con-
nective tissue of his life. There is some
truth pertinent to his experience that
allows his characters to walk off the
page without his stories feeling incom-

I remarkable intergenerational and

international saga, Regina Porter ex-
plores the lives of two characters—
James Samuel Vincent, who escapes
his parents’ volatile marriage and
modest Irish American background,
and Agnes Miller Christie, an African
County, Georgia—and their extended,
connected families. The book sparkles
with brilliant dialogue, and it casts an
unflinching gaze at complicated issues
of race, history, and love. Regina was
plete. He has taught me to think about
connective tissue. Is a story connected
by loss, or music, or history, or family?
I’ve also read W. G. Sebald, who is in
conversation with history—an ugly his-
born in Savannah, Georgia, and lives tory. By the end of writing The Travelers,
in Brooklyn, New York. She has been a I realized that history was happening

LOOK!
An ad trying to
get the attention
of someone who
might be interested
in oatmilk.
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 46

t hrough my characters — arou nd,
above, and below them—and playing
out as they fell in and out of love and
life. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes
Were Watching God made me want to
try writing a love story. Jennifer Egan’s
A Visit From the Goon Squad plays with
form in a delightfully brazen manner.
And Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon
has a biblical scale. As a mother I am
also in conversation with children’s
books and fairy tales.
It’s incredible how you managed to
achieve both a grandness of scale and a
depth of intimacy in this book. How did
you do it?
I engaged with the characters one at
a time—and I didn’t have agendas for
them. W hen I went back I saw the
connections. One trait the characters
shared was reinvention. They were all
reinventing themselves in response to
their personal experiences. Perhaps the
novel feels intimate because the focus
was on each character as they revealed
LOOK!
Another ad trying
to provide
additional
support for the
previous ad.
FIRST FICTION 2019
themselves. The unsettling part was with playwright Beth Henley. Hearing
not always knowing where the narra- this was a breakthrough for me.
tive would take me. When I became
overwhelmed by the scale, I’d stop until I’m curious to get your perspective as a
the next day. I’d dance, listen to music, woman of color working on this project
and go for long walks. I’d also take naps. at programs like Iowa and Tin House. And
Naps let the mind make links, address what would you advise and caution about
problems, or relax into the story. workshops and writing communities?
At Iowa, Margot Livesey was my first
You are also an accomplished playwright. workshop teacher. She reads constantly
How has that experience and expertise and is open to different forms of fiction,
been helpful, or perhaps even so I felt I had room to ex-
challenging, in writing fiction? periment. If you don’t take
On a craf t level, I was chances in a writing pro-
daunted by writing physical gram, where do you take
d e s c r ip t io n s . Pl a y s r e l y them? As a woman of color,
he av i l y on d i a log ue a nd I’d say it’s important to go
characterization—which was into a program k nowing
an advantage, but physical who you are and trusting
description is important to your gut. W hat are your
fiction. Margot Livesey ex- specific goals? What is your
plained that it’s not entirely process? How would you
different from describing a set. Agents: Ellen Levine, like a program or workshop
She mentioned that one way Alexa Stark to help you develop your
Editor: Alexis Washam
she learned how to write phys- Publicists: Julia Bradshaw, voice and the truth of your
ical description was working Rachel Rokicki work?
47 POETS & WRITERS
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Four Lunches and
a Breakfast What I Learned About
the Book Business While
Breaking Bread With
Five Hungry Agents
By Kevin Larimer

APPETIZER
publi sh ing lunch
T he
50 ▪
▪

EN T R ÉE S
h
A njali Sing iterar y
ande L
of Ayesha P Baker y & K
itchen
5 AM: K irsh
Monday, 8:4
51
nd
Emily Forla iterar y Agents
ndt & H o chman L ghters Cafe
of Bra :30 PM: Russ
& Dau
Tuesday, 12
53
n
Julia K ardo zler Agenc y
t
n Salk y Ge
of Hanniga y, 12:30 PM: Gaonnuri
Thursda
56
Kent Wolf enc y
rich Ag
of t he Fried M: Maysville
Friday, 1:30
P

58
nce
Mar ya Spe A ssociates
& Nesbit
of Jank low M: Taylor Street Baristas
0P
Monday, 1:0
60
▪
▪

DESSERT
alt y
Sweet and s
63

I
F YOU want to learn about the busi-
ness of books, it helps to be hungry.
Not only hungry to learn, as the
expression goes, but also just plain
hungry, literally—it helps to have an
appetite. Or an expense account. Ideally
both. Because no matter how much the
world of publishing has changed over
the past hundred years—and, boy, has
it changed since the days of Blanche
Knopf, Horace Liveright, and Bennett
Cerf—some things remain the same. It
is still a business of relationships; it still
relies on the professional connections
among authors and agents and editors
and the mighty web of alliances that
help bring a work of literature out of
the mind of the writer and onto readers’
screens and shelves. And those rela-
tionships are often sparked, deepened,
and sustained during that still-sacred
rite: the publishing lunch.
In the two decades I’ve worked at this
magazine, I’ve had the pleasure of eating
lunch with a small crowd of publishing
professionals—mostly book editors and
publicists, the majority of whom want
to tell me more about a new book they
have coming out, or an exciting debut
author I may not have heard about and
who would be perfect for a little extra
coverage. I’ve always considered it one
of the perks of my job to receive such
invitations, because without exception
they have come from kind, passionate,
smart people—in short, ideal lunch
companions. But until recently rela-
tively few have been agents. There was
a lovely meal in Chicago with agents
Jeff Kleinman and Renée Zuckerbrot.
And last fall, quite out of the blue, the
legendary agent Al Zuckerman, founder
of Writers House and agent to Ken Fol-
lett, Michael Lewis, Olivia Goldsmith,
Nora Roberts, and Stephen Hawk-
ing, invited me to lunch at the Belgian
Beer Café, which is now closed but had
clearly offered Zuckerman, whose of-
fice is a short stroll away, in Manhattan’s
Flatiron District, years of sustenance.
K E V I N L A R I M E R is the editor in chief of
Poets & Writers, Inc.
special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS
Those lunches notwithstanding, I have
not had as many opportunities as I’d like
to sit down with agents and talk about
the important work they do.
“According to the hallowed tradition
of book publishing, it was necessary to
have lunch with all these people, and
many more, as often as possible,” wrote
Michael Korda, the former editor in
chief of Simon & Schuster, in his book
Another Life: A Memoir of Other People
(Random House, 1999), a treasury of
anecdotes about the publishing indus-
try in the mid-twentieth century. He
goes on to paint a picture of publishing
that has changed little, except perhaps
the size of editors’ expense accounts:
For editors, in fact, having lunch
is regarded as a positive, income-
generat ing, aggressive act, and a
certain suspicion is extended toward
those few who can be found eating a
sandwich at their desk more than once
or twice a week. Publishers have been
known to roam through the editorial
department at lunchtime to catch edi-
tors who are ‘not doing their job’ in
the act of unwrapping a tuna sandwich
from the nearest deli. A large expense
account is very often perceived as
proof of ambition and hard work….
Nobody has ever done a poll to see
whether the agents—the putative ben-
eficiaries of this largesse—really want
to be taken out to lunch every day of
the workweek. It is simply one of the
basic assumptions of book publishing
that he or she who lunches with the
most agents gets the most books.
To be honest, most afternoons I can
be found in my office, staring over a sad
desk lunch and trying to clear a heavy
plate of work, not food. Meanwhile I
suspect New York publishing’s best and
brightest are rushing off to lunch res-
ervations at fancy restaurants all over
Manhattan, laying the groundwork
for book deals and discussing plans for
book launches and, yes, gossiping about
titles the average reader won’t discover
for many months or, more likely, years.
To writers this world can seem opaque,
removed from the solitary task of writ-
ing. So I figured it was time to get out
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 50
of the office. It was time to learn more
about how agents find writers and turn
them into authors, to collect some hon-
est advice for those who are looking for,
or working with, an agent. And what
better place to do that than in the
agent’s native habitat: loud Manhattan
restaurants.
The plan was simple: In five days
invite five agents to lunch. (What did
Robert Burns write about the best-laid
plans of mice and men?) I asked each
of them to pick a restaurant, ideally
one they frequented with book editors
and/or clients, and in exchange for a few
hours of their valuable time, I’d pick up
the check. Not surprising, all five chose
restaurants in Manhattan—still the
undisputed center of commercial book
publishing—but thankfully not all were
located in Midtown, that area between
34th and 59th Streets, where the con-
crete canyons can start to feel stifling
to even the most urbane of urbanites.
I had previously met only two of
the five agents I chose for this project.
I was introduced to Anjali Singh of
Pande Literary at a writers conference a
couple years ago, and Emily Forland of
Brandt & Hochman appeared in a cover
feature, “The Game Changers,” in the
July/August 2011 issue of this magazine.
But for the most part, I didn’t know
these agents, at least not well. I’d never
met Julia Kardon of HSG Agency, Kent
Wolf of the Friedrich Agency, or Marya
Spence of Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
I’d simply heard their names in casual
conversation with editors and other
agents, in the way one hears names
when one talks about who is publish-
ing what, when, and with whom.
All five of the agents represent au-
thors whose recent publishing stories I
suspected would illuminate certain as-
pects of the business—some positive,
others maybe less so. I had no specific
agenda for the conversations beyond
eating some decent food and learning as
much as I could about agents as people,
their incentives for doing what they do,
and how they see their role in the grand,
flawed, beautiful experiment that is
twenty-first-century book publishing.
 special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS

Mo8:n day Belize, all of them women—a retired

fire chief from California; a police de-
scout with Mary A nne Thompson
Associates, having graduated from
45 A M hen
a ker y & K itc e, tective from Omaha; a speech patholo- Brown University with a degree in
K irsh B
u
sterdam Aven gist from Reno, Nevada—and the way English and A merican literat ure.
551 Am est 87th Street she speaks about these writers, with I’ve always been curious about liter-
near W
excitement and genuine interest in not ar y scouts, or book scouts as they
es;
b l e d ; pot ato only their writing, but also their per- are sometimes called, and wanted to
c r am
▪ Two
e g g s , s ox sonal and professional lives, provides know more about what these “spies of
ide of l
toast ; s r p one a caffeine-fueled preview of what’s the literary world,” as Anjali jokingly
w it h mas c a
t
▪ Fr e n
ch toas ed berr y jam to come in our conversation. While calls them, actually do. “So you’re basi-
and ixm
most people would rhapsodize about cally a consultant,” she offers helpfully.
c r e am
t tes the Caribbean shoreline or the daily “You get paid a monthly retainer by
h r e e c af fe l a
▪ T yoga sessions that I will later learn your clients, and your clients are for-
were part of the conference schedule, eign publishers. But you only work for
Anjali’s takeaways are the lives of writ- one per country because otherwise it
ers whose paths she feels fortunate to would be a conflict of interest. When

B
EST-LA ID plans indeed. The have crossed. “It was a beautiful beach I first started, of course, there was no
first interview I am able to and everything, but the best part was Publishers Marketplace or Deal of the
set up takes place not over the writers I met,” she says. “It was Day or any of that. It was all on the
lunch, as I had planned, but amazing. It was so good for my soul.” ground. Mary Anne would talk to her
rather over breakfast because Anjali Anjali’s career in publishing started editor friends…and then, officially, I
Singh’s schedule proves more crowded in 1996 when she took a job as a literary would talk to agents. I covered certain
than a Times Square subway agencies, and I would call
platform, which I thankfully them and find out what was
avoid on my way to K irsh going on and what books had
Baker y & K itchen on t he sold to whom for how much.
Upper West Side. A few days We would do a report every
earlier Anjali returned from Friday, like a deal memo, and
the Belize Writers’ Confer- it would say, ‘XXXXX pub-
ence, where she spent a week lisher, you should pay atten-
meeting with about a dozen tion to this.’ So the idea is to
w r iters f rom a l l over t he help them get ahead of their
United States who had trav- competitors, or to be on par
eled to the tropical locale to with their competitors, to get
talk with agents about their books early. It’s to be their
writing projects. She came eyes and ears in the New York
home to a f ull house: She publishing world.”
has t wo children, ages ten Anjali tells me that Mary
and seven; her husband is a Anne Thompson had exclu-
professor of Chinese history sive contracts with foreign
at Lehman College in the publishers such as Macmillan
Bronx. Tomorrow she’ll travel in the U.K., Droemer Knaur
to Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, in Germany, and Kadokawa
where she is scheduled to give Shoten in Japan. Nowadays,
a Q&A and talk with students with so much information
in the undergraduate writ- available online, the scout’s
ing program at Susquehanna job is to filter that informa-
University. Such is the busy tion and tell the clients what
schedule of a literary agent. to pay attention to and what
chuck wooldridge

So, yes, breakfast it is. to disregard, “because you

Anjali spends the first ten can’t possibly pay attention
minutes of our time together to everything,” she says.
recount ing in remarkable In some ways it was the
Anjali Singh of Ayesha Pande Literary.
detail the writers she met in ideal first job in publishing,

51 POETS & WRITERS


working for five years in a small office,
learning about the business alongside
colleagues who would also go on to
successful agenting careers, including
PJ Mark, now an agent at Janklow &
Nesbit; Cecile Barendsma, who has her
own agency in Brooklyn; and Susan
Hobson, director of international
rights at McCormick Literary. “What
it allowed me was an incredible data-
base of information about publishing,”
Anjali says.
But this information couldn’t have
prepared her for the vagaries of the
next dozen or so years, during which
she moved from one house to the
next—not uncommon for editors com-
ing up in the business. First she was an
editor at Vintage, the paperback im-
print of Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Group, and she very quickly made a
name for herself by discovering Perse-
polis, the best-selling graphic mem-
oir by Marjane Satrapi, on a shelf at
a friend’s apartment in France, where
the book was originally published.
Anjali brought it to the United States,
and it was published to great acclaim by
Pantheon, another Knopf Doubleday
imprint known for publishing graphic
classics such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus
and Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, the
Smartest Kid on Earth.
Anjali worked at Vintage for four
years, buying paperback rights to
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s debut
novel, Purple Hibiscus, and working on
her second, Half of a Yellow Sun, be-
fore leaving to go to Houghton Miff-
lin (later Houghton Mifflin Harcourt),
hired as senior editor by vice president
and publisher Janet Silver. Silver was
later let go, about a year before Anjali
herself was laid off, during the finan-
cial crisis of 2008, just after Anjali’s
first child was born. Two years later,
Jonathan Karp hired Anjali as senior
editor at Simon & Schuster, but she re-
mained there for only two years before
she was laid off during a restructur-
ing in which Free Press, an imprint of
Simon & Schuster, was folded into the
company’s flagship imprint.
Her next stop was Other Press, an
special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS
independent publisher of literary fiction
and nonfiction founded by Judith Gure-
wich and Michael Moskowitz, where
Anjali was editorial director. Although
her stay at Other Press was relatively
short—only sixteen months—it was
a refreshing change after her years in
the corporate environments of Vintage,
Houghton Mifflin, and Simon & Schus-
ter. At Other Press, she says, “I just got
to feel a sense of stability again, and a
sense of self-worth, I guess. I got to be
much more connected to what made me
care about books and publishing.”
Shortly thereafter her husband got
tenure—and the time and financial
stability, not to mention health insur-
ance, that comes with it—so she made
the switch to agenting. She’s been at
Pande Literary for three and a half
years.
W hich is where A rif A nwar and
his debut novel, The Storm, enter the
conversation. Before Anjali became an
agent, Arif had queried Ayesha Pande,
head of the eponymous agency, with
the manuscript of a novel that told a
half century of Bangladeshi history
through the braided stories of charac-
ters who live through a storm similar
to the 1970 Bhola cyclone, in which a
half million people in East Pakistan
and India’s West Bengal died over-
night. Ayesha had offered representa-
tion, but Arif went with another agent
who had offered her services first.
Two years later, Anjali was now an
agent and Arif was looking for a little
more hands-on attention, so he asked
again whether Ayesha was interested
in representing him. Ayesha and Anjali
both read his manuscript, compared
notes, and decided that they would
take him on, with Anjali assigned to do
the editorial work necessary to prepare
the novel for submission.
“One of the things that I found re-
ally moving was that he depicts a fish-
ing community in Bangladesh,” Anjali
says about Arif, who was born in Chit-
tagong, a port city on the southeastern
coast of Bangladesh, and now lives
in Toronto. “There have been other
books, but not that much South Asian
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 52
literature focuses on the underclass—
those people who aren’t visible. He just
immediately brought me into this world
in a very visceral way. It’s really ambi-
tious, and I admire that ambition. He’s
also writing outside of his experiences,
writing from the perspective of a Brit-
ish nurse in the 1940s, and a Japanese
fighter pilot. I admire the scope of that
vision.”
Anjali worked with Arif for roughly
six months, cutting two whole narrative
threads from the manuscript and weav-
ing together the remaining five. Finally
it was ready to be submitted to editors.
Because Arif lives in Toronto, Anjali
says, it made sense to have a separate
Canadian publisher. After an auction in-
volving three excited editors—notable,
given the relatively small Canadian
market—the book went to Iris Tu-
pholme at HarperCollins Canada.
Reactions to submissions in the
United States were less encouraging.
“We got a lot of passes, which was dev-
astating,” Anjali says. “A lot of passes,
including from someone who really
liked the book but after talking about it
with her publisher was like, ‘We can’t do
this because we have another book with
a Bangladeshi character.’ The author
wasn’t Bangladeshi, but it was about a
Bangladeshi woman.”
Anecdotes like this one, that throw
into relief the cold reality of publish-
ing as a subjective business that is not
always all about the writing, have clearly
made Anjali more determined than ever
to use her role as an agent to fight for
greater access on behalf of her authors.
“A hunger to see more stories, to tell
different stories in different places
in the world,” she says about her own
agenda. “A hunger for representation
across class, which I think literary fic-
tion doesn’t always do that well. All of
that I’m bringing to the table.”
Eventually Rakesh Satyal of Atria
Books, an imprint of Simon & Schus-
ter, offered a deal in the United States,
and Arif was off to the races. About
four months ahead of publication—
HarperCollins Canada scheduled it
for March 2018, Atria set a May 2018
 special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS

publication date—Anjali joined Arif
on a conference call with the public-
ity team at Atria to brainstorm ideas
for articles and essays Arif might write
and try to place in newspapers, maga-
zines, or websites to boost awareness of
the book. Arif was also asked to supply
Atria with names for a “big-mouth list”
that might include organizations work-
ing with or interested in Bangladesh, as
well as writers he admires.
“Big mouths” is an industry term
for anyone—writers, editors, bloggers,
and people with a large following on
social media—in a position to spread
the word about a book. These people
are often on a list that the publicity de-
partment uses for a targeted mailing of
finished copies of a book, sometimes
accompanied by a personal note from
the author or editor.
When I ask Anjali whether Arif was
doing enough in the lead-up to publi-
cation, I don’t even have to finish my
question. “Oh my God—the whole
time Arif was like, ‘This is what I want
to be doing. Tell me what I can do. I’ll
do anything you want me to do.’” The
book received starred reviews from Li-
brary Journal and Booklist as well as a
rave from Publishers Weekly calling it an
excellent debut: “This first novel will
touch and astound readers.”
Still, momentum can be difficult to
sustain, and while the novel received
some terrific blurbs from authors such
as best-selling author Shilpi Somaya
Gowda and novelist Rumaan Alam,
and a positive review in the New York
Times Book Review, albeit two months
after the publication date, it just didn’t
quite reach the heights that A njali
and, certainly, Arif were hoping for.
Everyone, of course, is hoping for a
best-seller. “Some really nice things
happened, like the reviews, which made
us hope it was poised for more, but for
whatever reason…we just never got a
sense of momentum,” Anjali writes to
me after our breakfast. “I think it was
both a success in the fact that we found
editors who championed this book and
published it beautifully; Arif is now an
‘author’ with some lovely reviews under
his belt, one who has begun to make
meaningful connections with readers
at book clubs and the various festivals
he was invited to; and he now has a pa-
perback to sell the hell out of. I think
as the agent, along with Ayesha, and as
someone who loved this book and who
thinks if more people knew it existed it
would have a stronger readership, it’s
hard not to feel some small sense of
disappointment that the book wasn’t a
best-seller, even though I do know how
hard that is to achieve. Our hope is that
Arif’s career will continue to grow, and
as it does, more readers will discover
and fall in love with this book.”
I ask Anjali if she has any advice for
writers looking for an agent, and she
doesn’t hesitate. “The best thing you
can do is be really intentional about who
you approach,” she says. “It’s doing all
that work to write a really good query
letter. It’s also doing all that work to
think about what books your book sits
alongside. And who you aspire to be
as a writer.” This will be a recurring
theme as I talk to the agents—this idea
of intentionality, of doing the work of
figuring out who you are as a person, as
a writer, and how you want to direct that
out into the world before you approach
agents. “There’s a reason why you spent
all of these years writing this book. If
you can explain to me why you cared so
much, it’s going to help me understand
why I should care. And I think that is
a kind of self-knowledge. I feel like by
the time you write that query letter, you
have to excavate that and articulate it.”

d a y
e s
M
AKING my way up Delancey understand her urgency; the restau-
Tu :30 PM
12
Street, a few blocks from rant, which opened in 2014, on the
e
aughters Caf the sublet apartment where hundredth anniversary of the original
Russ &D t tree I laid my head during my Russ & Daughters appetizing store,
chard S
127 Or first month in New York City—fresh located two blocks away, on Houston
: s m o ke d
t tes out of an MFA program, little money, Street, doesn’t take reservations. And
e fi s h C r o qu e r t a r s au c e
▪ Wh it a t o, t a no prospects—I’m having difficulty it’s always busy. But Emily has called
sh , p o t
whitefi ap é s o f matching the glass-encased con- in a favor. She is the agent not of Joel
r in g T rio: can ic k e l
r mp e r n dominium complex and the fancy Russ of Russ & Daughters (he died
▪ Pick
led He g on pu
h e r r in
pickled Regal multiplex with my memory in 1961), nor his daughters (the last
e g g s , s u n ny -
Side: of the boarded-up storefronts and of them, Anne Russ Federman, died
o w e r S u n ny o v a s m o ke d
▪ L
; G a sp é
n dirty brick facades of the Lower last year at the age of ninety-seven),
side up otato latkes East Side in the late 1990s. But I but rather his grandson Mark Russ Fe-
,p
s al m o n ie d
ding: d
r don’t have a lot of time for nos- derman, who wrote a memoir, Russ &
b r e ad pud e ; H a lvah
▪ C h al
l a h
el s au c talgia because I’m on my way to Daughters: Reflections and Recipes From
o t s , c ar am s e s am e,
ap r ic lvah, Russ & Daughters Cafe to meet the House That Herring Built (Schocken,
am: ha
ice cre el Emily Forland, and she gave me 2013), and whose daughter and nephew
c ar am
s a lt e d – explicit instructions to not be opened the restaurant to which I am
: v a n il l a b e an n c o r d
▪ Crea
m soda ara sugar; Co per, late. My punctuality has long headed posthaste.
e m e r t p e p
infused
d timu been a point of pride, but I I find Emily waiting a bit nervously
smine,
oda: ja
gr ap e s
l em o n 53 POETS & WRITERS
 special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS

in the small crowd outside (I’m not late), Carrie Fountain, Kirk Lynn, Elizabeth 2014), and that he was patient through
and we duck inside and are quickly ush- McKenzie, and Dominic Smith. the publishing process (which took an-
ered to our booth. As the waiter brings us our whitefish other two years), but also that he was
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, croquettes, however, the author we are patient in his professional relationship
Emily moved to New York City to at- talking about is Nathan Hill, whose with Emily—after all, The Nix wasn’t
tend the MFA program in poetry at debut novel, The Nix, was the talk even the first book of his that she had
Sarah Lawrence College. Through of the town—and, more important, tried to sell.
a family friend (one of her father’s bookstores—in 2016, when it was pub- Nathan first queried Emily (it was a
friends was married to Judith Rossner, lished by Knopf and landed on all the “very straightforward” letter, she re-
author of Looking for Mr. Goodbar), she big year-end lists (the New York Times, calls) when she was still at the Wendy
lucked out on an invitation to have din- Entertainment Weekly, the Washington Weil Agency, in December 2010. Na-
ner with Rossner’s literary agent, the Post, Slate). At last count the number of than had read Susanna Daniel’s novel
much-beloved Wendy Weil. Nothing languages the novel has been published Stiltsville, which was set in Florida,
momentous happened at the dinner, in was twenty-eight, but Emily tells me where he lived at the time, and decided
but a couple of weeks later, she ran that this morning the agency’s foreign- to send her agent, Emily, a collection of
into Wendy on the subway. “She was rights director got a call from Beirut stories he had written partly while an
coming from her weekly tennis game, about an Arabic edition, so it might be MFA student at the University of Mas-
and she looked like Annie Hall, and in- twenty-nine by now. sachusetts in Amherst six years earlier.
stead of being timid and hiding behind The publication of The Nix is a les- “I wrote to him after reading the first
my New Yorker, which might have been son in perseverance and patience that few pages of the first piece,” Emily
what I normally did, I just went over pays off in a big way, the biggest way says. “The writing was so strong, and
and said hi. And we rode together.” In imaginable for most writers. It’s not I told him I had to keep reading, but I
other words, it was one of those incred- just that the author took his time writ- already knew.”
ibly fortuitous moments when your ing the book (ten years, from 2004 to Ask any agent and you’ll likely hear
life is forever altered the same thing: Stories
by happenstance and a are hard to sell. So it’s
simple decision—like a testament to Nathan’s
screwing up your cour- talent that Emily fell so
age and saying hi to a deeply for his writing
famous literary agent that she was willing to
who you happened to send the collection of
see in the crowd. stories (“very intercon-
Emily was offered nected, about a couple
a summer internship inching toward each
at t he Wend y Wei l other,” she says) out on
A genc y—t he same submission in 2011. “It
summer, coincidently, came close, but it didn’t
t hat Wendy was in- land,” Emily says about
terviewed for a profile response to t he col-
that appeared in the lection. “There were
September/October people who really ad-
19 9 7 i s s u e o f t h i s mired it but couldn’t get
magazine—and contin- it through, or thought,
ued on at the agency as ‘Ugh, stories.’ Also, sto-
an assistant and, even- ries come in waves of
tually, as a full agent, editors being receptive
up until when Wendy to them.”
died suddenly, in Sep- Rather than let this
tember 2012. Em ily derail him, Nathan told
then moved to Brandt Emily about a novel
& Hochman and rep- he’d been working on
mark abrams

resents authors such for the past six years,

as Jane Alison, Flynn about a mot her a nd
Emily Forland of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents.
Berry, Katharine Dion, her son, partially set in

J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 54

1968, and secrets about the mother’s
past. Intrigued, Emily took him out
to lunch the next time he was in New
York. The two dined at the Morgan
Library, across from the Wendy Weil
Agency. (Fun fact: At the end of The
Nix, there is a scene set in the dining
room of the Morgan that was drawn
from this visit.) For two years after-
ward, the two kept in touch.
It’s worth slowing down for this
part and considering: two years. After
getting encouragement from Emily,
he didn’t rush through a draft of his
novel; he wasn’t despondent after the
rejection of his stories or panicking that
his window of opportunity was closing.
He took the time to write the best book
he could write. In the meantime Emily
had moved to Brandt & Hochman, but
eventually Nathan wrote to her again:
“Okay, remember my novel?” Emily re-
calls him writing. “It’s now also about
cell-phone distraction and Occupy
Wall Street and multiplayer online
games and the housing crisis. Are you
still in?” After Emily assured him she
was, another update would arrive every
six to eight months.
“Nat han was canny because he
waited,” Emily says. “When he finally
delivered The Nix, he waited quite a
while for me to read it.” Why is this
important? Because the manuscript he
delivered, in the summer of 2014, was
275,000 words. (Some math: the typi-
cal double-spaced manuscript page con-
tains 250 words, which means this draft
was roughly 1,100 pages, or more than
two packages of standard printer paper.)
About six months of revising and
editing between agent and author fol-
lowed. “Every draft he gave me, he had
worked very hard to get to and had spe-
cific questions but was also very open
to feedback…just open and creative in
the way he addressed comments and
revision,” Emily says. “I think he really
enjoyed being in this book, so I don’t
think he was hurrying.”
Finally, after cutting 35,000 words
and moving some sections around and
pushing the manuscript as far as they
could, Emily sent it out to editors,
special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS
in advance of a blizzard, at the end
of January 2015. She submitted it to
twelve editors, and additional editors
requested it after there was a “very
noisy response from foreign publish-
ers.” I ask Emily what this means. How
could foreign publishers know about
it? “I guess the scouts got it,” she says,
meaning one of the editors she sent
it to must have forwarded it to one of
those “spies of the literary world,” as
Anjali Singh had joked. This can be a
good thing—it was a very good thing
in this case; fire spreads—but it doesn’t
always work out that way. “If you have
a quiet literary novel that is going to
find its way but might take a lot of sub-
mitting, it’s likely that it’s going to be
old news by the time it’s gone out. You
don’t want anything to be shopworn.”
In other words the scouts can note a
lack of enthusiasm, too.
But in this case the fire spread, and
Emily was fielding requests to see the
manuscript, including one from Tim
O’Connell at Knopf, who was not one
of the original editors to whom Emily
submitted it but who nevertheless made
a preemptive bid (or preempt, the pur-
pose of which is to end a bidding war
immediately by offering a significant
advance). It worked. “Knopf was great,”
Emily tells me. “They were really be-
hind it, their offer was strong, and we
got to keep foreign rights.” (Marianne
Merola, the foreign-rights director at
Brandt & Hochman quickly sold rights
in fourteen countries, so that detail
about the foreign rights turned out to
be a very good business decision.)
Nathan and Tim did another round
of edits, cutting an additional thirty
thousand words or so. This work did
not come as a surprise to Nathan; be-
fore accepting the offer from Knopf, he
had spoken with Tim, who wanted to
make sure he conveyed exactly what was
expected of the process. Nathan was
all in. “It was very much about mak-
ing sure the novel was as compulsive as
it could be,” Emily says about the final
round of editing. Meanwhile the gears
were starting to turn on the market-
ing and publicity side of the business
55 POETS & WRITERS
as well. Early on, Nathan returned to
New York and met with Emily and rep-
resentatives from the publicity depart-
ment at Knopf. Emily says she expected
maybe four people at that meeting. The
conference room was full.
The purpose of such a meeting is to
brainstorm ideas and explore possible
ways of getting the word out about the
book in advance of publication, but
it’s also an opportunity for the folks
in publicity to meet the author and
see for themselves what he’s like—his
style, his personality, his communi-
cation skills—as arguably the most
important spokesperson for the book.
Despite not knowing the crowd of pro-
fessionals in the room, he made an im-
pression, especially with Knopf’s vice
president and editorial director. “I just
remember Robin Desser whispering in
my ear as we were leaving, ‘He’s a rock
star,’” Emily says.
Before it was published on August
30, 2016, The Nix landed a coveted
spot on the Editors’ Buzz panel at
BookExpo, held that year in Chicago.
(BookExpo America, or BEA , is the
country’s largest book trade fair, and
it’s where editors, publishers, agents,
and authors from around the world
promote their forthcoming books to a
captive audience of booksellers.) It was
also reviewed in all the usual places,
and Nathan was profiled in the New
York Times four days before the book
was published. A month later, Warner
Bros. optioned the novel for a televi-
sion series adaptation, with JJ Abrams
set to direct. Meryl Streep was initially
attached to the project but no longer;
as of this writing it’s still being cast.
Hope for the best; expect the worst.
If Emily had a pregame speech—
something she told her authors be-
fore she sends t heir work out on
submission—that would be it. “In
general I think that stance is helpful
for going through the world and es-
pecially going through the world as a
writer,” she says. And sometimes, as
Nathan Hill’s story illustrates, you
work hard then hope for the best, and
that’s pretty close to what you get.

u rs d ay
Th 2:30 PM
1
uri
Gaonn y, 39th floor,
oadwa reet
1250 Br West 32nd St
f
corner o
chi,
u i: w h ite kim
▪ Bl ac
k Cod G g, gochujang
o e n ja n
chive, d ice,
it h white r
s er ve d w
s e a we e d s
n , an d
b an c ha
G a l b i: marin ed
d
▪ Mar in
ate ib, ser v d
f sh o r t r
prime b e e
e , b a n c han , a
hite ric
with w soup
ed
s e awe
W
into Gaonnuri,
A LK ING
the posh Korean restau-
rant on the thirty-ninth
floor of a skyscraper just
south of the Empire State Building,
I’m reminded of the first time I had
the very New York experience of riding
an elevator to what I assumed would
be a hallway leading to the apartment
where a cocktail part y was in f ull
swing, but when the elevator doors
opened, I was staring at the inside
of the apartment, and all the guests
turned their heads and stared. For
an introvert this is the stuff of night-
mares. But the panoramic view of the
Manhattan skyline that greets me this
afternoon when I step off the elevator
is something else entirely, and as I’m
shown to a table by the windows, I do
not resist the urge to snap a photo with
my phone. Fortunately, Julia Kardon,
an agent at Hannigan Salky Getzler
( HSG ) Agency, hasn’t yet arrived to
witness my touristy act.
When Julia does arrive she tells me
why lunches with editors are so impor-
tant for agents. “You just learn things
about them that you can’t learn from
their Publishers Marketplace write-
up. You find out that Emily Graff at
Simon & Schuster has a twin sister. So
then you might think about how you
would pitch a book about siblings to
her. Molly Turpin [at Random House]
is a beautiful artist, so in addition to
the kind of history, nonfiction, that she
special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS
focuses on, if you have a project that
has to do with art history, you would
definitely want to send that to her.”
Born and raised in New York City,
Julia studied comparative literature as
well as Slavic languages and literature at
the University of Chicago, then moved
,
to Prague to teach English for a year.
o up Back in New York, after a brief intern-
ship at the Wylie Agency, she started
ated her career at Sterling Lord Literistic,
where she was an assistant to Philippa
n
(Flip) Brophy, who showed Julia the
ropes, including the art of the phone
pitch. “She was on the phone constantly.
Her handset smelled like her perfume,”
Julia recalls. “I learned from her, and
that made me want to pitch that way.”
In addition to e-mailing a pitch letter to
editors, she adds, “I, unlike some of my
millennial peers, always call editors to
pitch a project.”
Julia worked at Sterling Lord for
just under three years before moving
to Mary Evans, a boutique agency (a
fancy term for a small, specialized
agency), where she worked on foreign
rights while building a list of clients for
herself before moving to HSG. Among
the first clients she signed was John
Freeman Gill, whom Julia reached out
to after reading an op-ed he had writ-
ten in the New York Times titled “The
Folly of Saving What You Kill,” about
preserving the city’s old buildings. His
bio stated that he was working on a
novel about architectural salvage. In-
trigued, she invited him to lunch. “He
knew that I was young, but the way you
position yourself when you’re young
is that you’re very hungry but you’ve
also worked on great things, like ‘I’m
working with Michael Chabon to some
degree. I worked on James McBride’s
National Book Award–winning novel,’
things like that. Obviously I didn’t
agent it, but I know what the publishing
process looks like. I know how it’s done
and how it should be done.” In other
words, there was some salesmanship in-
volved, but the two connected, and she
ended up selling his novel, The Gargoyle
Hunters, at auction to Knopf.
I ask Julia how an auction works,
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 56
specifically a round-robin-style auction
like Gill’s, in which there were four
bidders. “You send the auction rules to
everyone, and basically you tell them
what rights they’re bidding on. If you
have a lot of attention, you’d want to
make that North A merican rights
only,” she says, and I remember Emily
Forland’s smart decision to retain for-
eign rights for her big sale. Julia contin-
ues: “In the first round everyone makes
their first bids, and then you call the
lowest bidder and tell them what the
highest bidder’s number was, and they
have to become the new high bidder or
they have to drop out. And then you
call the next-lowest bidder and tell them
what the new high bid is. And they have
to beat that or they drop out. And it goes
around like that. It can be pretty exas-
perating because sometimes the lowest
bidder will improve the highest bid by
$2,500 or $5,000. So you can go from
$100,000 to $200,000 over the course of
two days, and it’s like, ‘I’m going to lose
my mind if I have to keep doing this.’”
To avoid a prolonged auction, agents
sometimes dictate a minimum incre-
ment by which a bid can be raised. “You
can also at any point in the auction call
for best bids,” she adds. “Theoretically
that is just getting everyone’s best, final
bid, and you don’t go back to negoti-
ate.” But agents can and often do go
back to negotiate certain aspects of the
agreement, such as the payout of the
advance—traditionally a third at sign-
ing, a third when the publisher accepts
the final manuscript, and a third on
publication, but that can be adjusted to
quarters, with the final 25 percent due
on paperback publication. The agent’s
standard cut is 15 percent of the author’s
gross domestic earnings, including the
advance (and 20 percent for foreign
rights deals).
Writers often think of agents sitting
in well-appointed offices and waiting
for a query or proposal to strike their
fancy. But the path to a literary agent is
not a one-way street. Agents are actively
looking for potential clients too. This
is how Julia found John Freeman Gill,
and it’s also how she found Brit Bennett
 special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS

when she was in her final hour, made the case for why
year of the MFA program she should be Brit’s agent. It
at the University of Michi- didn’t go very well. “I just
gan. On December 17, 2014, felt really unsatisfied with
Jezebel published an essay by the conversation. I hadn’t
Brit titled “I Don’t Know asked her enough ques-
What to Do With Good tions,” Julia admits. “And I
White People” that went remember talking to Mary
viral. “As soon as that essay Eva ns’s assist a nt about
published, I knew that it was whether or not I should
going to be big,” Julia says. call her back, because [Brit]
“I think it was already at sev- isn’t here in New York, so I
eral hundred thousand page can’t take her to lunch and
views by the time I read it. show her how cool I am and
And I looked in the white find out more about her.”
pages to see if I could find After much deliberation
her phone number and—I Julia did call her back that
don’t remember doing this, same morning, and the two
but—I apparently left a ended up talking for two
voice mail on her mother’s more hours. Even after that
answering machine in Cali- Julia wasn’t confident. “I do
fornia. Brit says she was in remember that it was this
a class, and her mom called agonizing stretch of time.
her cell phone…so she ran I felt completely convinced
out of the class to make sure that she wouldn’t sign with
everything was okay. ‘An me but that I had done ev-
agent just left a voice mail erything I could. So I could
for you; I think it’s really at least take some small
Julia Kardon of Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency.
important!’ I don’t remem- comfort in that I was going
ber doing that, but it’s not after the right people.”
unlike me…. I knew that I wouldn’t felt like that immediate electricity com- But Brit did choose Julia, and when
be the only agent to reach out to her. I ing off the page, sizzling in my hands, Julia sent The Mothers out to editors,
think nine ultimately did. And I wanted and I’m like, ‘Okay, where’s the rest?’” right before the 2015 London Book
to make an impression by getting in Four weeks later, when Brit sent the full Fair, Sarah McGrath, vice president
early and showing her that I was really manuscript, as she had requested, Julia and editor in chief of Riverhead Books,
passionate, because at that point I hadn’t cleared her schedule and read it the same put in a significant preempt that was
even had one of my client’s books pub- day it arrived. She was so blown away too good to pass up. The novel was
lished yet. Brit’s book was my first book by it that she called Brit that evening published in October 2016, quickly be-
to publish. It was not the first book I to tell her she loved it and thought she came a New York Times best-seller, and
sold, but it was my first one to publish. could sell it. “She was so funny because was named a finalist for the National
So I didn’t have a lot that I felt like I Brit is very reserved and very cool and Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard
could trade off of other than the power collected as a person,” Julia says. “She Award, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham
of my conviction and the passion that I just was like, ‘Oh, thank you so much Prize, and the New York Public Li-
had for her.” for reading so quickly. Can we schedule brary Young Lions Fiction Award.
When the two of them eventually a call to talk about this tomorrow? Right Julia and Brit’s relationship is a great
talked, Julia asked Brit if she was work- now is not good for me.’” success story, but it’s also a good re-
ing on an essay collection. When she Julia figured Brit was fielding offers minder of the effort that agents often
learned Brit was actually writing a novel, from other agents. “I just had to as- put into finding their authors. It also
The Mothers, about a seventeen-year-old sume that almost everybody who had shows that the balance of power is
whose pregnancy leads to a decision that two eyes and a beating heart and a brain not always weighted so heavily in the
shapes her life and the lives of those would be able to recognize very fast agent’s favor. While it may seem like
around her forever, Julia asked for the that this was an incredible talent.” She agents hold all the cards, it’s important
tony gale

first chapter. “I read that chapter and I scheduled a call with Brit for the fol- to remember that agents hope writers
was like, ‘Holy shit. This is amazing.’ I lowing morning and, at the appointed will choose them, too.

57 POETS & WRITERS


Fr:i3d ay
0 PM
1 suggest I’ll get a taste of those inebriat-
lle
Maysvih Street
t 26t
17 Wes
l ad
a d o e gg s a
▪ Av o c
h : m ix e d gr e e
ic
s an d w s for a Manhattan restaurant on a Friday
shall o t
crispy
o m a in e, gr ap
s al a d :
r
▪ C obb
a v o c ado, h
t oma t o
e s ,
he e s e
g g s , blue c
boiled
e appear to be over. It’s a couple cans of
e d n u t s : gar l
▪ C aju
n spic
ar y
r o s em
C o k e , ginger
▪ Diet
M
Y FIRSTf ull-time job in
New York, after months
of f reelance proof read-
ing and temp jobs, was at
W. H. Freeman, an imprint of Mac-
millan. On my first day, when I walked
through Madison Square Park to the
black skyscraper that held my modest
cubicle thirty-seven stories above Mad-
ison Avenue, across from the iconic
Flatiron Building, my heart did a little
somersault. I had made it. It didn’t last
long—I left that job after eight months
or so—but it was still a great moment.
I’m in a hurry as I walk through
Madison Square Park this afternoon,
but every time I’m in the neighborhood
I can’t help but look up at that black
building to find the window—not mine,
I never had one—through which my
former boss, Erika Goldman (now the
publisher of Bellevue Literary Press),
saw the city’s skyline. After a quick
look I pick up the pace, fast-walking a
couple of blocks west to the restaurant
at which I’m meeting Kent Wolf, an
agent at the Friedrich Agency. When
he suggested Maysville for lunch, I had
to look it up to see whether we needed
a reservation. It took me thirty seconds
to discover that we would be eating
lunch two days before the Southern-
inspired eatery and bar that boasts 150
different American whiskeys is sched-
uled to close, for good. Two questions:
special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS
Does this mean the place will be empty
or crowded, and does the drink menu
ing publishing lunches I’d read about?
The first question is answered the
moment I step inside: It’s neither packed
ns, nor deserted, which is not a great sign
e afternoon, hence, I assume, the closing.
ar d - The answer to my second question takes
longer, but in the end: No, those days
ic,
cold soda for me and Kent, who is from
Illinois—he attended Illinois Wesleyan
University in Bloomington—and has a
al e
delightfully sly sense of humor. At one
point in the conversation he directs my
attention to a gentleman wearing an im-
pressive mullet (business in the front,
party in the back), a hairstyle we both
recognize from our days in the Midwest.
Before moving to the Friedrich
Agency, Kent was an agent at Lippin-
cott Massie McQuilkin. He got his start
in publishing on the editorial side, at
the independent press Dalkey Archive,
before working as a literary scout at Mc-
Inerney International, then moving to
Harcourt, for which he was the subsid-
iary rights manager until 2008, when
he lost his job as a result of Harcourt’s
merger with Houghton Mifflin.
“This is a very relationship-based
business,” Kent tells me after we get
settled and I ask him if agents are a par-
ticularly competitive bunch. “Whether
it’s me or somebody at ICM or some-
body at, God forbid, the Wylie Agency,
we’re all good at our jobs; we all have
the same relationships, but sometimes
authors look for different kinds of ex-
perience, and some prefer being at a
boutique agency like the Friedrich
Agency because we’re very hands-on,
and you don’t have to go through lay-
ers of nameless assistants—you know,
like binkyurbanassistant@icm.com—to
get to me, Lucy Carson, Heather Carr,
or Molly Friedrich,” he says, referring
to the sole members of the Friedrich
Agency team. “But some authors pre-
fer someone in accounts payable who
processes their checks, or the allure of
a foreign-rights team, or an agency that
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 58
has their own book-to-film division,
and those are things we can’t provide
as an agency. But if you look at our track
record, it speaks for itself.”
This is true, and among the agency’s
impressive roster of clients, one in par-
ticular jumps off the page: Carmen
Maria Machado, who is represented by
the guy sitting across from me.
Just as Julia Kardon reached out to
Brit Bennett after reading an essay
she had published online, Kent got in
touch with Carmen in 2015 after read-
ing a piece she’d written for the Rumpus.
Throughout our conversation Kent
drops a number of references to literary
magazines—Ploughshares, Guernica—
that he scours, looking for new talent.
I ask him if he can list more of his fa-
vorite journals. “If I tell you, then other
agents will start reading them,” he says,
which makes me think my earlier ques-
tion about competition among agents
was on point. Saturdays and Sundays,
he says, one can find him in the read-
ing room of the Center for Fiction, just
around the corner from where he lives
in Brooklyn, reading stories and manu-
scripts. He found another of his clients,
Ingrid Rojas Contreras, after reading
a story of hers in Guernica. Her debut
novel, Fruit of the Drunken Tree, was
published by Doubleday in July 2018.
Doubleday, of course, is a part of the
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group,
which is itself a part of Penguin Ran-
dom House, the multinational con-
glomerate formed in 2013 from the
merger of Random House, owned by
German media conglomerate Bertels-
mann, and Penguin Group, owned by
British publishing company Pearson.
Carmen’s story collection, Her Body
and Other Parties, did not find a home
at Penguin Random House, or any of
the other publishers comprising the Big
Five that currently dominate the com-
mercial publishing market. As a mat-
ter of fact, close to thirty publishers,
including some small indies, declined
before Kent found an editor and a press
willing to take a risk on the debut story
collection. “Graywolf was our last port
of call,” Kent says. “It’s difficult to say
 special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS

what would have happened if Graywolf and Other Parties as one of “15 remark- couple of the other agents said earlier
had turned down the book. Maybe an- able books by women that are shaping in the week. “So if [editors] can point to
other small press out there would have the way we read and write fiction in the this particular recent success, or some-
taken it. The independent presses are 21st century.” thing that recently won an award or
the ones that can take risks because they “There was a lot of revisionist his- was turned into a movie or whatnot, if
don’t have shareholders to answer to.… tory going on in New York” once it was they can see that there is an audience for
The big trade publishers are just noto- clear what all those editors had passed something, then they can more com-
riously risk-averse, and they’re getting on, Kent says, then adds: “You can write fortably get behind that.”
increasingly so.” that my eyes rolled so hard my irises On the other hand, writers often hear
The initial response from publishers disappeared.” publishers and editors talking about
to Carmen’s debut reminds me of what W hen I ask him to elaborate, he how they’re looking for the next new
happened with the first book by Nathan gives me a kind of side-glance, grins, thing: something exciting, something
Hill that Emily Forland was unable to and says, “This is a risk-averse indus- they haven’t read before. There is an
sell. “It’s cliché now, but you hear it all try, unless they can see an audience for inherent contradiction at play here,
the time,” Kent says. “It’s this exact something. That’s why they’re always and it triggers one of Kent’s biggest
sentence: Stories are hard. And they say insisting on comps.” Comps, by the way, complaints about the industry. “Here
it in this soft, apologetic way—gentle. is short for “comparable titles,” which is one thing I hate about this business:
‘Send us the novel when it’s ready.’ I are standard ingredients in any query publishers massively overpaying for
was in a meeting with a scout, and I letter or proposal. Agents and editors debut fiction. It’s the worst. Two or
was talking about Carmen’s collection, want to know the titles of some recently three million dollars for a debut novel
pitching it for foreign sales. And the published books that have proved suc- and everything else on that publisher’s
scout, that was the first thing she said: cessful (but not too successful) and that list gets eclipsed by that book; they put
‘Mmm, stories are hard.’ She was like share some characteristics with what all of their efforts behind it,” he says.
twenty-two. What do you know? Your you’ve written. “A book doesn’t exist in “They circle their wagons around one,
boss says that, so now you’re parroting a vacuum,” Kent says, repeating what a two, three books a year, and everything
it. I told her she was never else is getting lost. This is
allowed to say that to me not a sustainable model.
again,” he says, grinning. It’s bad for publishers, it’s
In the end, Ethan No- bad for authors, it’s bad for
sowsky at Graywolf Press readers.”
bought Car men’s stor y Carmen’s second book,
collection, and it was pub- a memoir, In the Dream
lished in October 2017. The House, will be released by
book that was passed on by Gray wolf in November,
the New York publishing and despite the early rejec-
establishment went on to tions of her debut, it is dif-
be named a finalist for the ficult to see how her career
National Book Award, the would have been launched
Kirkus Prize, the Art Se- any better at one of the
idenbaum Award for First bigger publishers. “With
Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Graywolf, it’s a smaller list,
Prize, and the PEN/Robert and the attention they pay
W. Bi ngh a m P r i z e for to each book is noticeable,”
Debut Fiction. It won the Kent says. “What’s nice for
Bard Fict ion Prize, t he an author being published
Lambda Literary Award by a press like Graywolf is
for Lesbian Fiction, the that they’re more part of the
Brooklyn Public Library process. And I think authors
Literature Prize, the Shir- are given more agency, or at
ley Jack son Award, and least they are able to be part
laura s. wilson

the National Book Crit- of decisions in a way that a

ics Circle’s John Leonard [larger publisher] couldn’t
Award. Last year the New offer because of the layers
Kent Wolf of the Friedrich Agency.
York Times listed Her Body of bureaucracy.”

59 POETS & WRITERS


Mo1:n day
0 0 PM s
St reet Barista en
Taylor 0th Street, betwues
e her father is a prize-winning profes-
4 n
28 East and Park Ave
n
Madiso
s al a d :ped
’s chop
G r a n ny ber,
, cucum f e t a ,
▪
m a in e
ro t o,
o, t oma
a v o c a d al m o n
ds
s m o ke
t o m a t o s o up
▪ Smo
ke d
d c h e e s e s an
grille
i S e n c ha t e a ,
▪ Nish
c of fe e
I
WA S warned t hat Taylor Street
Baristas would be loud, and as I
make my way through Grand Cen-
tral Terminal and walk two blocks
south on Park Avenue to the specialty
coffee shop and café, I take Emily
Forland’s advice to hope for the best
and expect the worst. Unfortunately,
my fears are realized when I walk in
the door. I believe clamorous is the
word. So many people talking so close
to one another (the Midwesterner in
me will never get used to tables posi-
tioned this close) that I worry I won’t
be able to hear my lunch companion,
Marya Spence, an agent at Janklow &
Nesbit. As I wait for her at a corner
table in the second-floor dining room,
music is added to the din. I would be
annoyed if not for the playlist (sweet
sounds of the 1970s, “Running on
Empty” by Jackson Browne, followed
by Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose
That Number,” offer an appropriate
soundtrack for this rainy day), and
soon enough my ea rs adju st a nd
Marya arrives.
Having studied literature at Har-
vard, followed by an MFA in fiction at
New York University, during which
she had paid internships at the New
Yorker a nd Vanit y Fair — she also
wrote reviews for Publishers Weekly
and taught undergrads—Marya seem-
ingly could have had her choice of
careers in the editorial or academic
arena. Toward the end of her time at
special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS
NYU, she began to look into teaching,
a profession that was familiar to her.
(She grew up on college campuses;
sor and administrator who taught
at schools across the country). But
while Mar ya was applying for ad-
junct teaching jobs, the writer David
Lipsky (Although of Course You End
Up Being Yourself: A Road Trip With
an d
David Foster Wallace) suggested she
dwich
look into agenting. “I really had no
idea what agenting was at that time,”
fi lt e r
she says, but Lipsky knew someone at
Janklow & Nesbit, an agent who spe-
cialized in young adult fiction and is
no longer with the firm, so she sent
her résumé, which floated down the
hallway to another agent, PJ Mark,
who brought her in for an interview. “I
came in, wrote an editorial response
on a manuscript, and we were off to
the races,” Marya says. She started as
PJ’s assistant while doing what many
assistants do: try to build their own
list of clients. “I was working on some
projects of my own…doing that thing
young people have to do in publish-
ing, which is working double triple
time. I was my boss’s assistant dur-
ing work hours, and then I would stay
late editing some manuscripts that I
hadn’t formally signed yet. But that’s
how you get your foot in the door.”
One of the books that landed on
her desk in those early days, in Janu-
ary 2015, to be precise, was Goodbye,
Vitamin, a novel by Rachel Khong,
then senior editor at Lucky Peach, the
irreverent food magazine that would
shutter two years later. The novel,
about a thirty-year-old woman who
returns home to Southern California
for Christmas and ends up staying to
care for her ailing parents, made an im-
mediate impression.
“I read Goodbye, Vitamin overnight,
and I cried on the subway and I cried
at my neighborhood bar, where I
would sit in the corner and they would
pour me tea—it was very romantic,
my life then,” Marya recalls. “And I
walked into PJ’s office and said, ‘Look,
I haven’t asked to sign anyone yet,
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 60
particularly one that came to both of
us, but [she pauses] this is my book. It
has to be.’ And PJ was drowning, as
I am now, and was like, ‘Please, you
have more than my blessing.’”
So Marya sent Rachel an editorial
letter—she calls them love letters—
in which she put all of her thoughts
and visions and desires for the book,
comparing her work to Renata Adler
(Speedboat) and Jenny Offill (Dept. of
Speculation), and explaining some of
the editorial work she thought the
manuscript needed, including tight-
ening the pacing in some places and
building up some of the characters. “I
will admit I’m a sucker for romance
or a crush story, so I wanted that to
be built out a little bit more too,” she
says.
Rachel happily agreed, and for the
next ten months or so, the agent and
author worked together on the manu-
script. Meanwhile, Marya made her
first sale: Jaroslav Kalfar’s Spaceman
of Bohemia to Ben George at Little,
Brown, in a six-figure preempt—not
a bad way to start an agenting career.
When Goodbye, Vitamin was ready for
submission, it too received an “over-
whelming response,” attracting more
than a dozen interested editors. Be-
fore the auction, Marya scheduled
what she descr ibes as “a week of
back-to-back, on-the-dot forty-five-
minute phone calls” between Rachel,
who lives in San Francisco, and her
suitors.
I ask Marya what exactly happens
during these kinds of phone calls—
or typically, if the author is in New
York, in-person meetings—before
an auction begins, and whether the
conversations are primarily for the
editor’s benefit or the author’s. “First
and foremost it’s for the writer,” she
says. “Editors’ responses to a manu-
script can range from ‘I’m interested
but with some qualifications,’ in which
case a talk is really important for
them to just speak directly and get a
sense for each other’s styles and per-
sonalities, to ‘I’m just freaking out,
I’m losing sleep over this book, and
 special sec tion ▪ LITERARY AGENTS

I just want to tell this per- But then sometimes, as

son how much I’m dying was the case with Rachel,
to work with them,’ which the unexpected happens:
is also good for a writer to Sarah Bowlin left Holt. As
hear.” a matter of fact, she left
In Rachel’s case the re- edit ing altoget her: She
sponses were similarly var- moved to Los Angeles and
ied, so it was important for is now an agent at Aevitas
her to get a sense of where Creat ive M a nagement.
each editor stood before the “So then the book was re-
auction began. As a result assigned to Barbara Jones,
of one of the phone calls, an who is wonderful,” Marya
excited editor made a pre- says. “I could think of no
emptive offer. “With all of better editor to take up the
the interest, we didn’t take mantle than her. She had
it,” Marya says. “It was a said that she was the first
really nice preempt from person to raise her hand
a n a m a z i ng ed itor a nd to take it on because she
house, but I wanted Ra- read it and cried during
chel to know where some submission.”
of these other houses and Marya calls the depar-
editors were coming from.” t u re of a n ed itor m id-
Instead Sarah Bowlin, a se- process “very disruptive,”
nior editor at Henry Holt, but in this case it didn’t
won the auction and the spell disaster. The pub-
rights to publish Goodbye, lisher was already f ully
Vitamin. behind the book, and it
Fantastic news, but then had already been edited,
what? I’ve always been cu- but there were still many
rious about the moments, things to be done before
days, and weeks following Marya Spence of Janklow & Nesbit Associates. publication, including fi-
such a momentous decision. nalizing the cover. Marya
Here’s a debut novelist whose life has together—the author, the editor, the stayed on top of the situation. “I think
just been changed by a series of e-mails publicit y and marketing team—so authors need to hear, ‘Don’t worry,
and phone calls on the other side of the they can draw up a game plan for I’m on top of them. I’ll make sure that
country. What’s the next step? publication. these balls don’t get dropped.’”
“The next step is getting on an e- St i l l, on some le vel t here is a Agents, of course, are good at jug-
mail chain together, and there’s lots handoff that happens naturally after gling, and after Goodbye, Vitamin was
of exclamation points,” Marya says. “I the author and editor have been in- published in July 2017, it was named
think it’s really important to celebrate. troduced. “I like to be looped in on a best book of the year by nearly a
This is a moment where everything everything, but I also want writers to dozen major publications, including
has gone right. Cherish that.” This is have direct relationships with their O, the Oprah Magazine; Vogue; Esquire;
solid advice. But an agent doesn’t just editors,” Marya says. “As much as I Entertainment Weekly; and BuzzFeed.
raise a glass, then hand over the keys would love to be a part of every step of It went on to win a 2017 California
and wish the writer well. There are the editorial process, I just can’t be, so Book Award and was a finalist for
a number of things that require her they need to get comfortable as soon the Art Seidenbaum Award for First
attention: The finer points of the con- as possible. I think of it sometimes Fiction.
tract need to be settled—the formats like a relay race. Up until that point, I ask Marya if she has any advice for
and markets in which the book will for months or maybe years I’ve been authors in the middle of the publish-
be published, subsidiary rights, pay- working with my writer on a super- ing process, who may be juggling a
ment schedule, due dates, options, and familiar basis; now the ball is more in bit of anxiety themselves. “Recognize
so on—and the publisher’s contracts the editor’s court, and they might step that there will always be surprises
department likely needs a little nudg- into that role of editorial and creative along the way,” she says, “and know
ing. And then there’s getting everyone collaboration.” that we’re on your team.”

61 POETS & WRITERS

T
ALK t o a n a g e nt lo n g
enough, over a good meal,
and inevitably subjects will
come up that are, shall we
say, sensitive. As many of these
agents reminded me, this is a busi-
ness of relationships—one even said
it’s a business of feelings—so there
are stories, or bits and pieces of
hard-earned wisdom, that they may
not be comfortable having attrib-
uted to them. Rather than restrict
our conversations, I offered to save
such morsels for “dessert,” served
cold, names removed. Here then is
a collection of unattributed quotes
gleaned from our conversations.
Some verbal tics and tones have been
edited to preserve anonymity and to
avoid giving any agent indigestion.
I never predict what someone’s advance
is going to be. I tell people that I work on
commission, and therefore I don’t take
on projects that I think are not going
to sell well. But I will never say, “Oh I
think this should be around $150,000.”
I would just never guess that, because
it’s a losing game. You either give them
this false hope that you can’t deliver on
or you look like you undervalued them,
which is also not a good look.
I’ve never been on the phone and said to
a client, “No way in hell are you taking
this.” We talk it through. I try to give
them as much agency in the process as
I can, and complete transparency. I’ve
never not conveyed an offer to an au-
thor. But there are some agents who will
keep information from their clients.
The kind of agent who makes a decision
that they’re going to represent the most
moneymaking clients regardless of what
their ideology is—I’m not there. Maybe
I will lose money in the long run because
of it, but I don’t think that I could be a
passionate advocate for a writer whose
political opinions I abhor or felt were
actively damaging the fabric of society.
I mean, it’s not like Steve Bannon ap-
proached me and asked me to represent
him, but I can at least say that I’m not
interested in those kinds of books.
If I share a rejection note from an editor
with you, and then you write the editor
directly about it, that’s not a good idea.
I don’t work with that author anymore.
The numbers are always so made up.
The profit-and-loss statements that
editors use for debuts are truly non-
sense numbers; they’re actually insane.
I like to say I work in the margins of a
very commercial space so I take on those
things that I feel need to be seen but that
I also think I can get into a big trade
place and make an advance, which is
hard—I’m an agent and I get to choose
what I give my time to, but unfortu-
nately it’s also about the money on some
level because I have to also make a liv-
ing. And some of these decisions are also
economic.
If your agent gives you honest feedback on
the first draft of your novel, that should
be considered private correspondence.
It is bad form—as well as being really
unconstructive—to post it on social
media or vent about it on your blog.
There’s a funny story about FSG. I don’t
know if it’s apocryphal, but the story goes
that an agent and author asked for a
marketing plan for a book, and it was
just a photo of the spine with the colo-
phon.
Make sure you’re writing for the right
reasons. If you’re writing a novel because
you’re trying to work through your own
personal issues, that’s not why you should
be writing a novel.
I’ve definitely talked to people where we
disagree about a book, and I very, very
rarely say, “I can see your side of things
here.” No, my side is right. I knew that
book was going to be a big deal, and if
it hadn’t been I would have left the in-
dustry, because I would not have been
able to work with people too stupid to
understand what they had in front of
them.
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 Writer
THE PRACTICAL

Ode to a Copy Editor

A W R I T E R’S BE ST F R I E N D

M
Y THIRD novel, Costalegre, was unlike
anything I’d ever worked on with a pub-
lisher. The story of a privileged girl who
is shipped to Mexico with a bunch of ex-
iled surrealists by an art-collecting mother at the brink of
World War II, this novel had reasons to give an acquiring
editor pause. An unreliable narrator writing from an epis- C O U R T N E Y M A U M is
tolary point of view, swaths of text in foreign languages, a the author of the novels
word count perilously close to that of a novella, multiple Costalegre (Tin House Books,
illustrations, and fictionalized facts—it’s a testament to the 2019), Touch (Putnam,
mettle of Tin House Books that I was able to work with 2017), and I Am Having So
a publisher on it at all. During my initial phone call with Much Fun Here Without You
senior editor Masie Cochran, before we’d officially started (Touchstone, 2014); the
working together, she said, “I have a lot of questions about chapbook Notes From Mexico
this book, and I don’t want any of them answered.” After (Cupboard Pamphlet, 2012);
I toiled on my last two novels to make every character’s and the handbook Before and
motivation transparent to both the reader and myself, After the Book Deal: A writer’s
hearing permission to keep my writing strange made me guide to finishing, publishing,
feel untethered and free. During this conversation, I was promoting, and surviving your
sitting on a dock covered in spilled beer and seagull poop, first book, forthcoming from
at a writers conference in Tampa, and when I hung up the Catapult. Her writing has
phone, I cried. been widely published in
In elementary school I had a best friend with whom I such outlets as BuzzFeed;
invented a language of hand signals that we could use to the New York Times; O, the
speak to each other during boring assemblies at our girls Oprah Magazine; and Modern
school: Cross-legged on a carpet, separated by other bod- Loss. She is the founder
ies, silently, we’d talk. The architecture of our communi- of the Cabins, a learning
cation was insular and separatist, the language building collaborative in Norfolk,
(and the understanding of that language) ours and ours Connecticut. She also offers
alone. The first months of the editing process with Masie consultations to writers
were like those Friday assemblies: cloistered, intimate, a querying agents and names
moving work in progress. Because Costalegre is a diary, we products for cosmetics and
decided that all of the bold text and italics I’d used had to other companies from her
go—including the sections that were written in foreign home in Connecticut. Her
languages. Certainly it would be confusing to readers if website is courtneymaum
they came upon a foreign sentence in the same typeset as .com.
the English sentence before it, but you don’t use italics in
a diary—you don’t. Any textual maneuver that might pull
colin lane

the reader out of the narrator’s hallucinatory landscape was

put on the chopping block. The novel had become a pact
between us, and this pact had rules.

65 POETS & WRITERS

 the practical writer
But when the first pass pages ar-
rived with edits from the freelance
copy editor Tin House had hired,
Anne Horowitz, it felt like the arrival
of a marriage counselor that our rela-
tionship didn’t need. Jolted from the
felted cocoon of developmental edits,
suddenly the system that I’d built with
Masie was being prodded, poked. In
her notes on the text, Anne gracefully
reminded me that more than a decade
of life lived on the Internet has ru-
ined my ability to spell (“it’s sleeping
berths, not births”); that my historical
research wasn’t airtight (“parenting
might not have been a very common


6 66 
ODE TO A COPY EDITOR
the wrong. Additionally, I assessed—
still running—she was a newcomer to
the party. Maybe she just needed time
to warm up to our text.
These affirmations allowed me to go
back to the copyedits with less defensive
eyes. And something magical occurred
when I let down my guard. Somewhere
around the sixtieth query, I could actu-
ally see Anne surrender to the rhythm
of the text and the rules that we’d
defined. By the seventieth, Anne was
dabbling in some rule-bending her-
self. (Comment 71: “‘our same house’
is colloquial but seems intentionally
so.”) By the eightieth, she was actu-
6
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  mean it would sell.

word during this period; keep anyway
or maybe change to something like
child-rearing?”); that I was sometimes
incoherent (“This is another sentence
that makes sense once the situation
comes into focus for the reader but
on a first read is quite confusing”) and
repetitive (“The phrase ‘of course’ ap-
pears sixty times throughout. Perhaps
do a search to decide if it’s too many?”).
But there was also the suggestion that
the house rules Masie and I had in-
vented were jeopardizing the reader’s
enjoyment of the text. “Okay that
some of these entries lack end punc-
tuation?” she asked. “Foreign words are
italicized on first usage (in accordance
with CMS 11.3),” she noted, referring
to the Chicago Manual of Style, the
copy editor’s bible. The confidence
I’d had in the novel’s scaffolding was
punctured, as was my confidence in the
novel itself. With every query that po-
litely indicated a section was confusing,
irregular, opaque, I was reminded that
just because I loved this book didn’t
reading Track Changes on my copy-
I remember stepping away from the
computer where the red Track Changes
glowered from the screen and going
for a run. I remember telling myself—
while running—that the copy editor
ally starting to defend the narrator’s
style. (87: “In general I’m allowing
colloquialisms and some non- C MS
formatting to stand, as this is meant
to be a diary.”) In the two hundreds,
Anne Horowitz was a ticket-carrying
passenger on the train of weird, and
her queries had some bite: “CMS 6.19
might add serial comma after ‘milk’
(unless you want the milk and cream
to be more of a bonded pair?)” and “I
think Jack means that one or some of
his friends committed suicide and oth-
ers walked to Czechoslovakia, but it’s a
little opaque.” Italics hers.
And so it was that my relationship
with my copy editor, and the regard in
which I held copy editors, completely
changed. By sitting with Anne’s copy-
edits and allowing them to help me,
Anne went from policewoman to sty-
listic ally. Better yet, when I stopped
reading Anne’s queries as accusatory,
they became an invitation to dig up the
character motivations I had initially
been so giddy to hide. I wasn’t just
edits anymore; I was engaged in a dis-
sertation defense. Anne’s queries about
my bonkers use of kinship titles, for
example (the narrator calls her mother
Mum, Mumma, and Mother through-



 wasn’t there to compliment me or to
tell my editor and me what a pretty job
we’d done. It was this person’s calling
to identify the places where the story
went off track. Anne was a metal detec-
tor on a beach of grammar, a hunter of
out the text), forced me to explain—to
know—that my heroine, Lara, called
her mother “Mother” when she was
feeling distant from her, or stung by
something she’d done; “Mumma” for
when she was feeling close to her (not

J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 66
 the practical writer ODE TO A COPY EDITOR

often); and “Mum” when she was jotting city’s streets. Handsley admitted that
down something mundane in her diary, he’d initially found the book “quite dif-
with little feeling attached to the event ficult to read” until he slipped into its
she was describing. On one occasion, rhythm, at which point, he turned into
when Lara receives reciprocated love the guardian of its style. “I don’t want the
from her perennially distracted guard- reader to be given pause in the way that Inside every
issue of
ian, she calls her “Mumma-Mum.” I might have been when I was working
As I delved deeper and deeper into on the book,” Handsley said. “Whether
the defense of my protagonist’s syntax, it’s vocabulary or tone—even if it’s
I was surprised to find how much I loved only for a few moments and the reader
the copyediting is able to ignore
process, once I the inconsistency
rep o sit ioned it As I delved deeper and and carr y on,
in my brain as a t here shou ldn’t
championship of deeper into the defense of my be cause for that
sorts. I decided to kind of problem.
call my copy edi- protagonist’s syntax, I was The copy editor’s
tor to tell her how job is to smooth
much I was enjoy- surprised to find how much I out those prob-
ing reading her lems and get rid
queries. It was the loved the copyediting process, of t hem so t hat
f irst t ime A nne t he process is
had ever received once I repositioned it in my invisible.”
a phone call from
t he aut hor of a brain as a championship
One thing that
surprised me dur-
Stories
manuscript she’d
already edited. of sorts.
ing my quest to
speak to copy edi- Poems
Essays
My conversa- tors of my favorite
tion with my copy wild books is that
editor—and her surprise that we were some of these books didn’t have copy
having one—inspired me to get in touch editors at all. Eimear McBride’s A Girl
with the copy editors of other contem- Is a Half-Formed Thing (Coffee House
Visual Art
porary work that I admired. “I wonder Press, 2014) didn’t even have a line-
whether editors realize what kind of editing pass, and Matthew McIntosh’s
Truth
contribution copy editors could be mak- iconoclastic theMystery.Doc (2017) was
ing if they were allowed more contact acquired by Grove Atlantic already Beauty
Magic
with the authors,” said veteran copy edi- type-set, definitively “as is.”
tor Mark Handsley, who was the manag- “I had spent a lot of time editing,
ing copy editor at the London office of myself, so I was confident when I sent
Penguin Books for decades before going it that it was exactly what I wanted to
freelance sixteen years ago. “The copy publish,” McIntosh explained via e-mail
editors are completely divorced from about the copyediting process for his Subscribe Now!
the author today, and I think that’s a 1,660-page novel, edited—or rather,
complete shame. There is a territorial acquired—by Morgan Entrekin. “I decembermag.org
instinct; editors think, ‘This is my book; was fortunate that Morgan agreed and
I’ve been dealing with the author, and I didn’t want to change anything. I’ve Use code P&W
don’t want someone interfering.’” been told that this is rare. The manu-
We were discussing Handsley’s ex- script needed proofing—spelling, some
for 20% off a
perience copyediting Guy Gunaratne’s punctuation, the odd incorrect word subscription.
prize-winning In Our Mad and Furious choice— but as far as the larger issues of
City (MCD x FSG Originals, 2018), a editing, the book was published pretty
book I’d much admired that presents much just as it had been sent in.”
a snapshot of modern-day London via theMystery.doc was actually copyedited
a collage of vernacular voices from the by Matthew’s wife, Erin, but in this book

67 POETS & WRITERS

 A WORLD-CLASS NON-FICTION WRITER
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in which movie stills and asterisks be-
come emotional guideposts, rather than
point out grammatical irregularities,
her task was to assist her husband in his
quest to develop a new form, primarily
through design and storyboarding, as
well as contributing to the book’s many
redactions. There are pages of blackouts
and whiteouts throughout the text that
lend the story an almost unbearably vivid
portrayal of a life in flux. “The reasons
for blackouts were always dependent
on the case: to obscure identifying
information—names, e-mail addresses,
etc,” McIntosh recalls. “They also served
to conceal personal, private, and holy
things, to create big swatches of black
set against white, to overwhelm the text
like a cancer, to adjust speed and flow of
the read without erasing or removing the
actual space, to have something to hide
behind, to avoid being sued for copyright
infringement, to hide the original title of
the original book, to suggest the ever-
present unknown.”
The success of Benjamin Dreyer’s
the practical writer ODE TO A COPY EDITOR
best-selling copyedit ing memoir,
Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide
to Clarity and Style (Random House,
2019), as well as Mary Norris’s Between
You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
(W. W. Norton, 2015), has reminded
both readers and writers how much
copy editors contribute to the books
and pieces they love. Nevertheless, even
authors whose copy editors lack Dreyer’s
wit (“If you’re going to have a house
style, try not to have a house style visible
from space” is a personal favorite) should
go the extra mile to show their copy edi-
tor some love. Copy editors are not a set
of red editing commands on your com-
puter screen; they are living, breathing
humans whose eyesight has diminished
from their continued improvement of,
and on, our work.
Anne and I ended our collaboration
on equal footing. There was truth–
talking on her part (“Your book has a
higher curve of getting orientated—it
really takes a while to get your bearings”
was one thing she admitted during our
69 POETS & WRITERS
phone conversation) and compromises
on mine. For example: Tough titties if
no one uses italics in their own diaries;
you just can’t stumble on a foreign word
like genug and keep going about your
business without your brain going,
“What the hell was that?” (Genug means
“enough” in German, and it, like every
other foreign word and phrase that ap-
pears in Costalegre, is now italicized in
the text.)
I’ve always had respect for copy edi-
tors, but the copyediting process for my
third novel has left me inebriated with
gratitude for what these specialized edi-
tors do—or rather keep us from doing—
on the published page. I look back on my
connection with Anne not as a relation-
ship of circumstance, as copy editor to
author, but rather as a deeply personal
alliance built on the principles of clear
communication. She was more than a
copy editor; she was an online therapist
of sorts—the newfangled kind you can
text at a dark hour when your writing
needs a friend.
 Writer
THE PRACTICAL

The Fourth in a Yearlong Series

How to Get Paid

BO OK PU BL ISH I NG

L
IKE countless young writers before him, John
Cusick moved to New York City, in 2007, to
pursue his dream of literary stardom. Having
worked for a university press in college, Cusick
looked for a job in publishing, but the best he could find
to start out was a part-time gig as a personal assistant and
dog-walker for literary agent Scott Treimel. M I C H A E L B O U R N E is a
“My first duties were right out of The Devil Wears Prada,” contributing editor of Poet &
says Cusick. “I was the guy walking down the street with Writers Magazine.
this huge dog on a leash and laundry over one arm and the
phone to my ear.”
Playing Anne Hathaway to Treimel’s Meryl Streep didn’t
pay especially well either. While living in a bedbug-infested
apartment in Brooklyn, Cusick earned about $350 a week
from various part-time jobs. “I had this great plan, which
was that if I bought two hot dogs for lunch from the local
vendor, that was four dollars for food that day,” he recalls.
But Cusick quickly graduated from walking Treimel’s
dog and fetching his dry-cleaning to helping the agent
with foreign rights and book contracts, and within a couple
of years, Cusick had begun taking on clients of his own.
Meanwhile Treimel helped Cusick launch his writing
career, persuading him to switch from literary fiction to
young adult fiction and selling his first novel, Girl Parts.
It was published by Candlewick Press in 2010. Cusick has
since written two more novels—his latest, Dimension Why,
is due out from HarperCollins next year—and now works
as an agent at Folio Literary Management.
Cusick’s rise from dog-walker living on frankfurters to
published novelist and literary agent may sound like a Cin-
derella story, but in many ways it’s par for the course for
writers working in book publishing, a field in which every-
one must endure a low-paying apprenticeship period, usually
in New York, one of the most expensive cities on the planet.
“If you really just want to be a writer, there are easier
ways to support yourself while you’re trying to write your
first novel,” says Caroline Zancan, a senior editor at Henry
Holt and the author of the novel Local Girls (Riverhead,
2015). “There are jobs that are strictly nine-to-five where
eva busza

you don’t need to use your creative capital, and they prob-
ably pay better than publishing.”

71 POETS & WRITERS


Any writer considering a career in
publishing must first face the fact that
the job market is fiercely competitive—
and it’s shrinking. Over the past two
decades, according to the U.S. Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics, the number
of people working in book publishing
has plummeted from just more than
91,000 in 1997 to roughly 60,000 at the
end of 2018, with the most precipitous
drop coming in the wake of the 2008
financial crisis.
Because jobs are scarce and the work
is engaging and prestigious, publish-
ing professionals are bot h highly
qualified—nearly everyone has a col-
lege degree, and Ivy League diplomas
are common—and often underpaid.
This is particularly true in the early
years of one’s career, when most
would-be editors, agents, and book
publicists pick up on-the-job training
in a series of internships and assistant
positions. According to Glassdoor,
an online employment site, editorial
assistants in New York City average
the practical writer HOW T O G E T PA I D
about $39,000 a year, which sounds
okay until you take into account the
long hours assistants put in and the
fact that the cost of living in the city is
more than double the national average.
Internships, which serve as gateways to
assistant jobs, often pay nothing at all.
Newcomers may be able to bypass
some of this apprentice period by en-
rolling in a publishing course, which
typically offers classes on book and
magazine publishing as well as job fairs
for would-be applicants. But this, too,
can be expensive. The prestigious six-
week Columbia Publishing Course,
at Columbia University’s journalism
school, for example, costs $8,575, in-
cluding room and board.
Of course not all publishing jobs are
in New York City. Many independent
presses, like Tin House Books (Port-
land, Oregon), Coffee House Press and
Graywolf Press (Minneapolis), Copper
Canyon Press (Port Townsend, Wash-
ington), and McSweeney’s Books (San
Francisco), are spread out across the
J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 72
United States, and a number of liter-
ary agents live and work outside New
York City. But these tend to be smaller
operations, and people interested in a
career in publishing gravitate toward
New York, where there are far more
jobs and where it’s easier to jump be-
tween firms without having to move
to a new city.
At literary agencies, where agents
earn most of their money from com-
missions on their writers’ work, the
mat h is even more compl ic ated.
Agents typically take 15 percent of
their writers’ U.S. income and 20
percent of foreign earnings, but new
agents landing their first clients may
not have significant earnings to draw
from for years. Agencies handle this
in a variety of ways, the most common
being the employment of so-called
“baby agents” who handle subsidiary
rights and other more administrative
duties at the agency as they build their
client list.
At Folio Literary, Cusick earns what
 the practical writer H O W T O G E T PA I D

is called a “draw,” which amounts to a The combination of poorly paid 2018 study by Publishers Weekly, fully
regular salary advanced to him against apprenticeships and the high cost of 86 percent of the workforce is white
his future commissions. Now that his living in cities where many publishers and only 2 percent is Black.
commissions have begun to Nigerian-born poet
outpace what the agency is and fiction writer Hafizah
paying him—and he has paid Any writer considering a career in publishing Geter’s path to her present
back the money the agency job as an editor at Amazon
advanced him in his earlier must first face the fact that the job market Publishing’s Little A and
years—he earns his regular Topple Books illustrates how
salary plus whatever extra is is fiercely competitive—and it’s shrinking. hard it can be for a writer of
owed to him in commissions. modest means to gain a foot-
“The thing about being an Over the past two decades, the number hold in the book business.
agent versus being an editor Geter moved to New York
is that it’s very slow to build of people working in book publishing has City in 2012 without a job
moment um, so t hat when and survived her first year
you start off, you don’t make plummeted from just more than 91,000 in by crashing at the apartment
any money and you’re prob- of a college friend in Brook-
ably going to end up owing 1997 to roughly 60,000 at the end of 2018. lyn and relying on a small
back taxes like I did,” Cusick stipend from a Cave Canem
says. “But as time goes on, as fellowship. She then found
you build that momentum, the money have their offices can make it hard for work at a series of arts nonprofits,
starts to make itself a little bit. A book young people without savings or fam- scraping by financially until the job
I sold a few years ago is now generating ily support to join the industry, which at Amazon Publishing opened up in
royalties, and twice a year there’s just is one factor that contributes to a still- 2017.
a check that comes in. I didn’t do any- glaring lack of diversity in publishing. “When I started working at Little
thing, and there it is.” In the book business, according to a A, my father, who is an artist and is

73 POETS & WRITERS

 the practical writer HOW T O G E T PA I D

seventy-three now, was able to retire
from teaching because he no longer
had to help me pay my student loans,”
she says. “It gave me the freedom to
start my life and to afford being an
adult who is not thinking, ‘What do
I have to sell in order to get health
insurance?’”
But even if they navigate the long
apprenticeship period and beat the stiff
competition for jobs, writers working
in publishing still have to find time to
write. Agents and editors spend most of
their workday hammering out contracts
or taking meetings and phone calls,
leaving much of the labor of reading
submissions and editing manuscripts
to nights and weekends. The same
goes for publicists, who are expected
to work long hours designing publicity
campaigns and drumming up interest
in their authors’ work. Asked how many
hours a week she typically worked, best-
selling essayist Sloane Crosley, who
held positions in publicity at Vintage
Books and HarperCollins for ten years,
laughs and says: “All of them?”
For Crosley, the author of three
essay collections and a novel, The
Clasp (FSG, 2015), maintaining a writ-
ing career while working in publishing
meant writing before and after office
hours and using vacations to go on
book tour, and ultimately she left her
job as assistant director of publicity at
Vintage in 2012 to become a full-time
writer. “People write novels and have
day jobs all the time,” she says. “I just
found it very difficult to do that.”
This is a common theme in con-
versations with writers who work in
publishing. Some say they wake up
early and write for an hour or two be-
fore work, and others talk of opening
Google Docs on their laptops for a
few harried minutes of revisions on
the subway. Others, like Zancan, the
Henry Holt editor, find they’re able to
write in concentrated bursts as their
workload ebbs and flows.
Early in her career, when Zancan
was an editorial assistant at Knopf,
the work was so all-consuming that
she essentially put her writing on hold
for three years. After she returned to
fiction, Zancan earned a low-residency
MFA from the Bennington Writing
Seminars and wrote her debut novel in
two years. A year after that book came
out (and a week before she gave birth
to her first child), she finished the first
draft of her second novel, We Wish You
Luck, due out from Riverhead in 2020.
“You can do it all, but not all at one
time, if that makes sense,” she says.
Although Zancan and others in the
industry caution against viewing a
career in publishing as a shortcut to
winning a book contract, the contacts
and insider knowledge that come with
work ing at a respected publishing
house or literary agency can boost a
literary career. After all, Cusick found
his first agent by working for him,
and today he is represented by Melissa
Sarver White, a friend and colleague
whose office is literally across the hall
from his at Folio Literary.

University of Washington
MFA in Creative Writing

The only MFA Program to include “There is no end to All accepted students receive Teaching Assistantships
three MacArthur “genius award” what should be known ĂŶĚͬŽƌ&ĞůůŽǁƐŚŝƉƐ͘ĚĚŝƟŽŶĂůŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƟĞƐƚŽƚĞĂĐŚ
winners among its faculty about words” /ŶƚƌŽĚƵĐƚŽƌLJƌĞĂƟǀĞtƌŝƟŶŐ
Poetry: —Theodore Roethke >ŝǀĞĂŶĚƐƚƵĚLJŝŶƚŚĞŚĞĂƌƚŽĨďĞĂƵƟĨƵů^ĞĂƩůĞ͕
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Alumni Authors džĐĞůůĞŶƚƐƚƵĚĞŶƚͬĨĂĐƵůƚLJƌĂƟŽŽĨϯ͗ϭ
Prose: Include:
ƉƉůŝĐĂƟŽŶĞĂĚůŝŶĞ:ĂŶƵĂƌLJϮŶĚ
ĂǀŝĚŽƐǁŽƌƚŚ͕ĂǀŝĚƌŽƵƐĞ Richard Hugo
Program Director: David Crouse
ZĂĞWĂƌŝƐ͕ĂǀŝĚ^ŚŝĞůĚƐ Carolyn Kizer
James Wright Program Coordinator: Judy LeRoux
Maya Sonenberg
David Guterson ŵĂŝů͗ĐǁƌŝƟŶŐΛƵǁ͘ĞĚƵ
Former Faculty Include: Frances McCue WŚŽŶĞ͗ϮϬϲϱϰϯͲϵϴϲϱ
Theodore Roethke Kathryn Trueblood
Stanley Kunitz Carol Light &ŽƵŶĚĞĚŝŶϭϵϰϳďLJdŚĞŽĚŽƌĞZŽĞƚŚŬĞ͘
Elizabeth Bishop Jason Whitmarsh
The preeminent MFA Program in the
David Wagoner Mia Ayumi Malhotra
Charles Johnson Whitney Sharer
WĂĐŝĮĐEŽƌƚŚǁĞƐƚ͘͞KŶĞŽĨƚŚĞƚĞŶďĞƐƚ
Colleen McElroy Anca Szilagyi ƉƌŽŐƌĂŵƐŝŶĐƌĞĂƟǀĞǁƌŝƟŶŐ͟
Heather McHugh Kara Weiss —US News & World Report

J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 74
 the practical writer H O W T O G E T PA I D

Writers working in publishing have potentially a big problem for the peo- to jump-start a writing career rather
greater access to agents and editors, ple I’m trying to advocate for. I loved than as a career in its own right. Writers
along with firsthand knowledge of how those books. It didn’t change how hard I who look at jobs in publishing this way,
books are acquired and pub- according to those who have
lished. But these advantages worked in the industry, are
will carry a writer only so far. Some senior editors and agents resist hiring making a mistake. Building a
“I don’t think you can publish career in publishing requires
a book because you like a per- aspiring writers, fearing they will see years of training, long hours
son,” Zancan says. “It’s such of often underpaid labor, and
a commitment to publish a publishing as a way to jump-start a writing a genuine interest in the busi-
novel that I don’t think you ness of publishing books.
can do it for any other reason career rather than as a career in its own “Obv iously you learn a
than because you feel you can tremendous amount about
publish that novel well, re- right. Writers who look at jobs in publishing the business,” Crosley says.
gardless of who the author is.” “There are the authors you
And, in some cases, literary this way, according to those who have worked meet and the executives to
success can create problems whom you report. It would
for people working in publish- in the industry, are making a mistake. be disingenuous of me to
ing. Crosley remembers call- suggest that I got nothing
ing newspaper editors to talk from my career in publishing.
up one of her authors at Vintage only worked for them or how much I wanted But I wouldn’t necessarily say, ‘Hey, go
to be asked when she herself would be them to succeed—but I can see how it’s work at a really good publishing house
releasing her next book. “I know we can not a great look.” for nine years on the off chance you
all hear the microscopic violin playing Then, too, some senior editors and might publish a zeitgeisty collection of
when I say that, but it is a problem,” she agents resist hiring aspiring writers, essays.’ That doesn’t seem like a good
says. “It’s a small problem for me but fearing they will see publishing as a way financial plan.”

NURTURE YOUR “The MFA taught me so much to help me to

improve my own craft, to refine my voice.”
WORDS. NURTURE AXIE OH ’17, Author of Rebel Seoul

YOUR WRITING.

Are you ready to commit to your craft?

Immerse yourself in a community of writers
and specialize in one of six different genres
at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.

LOW-RESIDENCY | MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING

Fiction | Graphic Novels & Comics | Nonfiction
Poetry | Writing for Stage & Screen
Writing for Young People

EXPLORE LESLEY.EDU/POETS

75 POETS & WRITERS

 ADVERTISEMENT
New T i t l e s
The Donner Party
By George Keithley
George Braziller, Inc.
“The Donner Party is one of the three or four finest book-length
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To Be To Is To Was
By Stephen C. Bird
Sunnie Deelite and Isabella Gloucester forge their creative
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I Should Have Been Music
By Babette Becker
Page Publishing
My memoir covers four years in the 1950s I spent in four mental
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The First Village
By Ian M. Evans
Pegasus/Vanguard Press
Wales AD 383 is the most remote province of Roman-occupied
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In the Next Life
By Joan Baranow
Poetic Matrix Press
“The lilt and love, the trust and thrust, the pain and gain of these
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Ostriker.
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Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness & Connection
Edited by James Crews with a preface by Ted Kooser
Green Writers Press
This anthology features poems by Ross Gay, Naomi Shihab
Nye, and other poets creating what Dr. Martin Luther King
called the “beloved community,” a place where we see each
other as neighbors. Healing the Divide urges us, at this fraught
political time, to move past the negativity, and to embrace the
ordinary moments of kindness and connection that fill our days.
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Amanda Goes to Las Vegas
By Nancy Dick
A love story about Amanda, a young woman who leaves the
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at many Barnes & Noble Bookstores.
www.worksbynancydick.com
Diving into the Mystery: Studies in the Creative Process
Edited by Sue Booth-Forbes
Anam Cara Publishing
Launched by Billy Collins, this anthology of 54 personal essays
by a wide variety of creators is meant to inspire others to discover
their own creative processes. The book, priced at €12 (plus post-
age), is a fundraiser for Pieta House, an organisation that works to
support vulnerable people struggling with issues such as self-harm
and the threat of suicide. All proceeds go to Pieta House.
www.anamcararetreat.com/diving-into-the-mystery
Windthrow & Salvage
By Randall R. Freisinger
“Windthrow & Salvage attends to many kinds of damage & repair,
always with resilience and some stunning moments of reflective
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of good stories…[A] book you’ll be glad to own”—Charles
Harper Webb. “Freisinger’s engaging voice focuses on aging and
loss, on our place in the universal entropy…always examined
with insight and empathy.”—William Trowbridge.
www.kelsaybooks.com
Sacred Groves: Or, How a Cemetery Saved My Soul
By Kathleen Davies
Bedazzled Ink Publishing
Amidst intense pressure to prove herself in academia, Kathleen
Davies finds relief in the beautiful local cemetery. Once she
is denied tenure, cemeteries become an obsession, and her
cemetery photoshoots evolve into a spiritual quest that leads to
a surprising self-discovery. “With elegant prose, Davies crafts a
beautiful memoir about diving into pain and coming out whole.”
—Marcy Dermansky.
www.kathleendaviesauthors.com
Before
By Robert Bensen
Five Oaks Press
“Before brings into focus pivotal moments when life alters course,
and what came ‘before’ passes into new ways of seeing and speak-
ing.”—George Hovis. “The language is all ruckus and grace and
humanity.”—Carol Frost. “A tuned, well-tempered distemper
springs from these poems.”—Ishion Hutchinson. “Bensen opens
the register wide, writing with honesty, insight, and a superb
ear.”—Sven Birkerts. www.amazon.com
The Fat Girls Club
By Lila Johnson
Amazon
Nicki Cole, Angela Thomas and Sissy Bakersfield are best
friends with a weight problem. When Sissy proposes the idea
that they drop the extra baggage in order to find the man of
their dreams, Angela and Nicki think their friend has lost her
mind. Eventually the trio embark on a diet and exercise program
only to find that buried secrets begin to surface and truths need
to be faced.
www.writerontheroadway.com
Mercy
By Judith Montgomery
Wolf Ridge Press
“With an artist’s eye for detail, Judith Montgomery shows a
reluctant reverence for the patterns and strange beauty of the
machines, scans, and chemistry of modern medicine. In language
both matter-of-fact and mythical, Mercy is more than a story of
sacrifice and even devotion; it’s a reminder that a loved one’s
illness is a journey taken by two people.”—Amy Miller.
www.wolfridgepress.com
The Haircut Who Would Be King
By Robert Trebor
Palindrome Press
A tonic for Trump Toxicity, and the book that the White
House and the Kremlin REALLY don’t want you to read.
“A hilarious rendering of the contemporary political scene.”—
Kirkus Reviews. “This parody sheds light and humor in the midst
of all the dark elements of today’s world.”—The San Francisco
Book Review.
www.amazon.com
Ghost Riders of Cumberland Gap
By Ron Chandler
Publisher
Colter, a teenage boy with cancer, becomes an action-adventure
hero in this novel about a native American Indian tribe known
as the Monacans, Clan of the Black Bear. After crossing through
a time portal to colonial America, he shares many adventures
with them including hunting, fishing, horseback riding, making
crafts, exploring the wilderness, and protecting the land from
marauding settlers.
www.amazon.com
Where William Walked: Poems about Philadelphia and its
People of Color
By Vernita Hall
Aquarius Press/Willow Books/AUXmedia
“Acute intelligence, historical imagination, formal mastery, and
an unerring ethical compass distinguish these prize-winning
poems…In these poems of ancestral reclamation, Hall gives
voice and vivid presence to individuals whose memorable lives
comprise the Philadelphia story many of us have been waiting
to read.”—Eleanor Wilner. www.vernitahall.com
Set the Page on Fire: Secrets of Successful Writers
By Steve O’Keefe
New World Library
What writer doesn’t get stuck? Publishing veteran O’Keefe’s
often unconventional approach to the craft will get readers writ-
ing and accessing their own unique, personal voice. With exer-
cises for getting unstuck in plot, dialog, and description; editing
tips and tools for polishing, Set the Page on Fire is the book novice
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www.newworldlibrary.com
Through It All, I’m Going to Make It
By Patrice D. Wilkerson
A young woman’s life turns upside down when her father, who
was her best friend, suddenly dies. Throughout her pain, she
decides to turn her tragedy into triumph by writing a collection
of poems in memory of her father. Her faith in God gave her the
strength to survive such a challenging time in her life. This col-
lection is my poetry journey from pain to purpose for Christians
who can identify with the loss of a loved one.
www.patricewilkerson.com
All In
By L.K. Simonds
Morgan James Fiction
Cami’s boyfriend loves her despite her flaws. He wants to marry
her, buy a house on Long Island, and raise a family—a life that’s
a million miles from Cami’s idea of happiness. Her therapist sug-
gests compromise and trust, but Cami breaks off the relationship.
She begins a quest for happiness, not knowing a nasty surprise
waits around the corner.
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Continuous
By Shaheen Asbagh
AuthorHouse
Continuous County is a remote place; this timid landscape of
separation and rebellion does not permit sensing the pains and
sufferings of others. An isolation that forgives without a cause,
and yet forgets—without feeling the pulse of such reality—the
human rights to equality and justice. Asbagh narrates these lives in
a lingo which places his book along the greatest of our literature.
www.amazon.com
 ADVERTISEMENT
Irresistible
By Lynne Burnett
Finishing Line Press
Lynne Burnett takes us deep into the world of what is, what
isn’t and what might have been, of accidents and unplanned
incidents “where we fall without falling,” and death rings “a
bell that won’t stop singing of loss.” Love is coupled with death
here, and life is “an unfinished dream.”—Robert Okaji, author
of From Every Moment a Second.
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For a Long Time, Afraid of the Night
By Yasmine Ghata, translated by Marjolijn de Jager
Schaffner Press, Inc.
For a Long Time, Afraid of the Night by acclaimed French novel-
ist Yasmine Ghata (Night of the Calligraphers) tells the inspira-
tional story within a story of a young Rwandan refugee, his past
trauma fleeing the genocide of 1994, and his subsequent healing
brought about several years later through his connection with
a writing teacher who encourages him to dictate his experi-
ences to her.
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The Practicing Poet: Writing Beyond the Basics
Edited by Diane Lockward
Terrapin Books
Includes 30 brief craft essays, 30 model poems and prompts, 10
bonus prompts, and 10 Top Tips lists, each from an accomplished
poet. Pushes poets beyond the basics and encourages the contin-
ued reading, learning, and writing of poetry. Suitable as a textbook
or at-home tutorial. Includes the work of 113 contemporary poets
such as Patricia Smith, George Bilgere, and Dorianne Laux.
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Meteor
By C.M. Mayo
Gival Press
“The narrative poems of Meteor are both funny and thoughtful,
turning ordinary situations on their heads and capturing strange,
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the psyche with a dazzling presence and otherworldly light.”
—Linwood D. Rumney.
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Book of the Dactyl: Third Journal in Verse, Including Poem-
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By Martin Bidney
Dialogue Poetry Press
The Fourteenth of September
By Rita Dragonette
She Writes Press
In 1969, as mounting tensions over the Vietnam War are divid-
ing America, a young woman in college on an Army scholar-
ship risks future and family to secretly join the campus anti-war
movement and is ultimately forced to make a life-altering choice
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KANNJAWOU
By Lyonel Trouillot, translated by Gretchen Schmid
Schaffner Press, Inc.
Kannjawou (pronounced Kann-yeh-woo) is the Haitian
expression for a final celebration, a last hurrah. Acclaimed
author Lyonel Trouillot’s novel is a love note to Haiti in the
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The Shepherd of Lost Children
By Ronald W. Pies
Kindle Direct Publishing
Adam and Rebecca Levtov have experienced the most painful
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Men Touching
By Henry Alley
Chelsea Station Editions
In a poignant portrait of gay marriage before its time, Robb, a
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 GR A N T S & AWA R DS

POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES state, national, and international prizes in poetry, fiction, and creative
nonfiction. We list only prizes of $1,000 or more, prizes of less than $1,000 that charge no entry fee, and prestigious nonmonetary
awards. Applications and submissions for the following prizes are due shortly. Before submitting a manuscript, first contact the sponsoring
organization for complete guidelines. When requesting information by mail, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE). See
Submission Calendar for deadlines arranged by date and the Anatomy of Awards for a closer look at the numbers behind Grants
& Awards. For announcements of recently awarded prizes, see Recent Winners.

Deadlines
Aesthetica
CREATIVE WRITING AWARD
Two prizes of £1,000 (approximately
$1,300) each and publication in the Aes-
thetica Creative Writing Annual are given
annually for a poem and a short story.
The winner in poetry also receives a
membership to the Poetry Society in
London, and the winner in short fiction
receives a consultation with the literary
agency Redhammer Management. Both
winners receive a subscription to Granta
and a selection of books from Bloodaxe
Books and Vintage Books. Katy Guest,
Oz Hardwick, Liz Jones, Teresa Palmi-
ero, Martine Pierquin, and Steve Toase
will judge. Submit a poem of up to 40
lines with a £12 (approximately $16)
entry fee or a short story of up to 2,000
words with an £18 (approximately $23)
entry fee by August 31. All entries are
considered for publication. Visit the
website for complete guidelines.
Aesthetica, Creative Writing Award,
P.O. Box 371, York, YO23 1WL, England.
writing@aestheticamagazine.com
www.aestheticamagazine.com/creative-writing
-award
Aspen Words
LITERARY PRIZE
A prize of $35,000 is given annually
for a book of fiction published in the
current year that “illuminates a vital
contemporary issue and demonstrates
the transformative power of literature
on thought and culture.” The winner
also receives an all-expenses-paid trip to
attend the 2020 Aspen Summer Words
Literary Festival in Aspen, Colorado,
as a featured speaker and the Aspen
Words annual benefit dinner as a guest
of honor. Novels, story collections,
and translations of books of fiction
published in the United States in 2019
are eligible. Publishers may submit the
required entry form with a $45 entry
fee, along with five copies of a book (or
bound galleys), by August 1. There is
no entry fee for presses with annual net
sales that are less than $4 million. Visit
the website for the required entry form
and complete guidelines.
Aspen Words, Literary Prize, 110 East
Hallam Street, Suite 116, Aspen, CO
81611. (970) 925-3122, ext. 5. Ellie Scott,
Contact.
literary.prize@aspeninstitute.org
www.aspenwords.org/programs/literary-prize
Baton Rouge Area Foundation
ERNEST J. GAINES AWARD FOR LITERARY
EXCELLENCE
A prize of $10,000 is given annually to
an emerging African American writer
for a book of fiction published in the
current year. The winner also receives
travel and lodging expenses to attend
an awards ceremony and participate in
educational outreach events in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, in January 2020.
Anthony Grooms, Edward P. Jones,
Elizabeth Nunez, Francine Prose, and
Patricia Towers will judge. Submit eight
copies of a short story collection or a
novel (or bound galleys) published in
2019 by August 15. There is no entry
fee. Visit the website for the required
entry form and complete guidelines.
Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Ernest J.
Gaines Award for Literary Excellence,
100 North Street, Suite 900, Baton
Rouge, LA 70802. (225) 387-6216. Lois
Smyth, Donor Services Officer.
gainesaward@braf.org
www.ernestjgainesaward.org
Black Lawrence Press
ST. LAWRENCE BOOK AWARD
A prize of $1,000 and publication by
Black Lawrence Press is given annually
for a debut collection of poems or short
stories. The editors will judge. Using
the online submission system, submit a
poetry manuscript of 45 to 95 pages or
a fiction manuscript of 120 to 280 pages
with a $25 entry fee by August 31. Visit
the website for complete guidelines.
Black Lawrence Press, St. Lawrence Book
Award, 279 Claremont Avenue, Mount
Vernon, NY 10552.
www.blacklawrence.com/submissions-and
-contests/the-st-lawrence-book-award
Black Warrior Review
WRITING CONTESTS
Three prizes of $1,500 each and publi-
cation in Black Warrior Review are given
annually for a poem, a short story, and
an essay. Tommy Pico will judge in
poetry, Rivers Solomon will judge in
fiction, and Selah Saterstrom will judge
in nonfiction. Using the online submis-
sion system, submit up to three poems
of any length or a story or essay of up to
7,000 words with a $20 entry fee, which
includes a subscription to Black Warrior
Review, by September 1. All entries are
considered for publication. Visit the
website for complete guidelines.
Black Warrior Review, Writing Contests,
University of Alabama, Office of Student
Media, P.O. Box 870170, Tuscaloosa, AL
35487. blackwarriorreview@gmail.com
www.bwr.ua.edu
Comstock Review
MURIEL CRAFT BAILEY AWARD
A prize of $1,000 and publication in
Comstock Review is given annually for a
single poem. David Kirby will judge.
Using the online submission system,
submit up to five poems of no more
than 40 lines each with a $27.50 entry
fee (or $5 per poem via postal mail) by
July 15. All entries are considered for
publication. Visit the website for com-
plete guidelines. (S EE R EC EN T W I NNER S .)

79 POETS & WRITERS


Comstock Review, Muriel Craft Bailey
Award, 4956 Saint John Drive, Syracuse,
NY 13215.
Deadlines
www.comstockreview.org
Delaware Division of the Arts
INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWSHIPS
Established Professional Fellowships
of $6,000 each and Emerging Artist
Fellowships of $3,000 each are given
annually to Delaware poets, fiction
writers, and creative nonfiction writers
who have lived in Delaware for at least
one year prior to application and who
are not enrolled in a degree-granting
program. Using the online submission
system, submit an artist’s statement, a
résumé, and 15 to 20 pages of poetry or
prose by August 1. There is no entry fee.
Visit the website for complete
guidelines.
Delaware Division of the Arts, Individual
Artist Fellowships, 820 North French
Street, Wilmington, DE 19801. Roxanne
Stanulis, Coordinator.
roxanne.stanulis@delaware.gov
arts.delaware.gov/grants-for-artists
Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales
POETRY PRIZE
A prize of $500, publication by Broadkill
River Press, ten author copies, and two
cases of Dogfish Head craft beer are
given annually for a poetry collection
written by a poet living in Delaware,
Maryland, New Jersey, New York,
North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
Washington, D.C., or West Virginia.
The winner is expected to attend a read-
ing and award ceremony at the Dogfish
Inn in Lewes, Delaware, on December
14. Lodging is provided, but travel
expenses are not included. Joseph Millar
will judge. Submit a manuscript of 48
to 78 pages by August 15. There is no
entry fee. Visit the website for complete
guidelines. ( S E E R E CE N T WI NNER S .)
Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales, Poetry
Prize, c/o Broadkill River Press, P.O. Box
63, Milton, DE 19968. Linda Blaskey,
Contest Coordinator.
dogfishheadpoetryprize@earthlink.net
www.broadkillriverpress.com
Dogwood
LITERARY PRIZES
Three prizes of $1,000 each and pub-
lication in Dogwood are given annually
for a poem, a short story, and an essay.
Submit up to three poems totaling no
more than 10 pages or up to 22 pages of
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
prose with a $10 entry fee by Septem-
ber 5. Visit the website for complete
guidelines. ( SE E RE CEN T WIN N ERS . )
Dogwood, Literary Prizes, Fairfield
University, English Department, 1073
North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT 06824.
(203) 254-4000, ext. 2565. Carol Ann
Davis, Editor. cdavis13@fairfield.edu
www.dogwoodliterary.com
Emrys Press
POETRY CHAPBOOK CONTEST
A prize of $1,000 and publication by
Emrys Press is given annually for a
poetry chapbook. The winner will also
receive a weeklong residency at the
Rensing Center near Greenville, South
Carolina. Joseph Millar will judge.
Using the online submission system,
submit a manuscript of 24 to 28 pages
with a $25 entry fee by July 30. All
entries are considered for publication.
Visit the website for complete
guidelines.
Emrys Press, Poetry Chapbook Contest,
P.O. Box 8813, Greenville, SC 29604.
emrys.info@gmail.com
www.emrys.org/emrys-press
Ex Ophidia Press
POETRY BOOK CONTEST
A prize of $1,000, publication by Ex
Ophidia Press, and 15 author copies is
given annually for a poetry collection.
Richard-Gabriel Rummonds will judge.
Submit a manuscript of 64 to 84 pages
with a $25 entry fee by August 31. Visit
the website for complete guidelines.
(SE E R EC EN T WIN N ER S. )
Ex Ophidia Press, Poetry Book Contest,
220 Parfitt Way SW, Apt 111, Bainbridge
Island, WA 98110. (360) 385-9966.
Richard-Gabriel Rummonds, Publisher.
exophidiapress.org
F(r)iction
SHORT STORY CONTEST
A prize of $1,000 is given three times a
year for a short story. Using the online
submission system, submit a story of
1,000 to 7,500 words with a $15 entry
fee by July 31. The winning story and
all entries are considered for publica-
tion. Visit the website for complete
guidelines.
F(r)iction, Short Story Contest, 13999
County Road 102, Elbert, CO 80106.
www.tetheredbyletters.com/submissions/contest
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 80
Gemini Magazine
FLASH FICTION CONTEST
A prize of $1,000 and publication in
Gemini Magazine is given annually for a
short short story. The editors will judge.
Submit a story of up to 1,000 words with
a $6 entry fee by August 31. Visit the
website for complete guidelines.
Gemini Magazine, Flash Fiction Contest,
P.O. Box 1485, Onset, MA 02558.
(339) 309-9757. David Bright, Editor.
editor@gemini-magazine.com
www.gemini-magazine.com
Gival Press
SHORT STORY AWARD
A prize of $1,000 and publication on the
Gival Press website is given annually for
a short story. Submit a story of 5,000
to 15,000 words with a $25 entry fee by
August 8. Visit the website for complete
guidelines.
Gival Press, Short Story Award,
P.O. Box 3812, Arlington, VA 22203.
(703) 351-0079. Robert Giron, Editor.
givalpress@yahoo.com
www.givalpress.com
Grayson Books
POETRY PRIZE
A prize of $1,000 and publication by
Grayson Books is given annually for a
poetry collection. Robert Cording will
judge. Submit a manuscript of 50 to 80
pages with a $25 entry fee by August
15. Visit the website for complete
guidelines.
Grayson Books, Poetry Prize, P.O. Box
270549, West Hartford, CT 06127.
(860) 523-1196. Ginny Connors, Publisher.
gconnors@graysonbooks.com
www.graysonbooks.com
Grid Books
OFF THE GRID POETRY PRIZE
A prize of $1,000 and publication
by Grid Books is given annually for
a poetry collection by a writer over
the age of 60. Jon Davis will judge.
Using the online submission system,
submit a manuscript of at least 50
pages with a $25 entry fee by August 31.
Self-published books are ineligible. Visit
the website for complete guidelines.
( SE E RE CEN T W IN NE R S.)
Grid Books, Off the Grid Poetry Prize,
118 Wilson Street, Beacon, NY 12508.
info@grid-books.org
www.grid-books.org/off-the-grid-press

Gulf Coast
BARTHELME PRIZE FOR SHORT PROSE
A prize of $1,000 and publication in
Gulf Coast is given annually for a work
of short prose. Submit a prose poem, a
piece of flash fiction, or a micro-essay of
up to 500 words with an $18 entry fee,
which includes a subscription to Gulf
Coast, by August 31. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
PRIZE IN TRANSLATION
A prize of $1,000 and publication in
Gulf Coast is given in alternating years
for a group of poems or a prose excerpt
translated from any language into Eng-
lish. The 2019 prize will be given for
prose. Submit up to 20 pages of prose
translated into English and a copy of
the original text with an $18 entry fee,
which includes a subscription to Gulf
Coast, by August 31. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
Gulf Coast, University of Houston,
English Department, Houston, TX 77204.
(713) 743-3223. Justin Jannise, Editor.
editorinchief@gulfcoastmag.org
www.gulfcoastmag.org





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Hidden River Arts
HAWK MOUNTAIN SHORT STORY
COLLECTION AWARD
A prize of $1,000 and publication by
Hidden River Press is given annually
for a story collection. Using the online
submission system, submit a manuscript
of any length with a $22 entry fee by
July 30. Visit the website for complete
guidelines. (SE E R ECE N T WIN N ER S . )
Hidden River Arts, Hawk Mountain Short
Story Collection Award, P.O. Box 63927,
Philadelphia, PA 19147.
hiddenriverarts@gmail.com
hiddenriverarts.wordpress.com
Howling Bird Press
BOOK CONTEST
A prize of $1,000 and publication by
Howling Bird Press will be given in
alternating years for a book of poetry,
fiction, or creative nonfiction. The 2019
prize will be awarded in nonfiction.
Using the online submission system,
submit an essay collection or a memoir
of 20,000 to 50,000 words with a $25
entry fee by July 31. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
(SE E R EC EN T WI N NE R S.)
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81 POETS & WRITERS
Howling Bird Press, Book Contest,
Augsburg University, 219 Memorial Hall,
2211 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
Deadlines
55454. James Cihlar, Publisher.
cihlar@augsburg.edu
augsburg.edu/mfa/howling-bird-press
Indiana Review
“1/2 K” PRIZE
A prize of $1,000 and publication in
Indiana Review is given annually for
a poem or a work of flash fiction or
creative nonfiction. Submit up to three
poems, stories, or essays of up to 500
words each with a $20 entry fee, which
includes a subscription to Indiana Review,
by August 15. All entries are considered
for publication. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
( SE E RE CE N T W IN NE RS .)
Indiana Review, “1/2 K” Prize, Indiana
University, English Department, Lindley
215, 150 South Woodlawn Avenue,
Bloomington, IN 47405.
inreview@indiana.edu
indianareview.org/prizes
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Journal of Experimental Fiction
KENNETH PATCHEN AWARD
A prize of $1,000 and publication by
Deadlines
Journal of Experimental Fiction/Depth
Charge Publishing is given annu-
ally for an innovative novel. Jason E.
Rolfe will judge. Submit a manuscript
of any length with a $25 entry fee by
July 31. Visit the website for complete
guidelines.
Journal of Experimental Fiction, Kenneth
Patchen Award, P.O. Box 6281, Aurora,
IL 60598. Eckhard Gerdes, Contact.
egerdes@experimentalfiction.com
www.experimentalfiction.com/news/kenneth
-patchen-award
Kore Press
POETRY PRIZE
A prize of $1,500, publication by
Kore Press, and 20 author cop-
ies is given annually for a poetry
collection by a woman, trans, or
gender-nonconforming poet. Erica
Hunt will judge. Using the online sub-
mission system, submit a manuscript of
48 to 100 pages with a $28 entry fee by
July 30. Some entry fee scholarships are
available. Visit the website for complete
guidelines.
Kore Press, Poetry Prize, 325 West 2nd
Street, Room 201, Tucson, AZ 85705.
(520) 327-2127.
korepress.org
Ledbury Poetry Festival
POETRY COMPETITION
A prize of £1,000 (approximately
$1,300); a course at Ty Newydd, the
National Writing Centre of Wales;
and publication on the Ledbury Poetry
Festival website is given annually for
a poem. The winner is also invited to
read at the Ledbury Poetry Festival in
Ledbury, England, in July 2020; travel
expenses are not included. Daljit Nagra
will judge. Submit a poem of up to 40
lines with a £5 entry fee (approximately
$7), and £3.50 (approximately $5) for
each additional poem, by July 18. Visit
the website for the required entry form
and complete guidelines.
(S E E R E C EN T WI N NE RS .)
Ledbury Poetry Festival, Poetry
Competition, Master’s House, Bye
Street, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8
1EA, England. Sandra Dudley, Finance
Manager. finance@poetry-festival.co.uk
www.poetry-festival.co.uk/ledbury-poetry
-competition
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Leeway Foundation
ART AND CHANGE GRANTS
Project grants of up to $2,500 each are
given twice yearly to women and trans-
sexual, transgender, genderqueer, or
otherwise gender-nonconforming poets,
fiction writers, and creative nonfiction
writers in the Delaware Valley region
to fund art for social change projects.
Writers living in Bucks, Camden,
Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or
Philadelphia counties who are 18 years
of age or older and who are not full-
time students in a degree-granting arts
program are eligible. Applicants must
identify a person, an organization, or a
business as a partner for their project.
Submit a project description and budget
with the required entry form by August
1. There is no entry fee. Visit the
website for the required entry form and
complete guidelines.
Leeway Foundation, Art and Change
Grants, Philadelphia Building, 1315
Walnut Street, Suite 832, Philadelphia, PA
19107. (215) 545-4078. Sara Zia Ebrahimi,
Program Director. info@leeway.org
www.leeway.org
Masters Review
SHORT STORY AWARD FOR NEW WRITERS
A prize of $3,000 and publication
in Masters Review is given twice yearly
for a short story by a writer who has
not published a novel (writers who have
published story collections are eligible).
The winning story will also be sent to
agents Victoria Cappello from the Bent
Agency, Sarah Fuentes from Fletcher &
Company, Andrea Morrison from Writ-
ers House, and Nat Sobel from Sobel
Weber Associates. Submit a short story
of up to 6,000 words with a $20 entry
fee by August 31. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
Masters Review, Short Story Award for
New Writers, 70 SW Century Drive, Suite
100442, Bend, OR 97702.
contact@mastersreview.com
mastersreview.com/short-story-award-for-new
-writers
Munster Literature Centre
SEÁN Ó FAOLÁIN SHORT STORY
COMPETITION
A prize of €2,000 (approximately $2,250)
and publication in Southword is given
annually for a short story. The winner
also receives a weeklong residency at
the Anam Cara Writer’s Retreat on the
Beara Peninsula in West Cork. Submit
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 82
a short story of up to 3,000 words with
a €18 (approximately $20) entry fee by
July 31. Visit the website for complete
guidelines.
Munster Literature Centre, Seán Ó
Faoláin Short Story Competition, Frank
O’Connor House, 84 Douglas Street,
Cork, Ireland.
www.munsterlit.ie
Narrative
SPRING STORY CONTEST
A prize of $2,500 and publication in
Narrative is given annually for a short
story, a short short story, an essay, or
an excerpt from a work of fiction or
creative nonfiction. A second-place prize
of $1,000 is also awarded. The editors
will judge. Using the online submission
system, submit a work of fiction or crea-
tive nonfiction of up to 15,000 words
with a $26 entry fee by July 31. Visit the
website for complete guidelines.
POETRY CONTEST
A prize of $1,500 and publication in
Narrative is given annually for a poem
or group of poems. The poetry editors
will judge. Using the online submission
system, submit up to five poems with
a $25 entry fee by July 14. All entries
are considered for publication. Visit the
website for complete guidelines.
Narrative, 2443 Fillmore Street, #214, San
Francisco, CA 94115. Tom Jenks, Editor.
www.narrativemagazine.com
New Millennium Writings
NEW MILLENNIUM AWARDS
Four prizes of $1,000 each and publica-
tion in New Millennium Writings and on
the journal’s website are given twice
yearly for a poem, a short story, a short
short story, and an essay that have not
appeared in a print publication with a
circulation over 5,000. Submit up to
three poems totaling no more than five
pages, a short short story of up to 1,000
words, or a story or essay of up to 7,499
words with a $20 entry fee by July 31.
All entries are considered for publica-
tion. Visit the website for complete
guidelines. ( S E E R EC E N T W I NN ER S. )
New Millennium Writings, New
Millennium Awards, 4021 Garden Drive,
Knoxville, TN 37918. Alexis Williams Carr,
Editor.
www.newmillenniumwritings.org

Omnidawn Publishing
OPEN BOOK PRIZE
A prize of $3,000, publication by
Omnidawn Publishing, and 100 author
copies is given annually for a poetry
collection. Rachel Zucker will judge.
Submit a manuscript of 40 to 120 pages
with a $27 entry fee by August 19. For
an additional $3, entrants will receive
a book of their choice from the Om-
nidawn catalogue. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
Omnidawn Publishing, Open Book Prize,
1632 Elm Avenue, Richmond, CA 94805.
(510) 237-5472. Rusty Morrison and Ken
Keegan, Coeditors.
www.omnidawn.com
PEN America
EMERGING VOICES FELLOWSHIPS
Five seven-month fellowships, which in-
clude a stipend of $1,000 each, are given
annually to emerging poets, fiction
writers, and creative nonfiction writers
who lack access to financial and creative
support. Each fellow receives profes-
sional mentorship with an established
writer, attends courses at the UCLA
Extension Writers’ Program, and takes
part in genre-specific master classes,
three public readings, gatherings with
writers and publishing professionals,
and other programming throughout the
fellowship period. Travel and lodging
are not provided. Writers who do not
have significant publication credits,
are not enrolled in an undergraduate
or graduate writing program, and do
not hold an undergraduate or graduate
writing degree are eligible. Submit up to
10 pages of poetry or 20 pages of prose,
a curriculum vitae, and two letters of
recommendation with a $10 entry fee by
August 1. Visit the website for complete
guidelines. ( SEE R ECE NT WI N NE R S. )
PEN America, Emerging Voices
Fellowships, 8444 Wilshire Boulevard,
Fourth Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90211.
afletcher@pen.org
www.pen.org/emerging-voices-fellowship
Press 53
AWARD FOR POETRY
A prize of $1,000, publication by Press
53, and 50 author copies is given annu-
ally for a poetry collection. Tom Lom-
bardo will judge. Submit a manuscript
of 60 to 120 pages with a $30 entry fee
by July 31. Visit the website for complete
guidelines.
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Press 53, Award for Poetry, 560 North
Trade Street, Suite 103, Winston-Salem,
NC 27101. (336) 770-5353. Kevin Morgan
Watson, Publisher. editor@press53.com
www.press53.com/award-for-poetry
Radar Poetry
CONISTON PRIZE
A prize of $1,000 and publication in
Radar Poetry is given annually for a
group of poems by a woman. Using the
online submission system, submit three
to six poems with a $15 entry fee by
September 1. All entries are considered
for publication. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
Radar Poetry, Coniston Prize, 19 Coniston
Court, Princeton, NJ 08540. Rachel Marie
Patterson and Dara-Lyn Shrager, Editors.
radarpoetry@gmail.com
radarpoetry.com
Red Hen Press
NOVELLA AWARD
A prize of $1,000 and publication by
Red Hen Press is given annually for a
novella. Doug Lawson will judge. Using
the online submission system, submit a
manuscript of 15,000 to 30,000 words
with a $25 entry fee by July 31. Visit the
website for complete guidelines.
QUILL PROSE AWARD
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Red
Hen Press is given annually for a short
story collection, a novel, or an essay
collection by a queer writer. Uzodinma
Iweala will judge. Submit a manuscript
of at least 150 pages with a $10 entry
fee by August 31. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
Red Hen Press, 1540 Lincoln Avenue,
Pasadena, CA 91103. (626) 356-4760.
editorial@redhen.org
www.redhen.org
Red Mountain Press
POETRY PRIZE
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Red
Mountain Press is given annually for a
poetry collection. Submit a manuscript
of 48 to 72 pages with a $30 entry fee by
September 15. All entries are considered
for publication. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
Red Mountain Press, Poetry Prize, 835
South Osprey Avenue, #314, Sarasota,
FL 34236. Devon Ross, Publisher.
redmtnpress@gmail.com
www.redmountainpress.us
83 POETS & WRITERS
Red Wheelbarrow
POETRY PRIZE
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Red
Deadlines
Wheelbarrow will be given annually for
a poem. The winner will also receive
20 copies of a letterpress broadside of
the winning poem. Marilyn Chin will
judge. Submit up to three poems of no
more than one page each with a $15
entry fee by August 15. All entries will
be considered for publication. Visit the
website for complete guidelines.
Red Wheelbarrow, Poetry Prize, De Anza
Community College, 21250 Stevens
Creek Boulevard, Cupertino, CA 95014.
weisnerken@deanza.edu
www.deanza.edu/english/creative-writing
/red-wheelbarrow.html
Seneca Review Books
DEBORAH TALL LYRIC ESSAY BOOK PRIZE
A prize of $2,000 and publication by
Seneca Review Books will be given
biennially for a collection of lyric essays.
Jenny Boully will judge. Cross-genre,
hybrid, and verse forms, as well as image
and text works, are also eligible. Submit
a manuscript of 48 to 120 pages with
a $27 entry fee by August 1. Visit the
website for complete guidelines.
Seneca Review Books, Deborah Tall Lyric
Essay Book Prize, Hobart and William
Smith Colleges, 300 Pulteney Street,
Geneva, NY 14446. (315) 781-3392.
www.hws.edu/senecareview/bookprize
Sewanee Review
POETRY AND FICTION CONTEST
Two prizes of $1,000 each and publica-
tion in Sewanee Review will be given an-
nually for a group of poems and a short
story. Carl Phillips will judge in poetry
and Roxane Gay will judge in fiction.
Using the online submission system,
submit up to three poems or a story of
up to 10,000 words with a $30 entry fee,
which includes a subscription to Sewanee
Review, by July 31. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
( SE E RE CE N T W IN NE RS .)
Sewanee Review, Poetry and Fiction
Contest, 735 University Avenue,
Sewanee, TN 37383. (931) 589-1185.
sewaneereview@sewanee.edu
thesewaneereview.com/contest

Sixfold
SHORT STORY AND POETRY AWARDS
Two prizes of $1,000 each and publica-
Deadlines
tion in Sixfold are given quarterly for a
group of poems and a short story. Using
the online submission system, submit up
to five poems totaling no more than 10
pages or a story of up to 20 pages with a
$5 entry fee by July 24. Visit the website
for complete guidelines.
Sixfold, Short Story and Poetry Awards,
10 Concord Ridge Road, Newtown, CT
06470. (203) 491-0242. Garrett Doherty,
Publisher. sixfold@sixfold.org
www.sixfold.org
Stone Canoe
LITERARY AWARDS
Three prizes of $500 each and publica-
tion in Stone Canoe are given annually
for works of poetry, fiction, and creative
nonfiction by writers who are current
or past residents of upstate New York.
Writers who have not published a book
with a nationally distributed press are
eligible. The editors will judge. Submit
up to five poems of any length by July 8
or a short story or essay of up to 8,500
words by July 22. There is no entry
fee. Visit the website for complete
guidelines. ( S E E R E CE N T WI NNER S )
Stone Canoe, Literary Awards, c/o
YMCA Downtown Writers Center, 340
Montgomery Street, Syracuse, NY
13202. Phil Memmer, Executive Director.
stonecanoe@syracuseymca.org
www.syracuse.ymca.org/stone-canoe.html
The Story Prize
A prize of $20,000 is given annually for
a short story collection written in Eng-
lish and published in the United States
in the previous year. Two runners-up
receive $5,000 each. The $1,000 Story
Prize Spotlight Award is also given for
an additional short story collection “of
exceptional merit.” Larry Dark and Julie
Lindsey will select the three finalists
and Spotlight Award winner; three
independent judges will choose the
Story Prize winner. Publishers, authors,
or agents may submit two copies of a
book published between January 1, 2019,
and June 30, 2019, along with an entry
form and a $75 entry fee by July 15. The
deadline for books published during the
second half of the year is November 15.
Visit the website for the required entry
form and complete guidelines.
( S EE REC EN T WI NNE RS .)
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
The Story Prize, 41 Watchung Plaza, Utica College
#384, Montclair, NJ 07042. Larry Dark, EUGENE PAUL NASSAR POETRY PRIZE
Director. info@thestoryprize.org
A prize of $2,000 is given annually for
www.thestoryprize.org
a poetry collection published in the
TulipTree Publishing previous year by a resident of upstate
STORIES THAT NEED TO BE TOLD
New York. The winner will also give
CONTEST
A prize of $1,000 is given annually a reading and teach a master class at
for a poem, a short story, or an essay Utica College in April 2020. Submit
that “tells a story.” The winner will two copies of a book of at least 48 pages
also receive a two-year subscription to published between July 1, 2018, and
Duotrope and publication in the contest
June 30, 2019, and a curriculum vitae by
anthology, Stories That Need to Be Told.
August 31. There is no entry fee. Visit
Submit a poem, a story, or an essay of
up to 10,000 words with a $20 entry the website for the required entry form
fee by August 15. Visit the website for and complete guidelines.
complete guidelines.
Utica College, Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry
TulipTree Publishing, Stories That Need
to Be Told Contest, P.O. Box 723, Canon Prize, School of Arts and Sciences, 1600
City, CO 81215. Burrstone Road, Utica, NY 13502. Gary
contests@tuliptreepub.com Leising, Contact.
www.tuliptreepub.com/contest.html www.utica.edu/nassarprize
University of New Orleans
The Word Works
Press
PUBLISHING LAB PRIZE TENTH GATE PRIZE
A prize of $10,000 and publication by A prize of $1,000 and publication by
University of New Orleans Press is the Word Works is given annually for a
given annually for a short story col-
poetry collection by a poet who has pub-
lection or a novel. Using the online
submission system, submit a manuscript lished at least two full-length books of
of any length with a $28 entry fee by poetry. Nancy White will judge. Using
August 31. Visit the website for com- the online submission system, submit a
plete guidelines.
manuscript of 48 to 80 pages with a $25
University of New Orleans Press, entry fee by July 15. Visit the website for
Publishing Lab Prize, 2000 Lakeshore
complete guidelines.
Drive, Liberal Arts Building 138, New
Orleans, LA 70148. (504) 280-7457. The Word Works, Tenth Gate Prize, P.O.
George K. Darby, Managing Editor. Box 42164, Washington, D.C. 20015.
unopress@uno.edu
www.wordworksbooks.org
unopress.org/lab
University of Notre Dame
SULLIVAN PRIZE IN SHORT FICTION
A prize of $1,000 and publication by the
University of Notre Dame Press is given
biennially for a story collection. Writers
who have published at least one story
collection are eligible. Submit a manu-
script of 100 to 500 pages, a curriculum
vitae, and a $15 entry fee, which
includes a subscription to Notre Dame
Review, by July 31. Visit the website for
complete guidelines.
University of Notre Dame, Sullivan Prize PW.ORG/GRANTS
in Short Fiction, English Department, Visit our Grants & Awards database
233 Decio Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556. to browse a year’s worth of contests and
creativewriting@nd.edu sort by entry fee, deadline, or genre,
www.english.nd.edu/creative-writing and check the Submission Calendar.
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 84
 GR A N T S & AWA R DS

Submission Calendar

31

Deadlines
July 8
STONE CANOE
Poetry Award
8 NEW MILLENNIUM WRITINGS
New Millennium Awards
PRESS 53
August 31
AESTHETICA
Creative Writing Award
Award for Poetry

July 14
NARRATIVE
14 RED HEN PRESS
Novella Award
SEWANEE REVIEW
BLACK LAWRENCE PRESS
St. Lawrence Book Award
EX OPHIDIA PRESS
Poetry Book Contest
Poetry Contest

15
Poetry and Fiction Contest GEMINI MAGAZINE
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Flash Fiction Contest
July 15 Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction GRID BOOKS
COMSTOCK REVIEW Off the Grid Poetry Prize
Muriel Craft Bailey Award
THE STORY PRIZE
THE WORD WORKS
Tenth Gate Prize
August 1
ASPEN WORDS
Literary Prize
DELAWARE DIVISION OF THE ARTS
1 GULF COAST
Barthelme Prize for Short Prose
Prize in Translation
MASTERS REVIEW
Short Story Award for New Writers
July 18
LEDBURY POETRY FESTIVAL
Poetry Competition
18 Individual Artist Fellowships
LEEWAY FOUNDATION
Art and Change Grants
PEN AMERICA
RED HEN PRESS
Quill Prose Award
UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS PRESS
Publishing Lab Prize

22
Emerging Voices Fellowships
UTICA COLLEGE
July 22 SENECA REVIEW BOOKS
Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize
STONE CANOE

1
Book Prize
Fiction and Nonfiction Awards
September 1
July 24
SIXFOLD
24 August 8
GIVAL PRESS
Short Story Award
8 BLACK WARRIOR REVIEW
Writing Contests
RADAR POETRY

15
Short Story and Poetry Awards Coniston Prize

July 30
EMRYS PRESS
30 August 15
BATON ROUGE AREA
FOUNDATION
September 5
DOGWOOD
5
Poetry Chapbook Contest Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Literary Prizes
HIDDEN RIVER ARTS Excellence
Hawk Mountain Short Story Collection DOGFISH HEAD CRAFT BREWED ALES
Award Poetry Prize September 15

15
KORE PRESS RED MOUNTAIN PRESS
GRAYSON BOOKS
Poetry Prize Poetry Prize Poetry Prize
INDIANA REVIEW
July 31 “1/2 K” Prize
Anatomy of Awards
F(R)ICTION RED WHEELBARROW
Short Story Contest Poetry Prize This issue’s Deadlines section
HOWLING BIRD PRESS TULIPTREE PUBLISHING
Book Contest Stories That Need to Be Told Contest lists a total of 61 contests,
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL FICTION sponsored by 41 organizations,
Kenneth Patchen Award August 19 offering an estimated
MUNSTER LITERATURE CENTRE OMNIDAWN PUBLISHING
Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Open Book Prize $189,650 in prize money.
Competition
Entry fees are required for
NARRATIVE
52 contests (85 percent).
Spring Story Contest

31 85
19
POETS & WRITERS
The median entry fee is $20.

Recent Winners
Academy of American Poets
WALT WHITMAN AWARD
Leah Naomi Green of Greensboro,
North Carolina, won the 2019 Walt
Whitman Award for The More
Extravagant Feast. She received $5,000; a
six-week all-expenses-paid residency at
the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria,
Italy; and publication of her book by
Graywolf Press in April 2020. Her work
will also be featured on the Academy of
American Poets website and in American
Poets, and copies of her book will be
distributed to thousands of Academy
members. Li-Young Lee judged. The
annual award is given to a poet who has
not published a poetry collection in a
standard edition. The next deadline is
November 1.
Academy of American Poets, Walt
Whitman Award, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite
901, New York, NY 10038. (212) 274-0343,
ext. 13. awards@poets.org
www.poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes
/walt-whitman-award
American Academy of Arts and
Letters
LITERATURE AWARDS
Thirteen writers received awards in
literature from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters. Fiction writer Lydia
Millet of Tucson received the $25,000
Award of Merit, given in alternating
years to a writer or artist; this year
the award was given to a short story
writer. Fiction writer Sally Rooney of
Dublin, Ireland, received the $20,000
E. M. Forster Award, given annu-
ally to a young writer from the United
Kingdom or Ireland for a stay in the
United States; Paul Muldoon and Colm
Tóibín judged. Poet D. A. Powell of San
Francisco received the $20,000 John
Updike Award, given biennially to a
writer whose work has “demonstrated
consistent excellence.” Poet and prose
martin: richard kelly
writer John Keene of Newark, New
Jersey, received the $20,000 Harold D.
Vursell Memorial Award, given annually
to a writer whose work “merits recogni-
tion for the quality of its prose style.”
Poet Aracelis Girmay of New York City
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
won the $10,000 Addison M. Metcalf
Award, given biennially to a “young
writer of great promise.” Tommy Orange
of Angels Camp, California, won the
$10,000 Rosenthal Family Founda-
tion Award for his novel, There There
(Knopf). The annual award is given to
a “young writer of considerable literary
talent” who has published a book dur-
ing the previous year. Arts and Letters
Awards in Literature were given to poets
Marilyn Chin of San Diego and Eileen
Myles of Marfa, Texas, and New York
City; fiction writer John McManus of
Norfolk, Virginia; fiction and nonfiction
writer Siri Hustvedt of New York City;
nonfiction writer Chris Hedges of
Princeton, New Jersey; and translator
and nonfiction writer Robert Alter of
Berkeley, California. They each received LEAH NAOMI GREEN
$10,000. The annual awards are given to Academy of American Poets
poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, Walt Whitman Award
and translators to “honor exceptional
accomplishment” in literature. Jane DAWN LUNDY MARTIN
Delury of Baltimore received the $5,000 Claremont Graduate University
Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction for Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award
her novel, The Balcony (Little, Brown).
DIANA KHOI NGUYEN
The annual award honors a debut book
Claremont Graduate University
of fiction published in the previous
Kate Tufts Discovery Award
year. The awards are given by members
of the Academy; this year’s selection
committee members were Henri Cole,
John Guare, Amy Hempel, Jayne Anne
Phillips, and Joy Williams. There is no
application process.
American Academy of Arts and Letters,
633 West 155th Street, New York, NY
10032. (212) 368-5900.
www.artsandletters.org
American Poetry Review
HONICKMAN FIRST BOOK PRIZE
Taneum Bambrick of Ellensburg, Wash-
ington, won the 2019 APR/Honickman
First Book Prize for Vantage. She re-
ceived $3,000, and her collection will be
published in September by the American
Poetry Review with distribution by
Copper Canyon Press through Consor-
tium. Sharon Olds judged. The annual
award is given for a poetry collection
by a writer who has not yet published
a book of poems. The next deadline is
October 31.
87 POETS & WRITERS

American Poetry Review, Honickman First
Book Prize, 1906 Rittenhouse Square,
Philadelphia, PA 19103.
www.aprweb.org
Barnes & Noble
DISCOVER AWARDS
Paul Howarth of Norwich, England,
won the 2018 Discover Award in Fiction
for his novel, Only Killers and Thieves
(Harper). He received $30,000. Tommy
Orange of Angels Camp, California,
Recent Winners
won the $15,000 second-place prize
for his novel, There There (Knopf), and
Fatima Farheen Mirza of New York City
won the $7,500 third-place prize for her
novel, A Place for Us (SJP for Hogarth).
Paulette Jiles, Helen Simonson, and Jess
Walter judged. Kiese Laymon of Oxford,
Mississippi, won the $30,000 Discover
Award in Nonfiction for his memoir,
Heavy: An American Memoir (Scribner).
Shane Bauer of Oakland won the $15,000
second-place prize for his nonfiction
book, American Prison: A Reporter’s
Undercover Journey Into the Business of
Punishment (Penguin Press), and Tara
Westover of New York City won the
$7,500 third-place prize for her memoir,
Educated (Random House). Mira Jacob,
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and Beth Macy
judged. The annual awards are given for
works of fiction and nonfiction published
in the previous year and featured in
Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New
Writers program. As of this writing, the
next deadline has not been set.
Barnes & Noble, Discover Awards, 122
Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011.
(212) 633-4067. Miwa Messer, Director.
mmesser@bn.com
www.bn.com/discover
Center for Literary Publishing
COLORADO PRIZE FOR POETRY
Brandon Krieg of Kutztown, Pennsylva-
nia, won the 25th annual Colorado Prize
for Poetry for Magnifier. He received
$2,000, and his book will be published
in November by the Center for Literary
Publishing at Colorado State University.
Kazim Ali judged. The annual award is
given for a poetry collection. The next
deadline is January 14, 2020.
Center for Literary Publishing, Colorado
Prize for Poetry, Colorado State
University, 9105 Campus Delivery, Ft.
Collins, CO 80523. (970) 491-5449.
Stephanie G’Schwind, Director.
coloradoprize.colostate.edu
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Claremont Graduate University
TUFTS POETRY AWARDS
Dawn Lundy Martin of Pittsburgh won
the 27th annual Kingsley Tufts Poetry
Award for Good Stock Strange Blood
(Coffee House Press, 2017). Martin
received $100,000 and a weeklong
appointment as poet-in-residence at
Claremont Graduate University. The
annual award is given for a book of
poetry by a midcareer poet published in
the previous year. Diana Khoi Nguyen
of Denver won the 26th annual Kate
Tufts Discovery Award for Ghost Of
(Omnidawn Publishing, 2018). Nguyen
received $10,000. The annual award is
given for a first book of poetry published
in the previous year. The judges for both
awards were Timothy Donnelly, Cathy
Park Hong, Khadijah Queen, Luis J.
Rodriguez, and Sandy Solomon. The
next deadline is July 1.
Claremont Graduate University, Tufts
Poetry Awards, 160 East 10th Street,
Harper East B7, Claremont, CA 91711.
(909) 621-8974. tufts@cgu.edu
www.cgu.edu/tufts
Cleveland Foundation
ANISFIELD-WOLF BOOK AWARDS
Tracy K. Smith of Princeton, New Jersey,
won the 84th annual Anisfield-Wolf
Book Award in poetry for her collec-
tion Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press).
Tommy Orange of Angels Camp, Cali-
fornia, won the award in fiction for his
novel, There There (Knopf). Andrew Del-
banco of New York City won the award
in nonfiction for his book The War Before
the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle
for America’s Soul From the Revolution to
the Civil War (Penguin Press). Poet and
playwright Sonia Sanchez of Philadel-
phia won the Lifetime Achievement
Award. They each received $10,000.
Rita Dove, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Joyce
Carol Oates, Steven Pinker, and Simon
Schama judged. The annual awards are
given to honor books of poetry, fiction,
and creative nonfiction published in the
previous year that “confront racism and
examine diversity.” The next deadline is
December 31.
Cleveland Foundation, Anisfield-Wolf
Book Awards, 1422 Euclid Avenue, Suite
1300, Cleveland, OH 44115.
(216) 861-3810.
www.anisfield-wolf.org
J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 88
Codhill Press
POETRY AWARD
Robert Krut of Los Angeles won the
2018 Codhill Press Poetry Award for
The Now Dark Sky, Setting Us All on Fire.
He received $1,000, publication of his
book by Codhill Press, and 25 author
copies. The annual award is given for a
poetry collection. The next deadline is
December 30.
Codhill Press, Poetry Award, P.O. Box
280, Bloomington, NY 12411. Pauline
Uchmanowicz, Contest Coordinator.
www.codhill.com
Comstock Review
MURIEL CRAFT BAILEY AWARD
Rebekah Denison Hewitt of Verona,
Wisconsin, won the 2018 Muriel Craft
Bailey Award for her poem “Eve Speaks
From Outside the Belly of the Fish.” She
received $1,000 and publication in Com-
stock Review. Maggie Smith judged. The
annual award is given for a single poem.
( SE E DEA D LIN E S.)
Comstock Review, Muriel Craft Bailey
Award, 4956 Saint John Drive, Syracuse,
NY 13215.
www.comstockreview.org
Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales
POETRY PRIZE
Becky Gould Gibson of Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, won the 2018 Dogfish
Head Poetry Prize for Indelible. She
received $500, publication by Broadkill
River Press, ten author copies, and two
cases of Dogfish Head beer. She also re-
ceived lodging expenses to give a reading
at the Dogfish Inn in Lewes, Delaware.
Shara McCallum judged. The annual
award is given for a poetry collection
written by a poet living in Delaware,
Maryland, New Jersey, New York,
North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
Washington, D.C., or West Virginia.
( SE E DEA D LIN E S.)
Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales, Poetry
Prize, c/o Broadkill River Press, P.O. Box
63, Milton, DE 19968. Linda Blaskey,
Contest Coordinator.
dogfishheadpoetryprize@earthlink.net
www.broadkillriverpress.com
Dogwood
LITERARY PRIZES
Gillian Vik of Seattle won the 2019 Prize
in Poetry for her poem “The Cancer
Menagerie.” Annie Lampman of Moscow,
Idaho, won the Prize in Fiction for
her story “Whom the Lion Seeks.”
 GR A N T S & AWA R DS

Nikita Nelin of Seattle won the Prize in
Nonfiction for his essay “The Taste of
It.” They each received $1,000 and their
works were published in the 2019 issue of
Dogwood. Lia Purpura judged in poetry
and nonfiction, and Phil Klay judged in
fiction. The annual awards are given for
a poem, a short story, and an essay.
( S EE DE AD L IN ES.)
Dogwood, Literary Prizes, Fairfield
University, English Department, 1073
Ex Ophidia Press, Poetry Book Contest,
220 Parfitt Way SW, Apt 111, Bainbridge
Island, WA 98110. (360) 385-9966.
Richard-Gabriel Rummonds, Publisher.
exophidiapress.org
Fish Publishing
FLASH FICTION PRIZE
Louise Swingler of Skipton, England,
won the 2019 Flash Fiction Prize for
“Teavarran.” She received €1,000
(approximately $1,130) and publication in

North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT 06824.
(203) 254-4000, ext. 2565. Carol Ann
Davis, Editor. cdavis13@fairfield.edu
www.dogwoodliterary.com
Ex Ophidia Press
POETRY BOOK CONTEST
Wally Swist of Amherst, Massachusetts,
won the third annual Ex Ophidia Press
Poetry Book Prize for A Bird Who Seems
to Know Me. He received $1,000, and his
swist: elizabeth wilda
Recent Winners
the 2019 Fish Anthology. Pamela Painter
judged. The annual award is given for a
work of flash fiction. The next deadline
is February 28, 2020.
SHORT MEMOIR PRIZE
Bairbre Flood of Rosscarbery, Ireland,
won the 2019 Short Memoir Prize for
BECKY GOULD GIBSON
“Fejira* // *to cross.” She received €1,000
Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales
(approximately $1,130) and publication
Poetry Prize
in the 2019 Fish Anthology. Chrissie
Gittins judged. The annual award is GILLIAN VIK

book was published by Ex Ophidia Press given for an essay. The next deadline is Dogwood
in Spring 2019. Sharon Cumberland, January 31, 2020. Prize in Poetry
Gregory Richter, and Richard-Gabriel Fish Publishing, Durrus, Bantry, County
Rummonds judged. The annual award is Cork, Ireland. Clem Cairns, Editor. WALLY SWIST
given for a poetry collection. info@fishpublishing.com Ex Ophidia Press
Poetry Book Contest
( S E E D E A D L I N E S .) www.fishpublishing.com

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89 POETS & WRITERS


Friends of American Writers
LITERATURE AWARDS
Ling Ma of Chicago and Alice Hatcher
of Tucson won the 2018–2019 Friends
of American Writers Literature Awards.
Ma won for her novel, Severance (Farrar,
Straus and Giroux), and Hatcher won
for her novel, The Wonder That Was Ours
(Dzanc Books). Ma received $2,500 and
Hatcher received $1,500; both writers
were honored at a ceremony in Chicago
Recent Winners
in May. The annual awards are given for
books of prose published in the previous
year by writers with strong Midwest-
ern ties who have not published more
than three books. The next deadline is
December 10.
Friends of American Writers, Literature
Awards, 748 Western Avenue, Glen Ellyn,
IL 50137. Karen Pulver, Chair.
www.fawchicago.org
Great Lakes Colleges
Association
NEW WRITERS AWARDS
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo of Marys-
ville, California, won the 2019 New
Writers Award in poetry for his collec-
tion, Cenzontle (BOA Editions). Lesley
Nneka Arimah of Las Vegas, Nevada,
won in fiction for her story collection,
When a Man Falls From the Sky (River-
head Books). Dawn Davies of Sunrise,
Florida, won in creative nonfiction for
her memoir, Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir
in Pieces (Flatiron Books). The winners
each receive a travel stipend and an hon-
orarium of $500 per visit to several of
the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s
13 member colleges, where they will
give readings, meet with students, and
lead classes. David Baker, Joe Heithaus,
and Lynn Powell judged in poetry;
Danit Brown, Eric Freeze, and Jennifer
Hayward judged in fiction; and Matthew
Ferrence, Marin Heinritz, and Rhoda
Janzen judged in creative nonfiction.
The annual awards are given for first
books of poetry, fiction, and creative
nonfiction. The next deadline is June 25.
Great Lakes Colleges Association,
New Writers Awards, 535 West William
Street, Suite 301, Ann Arbor, MI 48103.
Gregory Wegner, Director of Program
Development. wegner@glca.org
www.glca.org/glcaprograms/new-writers-award
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Grid Books
OFF THE GRID POETRY PRIZE
Ioanna Carlsen of Tesuque, New Mexico,
won the 2019 Off the Grid Poetry Prize
for Breather. She received $1,000, and her
book will be published by Grid Books.
Jennifer Tseng judged. The annual
award is given for a poetry collection by
a poet over the age of 60.
(SE E D EA DL INE S.)
Grid Books, Off the Grid Poetry Prize,
118 Wilson Street, Beacon, NY 12508.
info@grid-books.org
www.grid-books.org/off-the-grid-press
Hidden River Arts
HAWK MOUNTAIN SHORT STORY
COLLECTION AWARD
Charles Wyatt of Nashville won the 2019
Hawk Mountain Short Story Collection
Award for Houses. He received $1,000,
and his book will be published by Hid-
den River Press. The editors judged.
The annual award is given for a story
collection. (SEE DE A DL INES .)
Hidden River Arts, Hawk Mountain Short
Story Collection Award, P.O. Box 63927,
Philadelphia, PA 19147.
hiddenriverarts@gmail.com
hiddenriverarts.wordpress.com
Howling Bird Press
BOOK CONTEST
Lisa Van Orman Hadley of Salt Lake City
won the 2019 Howling Bird Press Book
Contest for her novel, Irreversible Things.
She received $1,000, and her book will
be published by Howling Bird Press in
the fall. The annual award in given in
alternating years for a poetry collection,
book of fiction, and book of nonfiction.
The 2019 prize will be awarded in
nonfiction. (SEE D EA DL INES .)
Howling Bird Press, Book Contest,
Augsburg University, 219 Memorial Hall,
2211 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
55454. James Cihlar, Publisher.
cihlar@augsburg.edu
augsburg.edu/mfa/howling-bird-press
Indiana Review
“1/2 K” PRIZE
Brian Sneeden of Storrs, Connecticut,
won the 2017 “1/2 K” Prize for his prose
poem “Other Fountains.” He received
$1,000, and his poem was published in
Indiana Review. Bryan Borland and Seth
Pennington judged. The annual award is
given for a poem or a work of short prose
of up to 500 words. (SE E D EA DL INES .)
J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 90
Indiana Review, “1/2 K” Prize, Indiana
University, English Department, Lindley
215, 150 South Woodlawn Avenue,
Bloomington, IN 47405.
inreview@indiana.edu
indianareview.org/prizes
Jewish Book Council
BERRU NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD
FOR POETRY
Erika Meitner of Blacksburg, Virginia,
won the 2018 National Jewish Book
Award for Poetry for Holy Moly Carry
Me (BOA Editions, 2018). She received
$1,000 and promotion of the book
through the Jewish Book Council. The
annual award, which honors Ruth and
Bernie Weinflash, is given for a book of
poetry with Jewish themes. The next
deadline is October 5.
Jewish Book Council, Berru National
Jewish Book Award for Poetry, 520 8th
Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10018.
(212) 201-2920. Naomi Firestone-Teeter,
Executive Director.
njba@jewishbooks.org
www.jewishbookcouncil.org
John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation
WRITING FELLOWSHIPS
Twenty-four writers received 2019
Guggenheim Fellowships in crea-
tive writing. The fellows in poetry are
Cyrus Cassells of Austin, Texas; Thomas
Centolella and Dean Rader, both of San
Francisco; Camille T. Dungy of Fort
Collins, Colorado; Carmen Giménez
Smith of Blacksburg, Virginia; Joanna
Klink of Iowa City; Robin Coste Lewis
of Los Angeles; Shane McCrae of New
York City; and Lloyd Schwartz of
Somerville, Massachusetts. The fellows
in fiction are Edward Carey of Austin;
Patricia Engel of Key Biscayne, Florida;
Michael Helm of Dundas, Canada;
Catherine Lacey of Chicago; Carmen
Maria Machado of Philadelphia; Helen
Schulman of New York City; and Luis
Alberto Urrea of Naperville, Illinois. The
fellows in nonfiction are Anna Badkhen
of Philadelphia; Alexandra Chasin and
Janine di Giovanni, both of New York
City; Mark Danner of Berkeley, Califor-
nia; Lawrence P. Jackson of Baltimore;
Kevin M. Kruse of Princeton, New
Jersey; Christopher Merrill of Iowa City;
and Sam Stephenson of Bloomington,
Indiana. The fellowships of approxi-
mately $50,000 each are given annually
in recognition of “achievement and
 GR A N T S & AWA R DS

exceptional promise.” As of this writing, Ledbury Poetry Festival

the next deadline has not been set.
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation, Writing Fellowships, 90 Park
Avenue, New York, NY 10016.
www.gf.org
Langum Foundation
PRIZE FOR AMERICAN HISTORICAL
FICTION
Louisa Hall of Iowa City won the 2018
POETRY COMPETITION
R. T. A. Parker of Cardiff, Wales, won
the 2018 Poetry Competition for “All
the Bleak Chippies.” He received £1,000
(approximately $1,300); a course at Ty
Newydd, the National Writing Centre
of Wales; publication of his poem on the
Ledbury Poetry Festival website; and an
invitation to read at the festival in July.
Nia Davies judged. The annual award is

Recent Winners
given for a poem. ( S E E D E A D L I N E S .)
David J. Langum Sr. Prize for Ameri-
Ledbury Poetry Festival, Poetry
can Historical Fiction for her novel Competition, Master’s House, Bye
Trinity (Ecco). She received $1,000. Street, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8
The annual award is given for a work 1EA, England. Sandra Dudley, Finance
of historical fiction published in the Manager.
previous year that “helps to make the finance@poetry-festival.co.uk
www.poetry-festival.co.uk/ledbury-poetry LOUISE SWINGLER
rich history of America accessible to the
-competition Fish Publishing
general reader.” The next deadline is Flash Fiction Prize
December 1. Lynx House Press
BLUE LYNX PRIZE FOR POETRY BAIRBRE FLOOD
Langum Foundation, Prize for American
hadley: niels jensen

Joe Wilkins of McMinnville, Oregon, Fish Publishing

Historical Fiction, 2809 Berkeley Drive, Short Memoir Prize
won the 2018 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry
Birmingham, AL 35242. for Thieve. He received $2,000, and his
djlangum@samford.edu book will be published by Lynx House LISA VAN ORMAN HADLEY
www.langumtrust.org/about-prizes/american Press. The editors judged. The annual Howling Bird Press
Book Contest
-historical-fiction award is given for a poetry collection. As

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91 POETS & WRITERS


of this writing, the next deadline has not
been set.
Lynx House Press, Blue Lynx Prize for
Poetry, P.O. Box 96, Spokane, WA 99210.
(509) 624-4894.
lynxhousepress@gmail.com
www.lynxhousepress.org
Michigan Quarterly Review
LITERARY PRIZES
Elizabeth Gaffney of New York City
won the 41st annual Lawrence Founda-
Recent Winners
tion Prize for her story “Six-X,” which
appeared in the Summer 2018 issue of
Michigan Quarterly Review. She received
$1,000. Michael Byers judged. Jasmine
V. Bailey of Lubbock, Texas, won the
17th annual Laurence Goldstein Poetry
Prize for her poem “This Is Not a Poem
About Leah, Let Alone Zilpah and
Bilhah,” which appeared in the Summer
2018 issue of Michigan Quarterly Review.
She received $500. Raymond McDaniel
judged. The annual awards are given for
a short story and a poem published in
Michigan Quarterly Review in the previous
year. There is no application process.
PAGE DAVIDSON CLAYTON PRIZE
Nkosi Nkululeko of New York City won
the tenth annual Page Davidson Clayton
Prize for Emerging Poets for “Record-
able,” which appeared in the Spring
2018 issue of Michigan Quarterly Review.
He received $500. Raymond McDaniel
judged. The annual award is given for
a poem or group of poems published in
Michigan Quarterly Review by a poet who
has not published a book at the time of
publication in the journal. There is no
application process.
Michigan Quarterly Review, University of
Michigan, 0576 Rackham Building, 915
East Washington Street, Ann Arbor, MI
48109. mqr@umich.edu
www.michiganquarterlyreview.com
National Book Critics Circle
BOOK AWARDS
Ada Limón of Lexington, Kentucky,
received the 2018 National Book Critics
Circle Award in poetry for The Carry-
ing (Milkweed Editions). The finalists
were Terrance Hayes of New York City
for American Sonnets for My Past and
Future Assassin (Penguin Books); Erika
Meitner of Blacksburg, Virginia, for Holy
Moly Carry Me (BOA Editions); Diane
Seuss of Kalamazoo, Michigan, for Still
Life With Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl
(Graywolf Press); and Adam Zagajewski
of Kraków, Poland, for Asymmetry
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux), translated
from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh.
Anna Burns of East Sussex, England,
received the fiction award for her novel
Milkman (Graywolf Press). The finalists
were Patrick Chamoiseau of Martinique,
France, for Slave Old Man (New Press),
translated from the French and Cre-
ole by Linda Coverdale; the late Denis
Johnson for The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
(Random House); Rachel Kushner of Los
Angeles for The Mars Room (Scribner);
and Luis Alberto Urrea of Naperville,
Illinois, for The House of Broken Angels
(Little, Brown). Nora Krug of New York
City received the autobiography award
for her memoir Belonging: A German
Reckons With History and Home (Scrib-
ner). The finalists were Richard Beard
of Oxford, England, for The Day That
Went Missing: A Family’s Story (Little,
Brown); Nicole Chung of Washing-
ton, D.C., for All You Can Ever Know
(Catapult Books); Rigoberto González
of New York City for What Drowns
the Flowers in Your Mouth: A Memoir of
Brotherhood (University of Wisconsin
Press); Nell Painter of Newark, New
Jersey, for Old in Art School: A Memoir
of Starting Over (Counterpoint Press);
and Tara Westover of New York City for
Educated (Random House). Steve Coll
of New York City won the nonfiction
award for Directorate S: The C.I.A. and
America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and
Pakistan (Penguin Press). The finalists
were Francisco Cantú of Tucson for The
Line Becomes a River: Dispatches From the
Border (Riverhead Books); Greg Lukianoff
of Washington, D.C., and Jonathan
Haidt of New York City for The Cod-
dling of the American Mind: How Good
Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a
Generation for Failure (Penguin Press);
Adam Winkler of Los Angeles for We
the Corporations: How American Businesses
Won Their Civil Rights (Liveright); and
Lawrence Wright of Austin, Texas, for
God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of
the Lone Star State (Knopf). Christopher
Bonanos of New York City won the
biography award for Flash: The Making
of Weegee the Famous (Henry Holt). The
finalists were Craig Brown of Aldeburgh,
England, for Ninety-Nine Glimpses of
Princess Margaret (Farrar, Straus and
Giroux); Yunte Huang of Santa Barbara,
California, for Inseparable: The Original
Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous
With American History (Liveright); Mark
Lamster of Dallas for The Man in the
J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 92
Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the
Modern Century (Little, Brown); and Jane
Leavy of Washington, D.C., and Truro,
Massachusetts, for The Big Fella: Babe
Ruth and the World He Created (Harper).
Zadie Smith of New York City received
the criticism award for her essay col-
lection Feel Free (Penguin Press). The
finalists were Robert Christgau of New
York City for Is It Still Good to Ya?: Fifty
Years of Rock Criticism, 1967–2017 (Duke
University Press); Stephen Greenblatt of
Cambridge, Massachusetts, for Tyrant:
Shakespeare on Politics (Norton); Terrance
Hayes of New York City for To Float
in the Space Between: A Life and Work in
Conversation With the Life and Work of
Etheridge Knight (Wave Books); and Lacy
M. Johnson of Houston for The Reckon-
ings (Scribner). The National Book
Critics Circle, a professional organiza-
tion composed of 750 book critics and
reviewers from across the country, select
the winners of the annual awards, which
honor books of poetry, fiction, and crea-
tive nonfiction published in the previous
year. The next deadline is December 1.
JOHN LEONARD PRIZE
Tommy Orange of Angels Camp, Cali-
fornia, won the John Leonard Prize for
his novel, There There (Knopf). The an-
nual award is given for a first book in any
genre. There is no application process.
National Book Critics Circle, c/o Marion
Winik, Treasurer, 4600 Keswick Road,
Baltimore, MD 21210.
info@bookcritics.org
bookcritics.org
National Federation of State
Poetry Societies
STEVENS MANUSCRIPT COMPETITION
Flower Conroy of Key West, Florida, won
the 2018 Stevens Manuscript Competi-
tion for Snake Breaking Medusa Disorder.
She received $1,000, and her book will
be published by the National Federation
of State Poetry Societies. Chen Chen
judged. The annual award is given for a
poetry collection. As of this writing, the
next deadline has not been set.
National Federation of State Poetry
Societies, Stevens Manuscript
Competition, 4 Bowie Point, Sherwood,
AR 72120. Amanda Partridge, Chair.
stevens.nfsps@gmail.com
www.nfsps.com

New American Press
NEW AMERICAN FICTION PRIZE
Rachel Swearingen of Chicago won the
2018 New American Fiction Prize for
her story collection How to Walk on
Water and Other Stories. She received
$1,000, and her book will be published
by New American Press in Fall 2020.
John McNally judged. The annual award
is given for a book of fiction. The next
deadline is June 15.
New American Press, New American
Fiction Prize, P.O. Box 1094, Grafton, WI
53024. David Bowen, Executive Editor.
david@newamericanpress.com
www.newamericanpress.com
New Millennium Writings
limón: tony gale; groff: beowulf sheehan
NEW MILLENNIUM AWARDS
Seth Simons of Oakland won the 2019
New Millennium Poetry Award for
her poem “Like My Father.” Patricia
Sammon of Huntsville, Alabama, won
the Fiction Prize for her story “Since.”
Eleanor Bluestein of La Jolla, California,
won the Flash Fiction Prize for her story
“How to Write a Love Letter.” Kristin
Kostick of Humble, Texas, won the Non-
fiction Prize for her essay “Blanking.”
They each received $1,000, and their
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
winning works will be published in New
Millennium Writings and on the journal’s
website. The awards are given twice
yearly for a poem, a short story, a short
short story, and an essay.
(S E E D EA DL INES .)
New Millennium Writings, New
Millennium Awards, 4021 Garden Drive,
Knoxville, TN 37918. Alexis Williams Carr,
Editor.
Recent Winners
www.newmillenniumwritings.org
Nightboat Books
POETRY PRIZE
Carlos Lara of Los Angeles won the 2018
Nightboat Poetry Prize for Like Bismuth
When I Enter. He received $1,000,
ADA LIMÓN
publication of his book by Nightboat National Book Critics Circle
Books, and 25 author copies. Kazim Ali Poetry Award
judged. The annual award is given for a
poetry collection. The next deadline is LESLIE KIRK CAMPBELL
November 15. North Carolina Writers’ Network
Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize
Nightboat Books, Poetry Prize, 310
Nassau Avenue #202, Brooklyn, NY LAUREN GROFF
11222. info@nightboat.org The Story Prize
nightboat.org
GRAYWOLF PRESS
CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
G R AYWO L F P R E S S . O RG
93 POETS & WRITERS

North Carolina Writers’
Network
ROSE POST CREATIVE NONFICTION
COMPETITION
Pam Van Dyk of Raleigh, North Caro-
lina, won the 2019 Rose Post Creative
Nonfiction Competition for “ABC to
XYZ.” She received $1,000, and her es-
say will be considered for publication in
Ecotone. Madge McKeithen judged. The
annual award is given for an essay that
“is outside the realm of conventional
Recent Winners
journalism and has relevance to North
Carolinians.” The next deadline is Janu-
ary 15, 2020.
THOMAS WOLFE FICTION PRIZE
Leslie Kirk Campbell of San Francisco
won the 2019 Thomas Wolfe Fiction
Prize for “City of Angels.” She received
$1,000, and her story will be considered
for publication in the Thomas Wolfe
Review. Jill McCorkle judged. The an-
nual award is given for a story. The next
deadline is January 30, 2020.
North Carolina Writers’ Network, P.O.
Box 21591, Winston-Salem, NC 27120. Ed
Southern, Contact. ed@ncwriters.org
www.ncwriters.org
PEN America
EMERGING VOICES FELLOWSHIPS
Five writers received 2019 Emerging
Voices Fellowships from PEN America.
They are poets T. K. Lê and Dare Wil-
liams, and fiction writers Judy Choi,
Anthony Hoang, and Fajer Alexander
Khansa, all of Los Angeles. They will
each receive $1,000 and professional
mentorship with an established writer.
They will also participate in public
readings and other programming in Los
Angeles. The annual awards are given
to emerging poets, fiction writers, and
creative nonfiction writers.
( S EE DE AD L I N ES . )
PEN America, Emerging Voices
Fellowships, 8444 Wilshire Boulevard,
Fourth Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90211.
afletcher@pen.org
www.pen.org/emerging-voices-fellowship
PEN/Faulkner Foundation
AWARD FOR FICTION
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi of South
Bend, Indiana, and Florence, Italy, won
the 2019 PEN/Faulkner Award for her
novel Call Me Zebra (Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt). She received $15,000. The
finalists were Blanche McCrary Boyd
of New London, Connecticut, for
her novel Tomb of the Unknown Racist
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
(Counterpoint Books); Richard Powers of
Townsend, Tennessee, for his novel The
Overstory (Norton); Ivelisse Rodriguez of
Whitsett, North Carolina, for her story
collection, Love War Stories (Feminist
Press); and Willy Vlautin of Scappoose,
Oregon, for his novel Don’t Skip Out on
Me (Harper Perennial). They each re-
ceived $5,000. Percival Everett, Ernesto
Quiñonez, and Joy Williams judged.
The annual award is given for a work of
fiction by a U.S. writer published in the
previous year. As of this writing, the next
deadline has not been set.
PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Award for
Fiction, 641 South Street, Third Floor,
Washington, D.C. 20001. (202) 898-9063.
www.penfaulkner.org/award-for-fiction
Perugia Press
PERUGIA PRESS PRIZE
Abby E. Murray of Puyallup, Washing-
ton, won the 2019 Perugia Press Prize
for Hail and Farewell. She received
$1,000, and her book will be published
by Perugia Press in September. The an-
nual award is given for a first or second
book of poetry by a woman. The next
deadline is November 15.
Perugia Press, Perugia Press Prize, P.O.
Box 60364, Florence, MA 01062. Rebecca
Olander, Director.
www.perugiapress.com
Ploughshares
ALICE HOFFMAN PRIZE FOR FICTION
Dantiel W. Moniz of Jacksonville, Florida,
won the 2018 Alice Hoffman Prize for
Fiction for her story “Milk Blood Heat,”
which was published in the Spring
2018 issue of Ploughshares. She received
$2,500. The editors judged. The annual
award is given for a work of fiction pub-
lished in the journal in the previous year.
There is no application process.
Ploughshares, Emerson College, 120
Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116.
(617) 824-3757. Ellen Duffer, Managing
Editor. pshares@pshares.org
www.pshares.org
Poetry Society of America
FOUR QUARTETS PRIZE
Dante Micheaux of London won the 2019
Four Quartets Prize for his collection
Circus (Indolent Books). Micheaux re-
ceived $20,000. The finalists were Cath-
erine Barnett of New York City for “Ac-
cursed Questions” from the collection
Human Hours (Graywolf Press), and
Meredith Stricker of Big Sur, California,
J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 94
for anemochore (Newfound Press). The fi-
nalists each received $1,000. The annual
award, cosponsored by the T. S. Eliot
Foundation, is given for a unified and
complete sequence of poems published
in the United States during the previous
year. Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Carmen
Giménez Smith, and Rosanna War-
ren judged. As of this writing, the next
deadline has not been set.
FROST MEDAL
Eleanor Wilner of Philadelphia won the
2019 Frost Medal. Wilner, whose most
recent poetry collection, Before Our Eyes:
New and Selected Poems 1975–2017, is
forthcoming from Princeton University
Press in the fall, received $5,000. The
annual award is given by the Poetry
Society of America Board of Governors
to recognize distinguished lifetime
achievement in American poetry. There
is no application process.
SHELLEY MEMORIAL AWARD
Carl R. Martin of Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, won the 2019 Shelley Memori-
al Award. Martin, whose most recent po-
etry collection is Rogue Hemlocks (Fence
Books, 2008), received $6,000. Vanesha
Pravin and Srikanth Reddy judged. The
annual award is given to a poet “selected
with reference to his or her genius and
need.” There is no application process.
Poetry Society of America, 15 Gramercy
Park South, New York, NY 10003.
www.poetrysociety.org
Poets & Writers, Inc.
JACKSON POETRY PRIZE
Joy Harjo of Tulsa won the 13th annual
Jackson Poetry Prize. Harjo, whose
most recent book, An American Sunrise,
is forthcoming from W. W. Norton
in September, received $65,000. Ada
Limón, Alicia Ostriker, and D. A. Powell
judged. The annual award is given to “an
American poet of exceptional talent who
deserves wider recognition.” There is no
application process.
Poets & Writers, Inc., 90 Broad Street,
Suite 2100, New York, NY 10004.
(212) 226-3586.
www.pw.org
Pulitzer Prizes
PRIZES IN LETTERS
Forrest Gander of Barrington, Rhode Is-
land, won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in po-
etry for Be With (New Directions). The
finalists were jos charles of Long Beach,
California, for feeld (Milkweed Editions)
and A. E. Stallings of Athens, Greece,

for Like (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Dan Chiasson, Robyn Creswell, and
Rigoberto González judged. Richard
Powers of Townsend, Tennessee, won
the prize in fiction for his novel The
Overstory (Norton). The finalists were
Rebecca Makkai of Chicago for The Great
Believers (Viking) and Tommy Orange
of Angels Camp, California, for There
There (Knopf). Lawrence Buell, Stephen
L. Carter, Elizabeth Taylor, Danielle
Trussoni, and Michael Wood judged.
Jeffrey C. Stewart of Santa Barbara,
California, won the prize in biography
for The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
(Oxford University Press). The finalists
were Max Boot of New York City for The
Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the
American Tragedy in Vietnam (Liveright)
and Caroline Weber of New York City
for Proust’s Duchess: How Three Celebrated
Women Captured the Imagination of
Fin-de-Siècle Paris (Knopf). William
wisel: paulius musteikis
C. Davis, John Matteson, and Vanessa
Pérez-Rosario judged. Eliza Griswold of
New York City won the prize in general
nonfiction for Amity and Prosperity: One
Family and the Fracturing of America (Far-
rar, Straus and Giroux). The finalists
were Elizabeth Rush of Providence for
ABC We are pleased to announce
the winners of the 2019
MAUREEN EGEN
WRITERS EXCHANGE AWARD
From the State of West Virginia
JONATHAN BOLT
for poetry
Selected by Patricia Spears Jones
LYDIA A. CYRUS
for fiction
Selected by Bryn Chancellor
To read the winning entries and see a list of finalists,
visit at.pw.org/wexaward
The award is generously supported by Maureen Egen,
a member of the Poets & Writers Board of Directors.
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Rising: Dispatches From the New American
Shore (Milkweed Editions) and Bernice
Yeung of Berkeley, California, for In
a Day’s Work: The Fight to End Sexual
Violence Against America’s Most Vulner-
able Workers (New Press). Roxane Gay,
Jane Mayer, Vijay Prashad, and Vijay
Seshadri judged. The winners each
received $15,000. The annual awards
honor books by U.S. writers published
in the United States during the previous
year. The annual deadlines are June 15
Recent Winners
and October 1.
Pulitzer Prizes, Prizes in Letters,
Columbia University, 709 Pulitzer Hall,
2950 Broadway, New York, NY 10027.
(212) 854-3841. pulitzer@pulitzer.org
www.pulitzer.org
Rattle JANET RUTH
POETRY PRIZE READERS’ CHOICE AWARD Tucson Festival of Books
Katie Bickham of Shreveport, Louisiana, Poetry Award
won the 2018 Rattle Poetry Prize
Readers’ Choice Award for “The LESLEY BANNATYNE
Blades.” She received $2,000, and her Tucson Festival of Books
poem was published in Issue 62 of Rattle. Fiction Award
The editors selected the finalists and
KATE WISEL
Rattle subscribers chose the winner. The
University of Pittsburgh Press
annual award is given for a poem. The
Drue Heinz Literature Prize
next deadline is July 15.
95 POETS & WRITERS
 GR A N TS & AWA R DS

NEIL POSTMAN AWARD FOR METAPHOR
James Valvis of Issaquah, Washington,
won the 2019 Neil Postman Award for
Metaphor for “The Distracted.” He
received $1,000, and his poem was pub-
lished in Issue 62 of Rattle. The editors
judged. The annual award is given
for a poem “exhibiting the best use of
metaphor” among submissions to Rattle
received during the previous year. There
is no application process.
Rattle, 12411 Ventura Boulevard, Studio
Recent Winners
Sewanee Review, Poetry and Fiction
Contest, 735 University Avenue,
Sewanee, TN 37383. (931) 589-1185.
sewaneereview@sewanee.edu
thesewaneereview.com/contest
Stone Canoe
LITERARY AWARDS
Kendra Langdon Juskus of Durham,
North Carolina, won the 2019 Bea
Gonzalez Prize for Poetry for a group
of poems. Bo Ledwith of Binghamton,
The Story Prize
Lauren Groff of Jacksonville, Florida,
won the 2018 Story Prize for Florida
(Riverhead Books). She received $20,000.
The finalists were Deborah Eisenberg of
New York City for Your Duck Is My Duck
(Ecco) and Jamel Brinkley of Oakland
for A Lucky Man (Graywolf Press). They
each received $5,000. Jo Ann Beard,
Ron Charles, and Veronica Santiago Liu
judged. Akil Kumarasamy of Ann Arbor,
Michigan, won the 2018 Story Prize

New York, won the Robert Colley Prize

City, CA 91604. (818) 505-6777. Timothy
Green, Editor. tim@rattle.com
www.rattle.com
Sewanee Review
POETRY AND FICTION CONTEST
Cate Lycurgus of San Francisco won
the inaugural Sewanee Review Poetry
Contest for “Locomotion.” Lily Meyer
of Washington, D.C., won the Fiction
Contest for “On Being Human.” They
each received $1,000 and publication
in the Winter 2019 issue of the Sewanee
Review. Dan Chiasson judged in poetry
and Danielle Evans judged in fiction.
The annual awards are given for a group
of poems and a short story.
( S E E D E A D L I N E S .)
for Fiction for her story “The Hunting
Party.” Daniel Eastman of Allentown,
Pennsylvania, won the S. I. Newhouse
School Prize for Creative Nonfiction for
his essay “The Anomaly of West Virgin-
ia.” They each received $500, and their
winning works were published in Issue
13 of Stone Canoe. The editors judged.
The annual awards are given to writers
who are current or former residents of
upstate New York. ( S E E D E A D L I N E S .)
Stone Canoe, Literary Awards, c/o
YMCA Downtown Writers Center, 340
Montgomery Street, Syracuse, NY
13202. Phil Memmer, Executive Director.
stonecanoe@syracuseymca.org
www.syracuse.ymca.org/stone-canoe.html
Spotlight Award for Half Gods (Farrar,
Straus and Giroux). She received $1,000.
Larry Dark and Julie Lindsey judged.
The annual awards are given for short
story collections published during the
previous year. ( S E E D E A D L I N E S .)
The Story Prize, 41 Watchung Plaza,
#384, Montclair, NJ 07042. Larry Dark,
Director. info@thestoryprize.org
www.thestoryprize.org
Tucson Festival of Books
LITERARY AWARDS
Janet Ruth of Corrales, New Mexico,
won the 2019 poetry award for “Trick
of Light” and other poems. Lesley
Bannatyne of Somerville, Massachu-
setts, won the fiction award for her story

CROSSWINDS
POETRY JOURNAL
5TH ANNUAL CONTEST
Reading period:
July 1-December 31, 2019

FIRST PRIZE| $1,000 + PUBLICATION

SECOND PRIZE | $250 + PUBLICATION
THIRD PRIZE | $100 + PUBLICATION
100 POEMS TO BE SELECTED FOR PUBLICATION

JUDGE | RICHARD BLANCO

Inaugural Poet for Barack Obama & recipient of numerous literary awards

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR
THREE WINNERS FOR 2018
GRAND PRIZE: JOANNIE STANGELAND – AIR ON AIR
SECOND PRIZE: AJAIL RAHIDA AHMAD – PROOF OF REDEMPTION
THIRD PRIZE: GREG LOSELLE – EDEN
JUDGE WAS TINA CANE, POET LAUREATE OF RHODE ISLAND

GUIDELINES AT WWW . CROSSWINDSPOETRY . COM

J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 96
 GR A N T S & AWA R DS

“Corpse Walks Into a Bar.” Cinthia
Ritchie of Anchorage, Alaska, won the
nonfiction award for her memoir excerpt
“Hunger, and Lies.” Marilyn Chin
judged in poetry, Shobha Rao judged in
fiction, and Stephanie Land judged in
nonfiction. The winners each received
$1,000 and a scholarship to the Tucson
Festival of Books and Masters Work-
shop. The winners were also invited to
read at the Tucson Festival of Books in
given for a collection of short fiction.
The next deadline is June 30.
University of Pittsburgh Press, Drue
Heinz Literature Prize, 7500 Thomas
Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.
info@pitt.edu
www.upress.pitt.edu
Unterberg Poetry Center
DISCOVERY POETRY PRIZES
Four poets won the 2019 Discovery
Poetry Prizes. They are Alfredo Aguilar
Ricardo Maldonado, Contact.
rickymaldonado@92y.org
www.92y.org/discovery
Winning Writers
TOM HOWARD/MARGARET REID POETRY
CONTESTS
Latorial Faison of Chester, Virginia,
won the Tom Howard Prize for “Mama
Was a Negro Spiritual.” Sean Patrick
Mulroy of Portsmouth, Virginia, won the
Margaret Reid Prize for “Villanelle for

March. The annual awards are given for
a group of poems, a short story or novel
excerpt, and an essay or memoir excerpt.
The next deadline is October 31.
Tucson Festival of Books, Literary
Awards, P.O. Box 855, Cortaro, AZ 85652.
Meg Files, Director.
masters@tucsonfestivalofbooks.org
tucsonfestivalofbooks.org
University of Pittsburgh Press
DRUE HEINZ LITERATURE PRIZE
Kate Wisel of Chicago won the 2019
Drue Heinz Literature Prize for Driving
in Cars With Homeless Men. She received
$15,000, and her book will be published
by University of Pittsburgh Press. Min
Jin Lee judged. The annual award is
of San Marcos, Texas; Bernard Ferguson
and Omotara James, both of New York
City; and Alycia Pirmohamed of Edin-
burgh, Scotland. They each received
$500, publication of their work in the
Paris Review Daily, and an invitation
to give a reading at the 92nd Street Y
in New York City. Mai Der Vang and
Timothy Donnelly were the preliminary
judges; Daniel Borzutzky, Randall
Mann, and Patricia Smith were the final
judges. The annual awards are given to
poets who have not published a book of
poems. The next deadline is January 10,
2020.
Unterberg Poetry Center, Discovery
Poetry Prizes, 1395 Lexington Avenue,
New York, NY 10128. (212) 415-5760.
Recent Winners
the Wound.” They each received $1,500,
publication on the Winning Writers
website, and a one-year gift certificate
from Duotrope. Soma Mei Sheng
Frazier judged. The annual awards are
given for a poem in any style and a poem
written in a traditional style. The next
deadline is September 30.
Winning Writers, Tom Howard/Margaret
Reid Poetry Contests, 351 Pleasant Street,
PMB 222, Northampton, MA 01060.
Adam Cohen, President.
winningwriters.com
Grants & Awards and Conferences &
Residencies are written by D A N A I S O K AW A .

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Funding, and Full Scholarships.
with major, minor, or
Most of all, a vibrant, supportive concentration in
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POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES application information for writers conferences, literary festivals, residencies,
and colonies of interest to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. Applications for the following events are due shortly. Con-
ferences and festivals with rolling, first-come, first-served admission are listed well in advance. Some accept registration on the date of the
event. Contact the sponsoring organization for an application and complete guidelines. When requesting information by mail, enclose a
self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE).
Conferences
&
Residencies
Broadleaf Writers Conference
The fourth annual Broadleaf Writers
Conference will be held from September
21 to September 22 at the Cobb Galleria
in Atlanta. The conference features
workshops for poets, fiction writers, and
nonfiction writers, as well as panels and
individual consultations with agents and
publishing professionals. The faculty
includes poet Collin Kelley; fiction writ-
ers Becky Albertalli, Angie Thomas, and
Julian Winters; and nonfiction writer
Denene Millner. Participating publish-
ing professionals include agents Moe
Ferrera (BookEnds Literary Agency) and
Kelly Peterson (Rees Literary Agency)
and editors and publishers Lou Aronica
(Story Plant) and Steve McCondichie
(Southern Fried Karma). The cost of the
conference is $225 ($200 for Broadleaf
Writers members), which includes a
consultation with an agent or publishing
professional. Additional consultations
are available for $25. Single-day passes
are also available for $150. Registration is
first come, first served. Lodging is avail-
able at nearby hotels. Visit the website
for more information.
Broadleaf Writers Conference, Broadleaf
Writers Association, 453 Ashburton
Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30317. Zachary
Steele, Contact.
broadleafwriters@gmail.com
broadleafwriters.com/4th-annual-broadleaf
-writers-conference
Cape Cod Writers Center
Conference
The 2019 Cape Cod Writers Cen-
ter Conference will be held from
August 1 to August 4 at the Resort and
CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
Conference Center in Hyannis, Mas-
sachusetts. The conference features
workshops and craft classes in poetry,
fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well
as mentoring sessions with agents. Fic-
tion writer Richard Russo will deliver
the keynote. The faculty includes poet
Enzo Silon Surin and fiction writers M.
William Phelps, Marcella Pixley, and
Tim Weed. Participating publishing
professionals include editor Christina
M. Frey (Editorial Freelancers As-
sociation), social media expert Bobbie
Carlton, and agents Lori Galvin (Aevitas
Creative Management), Steven Hutson
(WordWise Literary), and Linda Konner
(Linda Konner Agency). Tuition is $150
for a three-session course, $120 for a
two-session course, or $70 for a single
workshop. Manuscript consultations are
available for an additional $150; query
consultations with agents are available
for an additional $25. General registra-
tion is $80 (free for Cape Cod Writers
Center members). Lodging is available
at the conference hotel for a discounted
rate. The registration deadline is July 19.
Visit the website for more information.
Cape Cod Writers Center Conference,
P.O. Box 408, Osterville, MA 02655.
(508) 420-0200.
writers@capecodwriterscenter.org
www.capecodwriterscenter.org
Catamaran Writing Conference
The 2019 Catamaran Writing Con-
ference will be held from August 4 to
August 8 at the Robert Louis Stevenson
School in Pebble Beach, California. The
conference features workshops, craft
talks, and daily excursions for poets,
99 POETS & W R ITERS
fiction writers, and creative nonfic-
tion writers. The faculty includes poets
Michelle Bitting and Dorianne Laux, fic-
tion writers Peter Ho Davies and Eliza-
beth McKenzie, and creative nonfiction
writer Wallace J. Nichols. The cost of
the conference, which includes tuition,
shared lodging on campus, and all meals,
is $1,350; commuter tuition, which
includes all meals, is $950. Registration
is first come, first served. Workshops are
limited to twelve participants each. Visit
the website for more information.
Catamaran Writing Conference,
Catamaran, 1050 River Street, Studio 118,
Santa Cruz, CA 95060.
editor@catamaranliteraryreader.com
catamaranliteraryreader.com/cwc-conference-2019
Colrain Poetry Manuscript
Conference
The Colrain Poetry Manuscript Con-
ference will be held from August 9 to
August 12 at the Brandt House Estate
in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Poets
who have previously attended a Colrain
conference, or whose manuscripts are
under contract for publication or have
been a winner, finalist, or semi-finalist
for a prize, are eligible. The confer-
ence features evaluation and discussion
of book-length and chapbook-length
poetry manuscripts with poets, editors,
and publishers. The faculty includes
poet Joan Houlihan and editor Martha
Rhodes (Four Way Books). The cost
of the session, which includes lodging,
meals, and a manuscript consultation,
is $1,675. Using the online submission
system, submit three to four poems
and a brief biography. Applications are
 CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES

accepted on a rolling basis. There is no
application fee. Visit the website for an
application and complete guidelines.
Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference,
Concord Poetry Center, 40 Stow Street,
Concord, MA 01742. (978) 897-0054.
Joan Houlihan, Director.
conferences@colrainpoetry.com
www.colrainpoetry.com
Edith Wharton Writer-in-
Residence Program
Two-week residencies during the month
of March are offered to two women po-
ets, fiction writers, or creative nonfiction
writers at the Mount, Edith Wharton’s
former home in Lenox, Massachusetts.
The residents will be provided with a
$1,000 stipend; work space at the Mount,
a Georgian revival mansion built in
1902; and lodging at a nearby residence.
Residents are expected to be available for
local media requests and will participate
& Residencies
Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence
Program, the Mount, P.O. Box 974,
Lenox, MA 01240.
info@edithwharton.org
www.edithwharton.org/visit/the-edith-wharton
-writer-in-residence-program
Hambidge Creative Residency
Program
Hambidge offers residencies of two
weeks to two months year-round to po-
ets, fiction writers, and creative nonfic-
tion writers on 600 wooded acres in the
Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Geor-
gia. Residents are provided with a private
cottage that includes a bedroom, studio
space, kitchen, and bathroom. The cost
of the residency is $250 per week, which
includes some meals. Several scholar-
ships are available. For residencies from
mid-February 2020 through April 2020,
Hambidge Creative Residency Program,
P.O. Box 339, Rabun Gap, GA 30568.
(706) 746-7324. Christine Jason,
Operations Manager.
center@hambidge.org
www.hambidge.org
Jentel Artist Residency
Program
The Jentel Artist Residency Program
offers four-week residencies from mid-
January to mid-May to poets, fiction
writers, and creative nonfiction writers
on a cattle ranch in the Lower Piney
Creek Valley, 20 miles east of Sheridan,
Wyoming. Each residency includes a
private room, separate work space, access
to a common living area, and a $400
stipend. Residents are responsible for
their own food and travel. U.S. citizens
or international writers currently resid-
ing in the United States who are over 25

using the online submission system sub-

Conferences

in a public panel discussion with fellow
residents during their stay. To apply for
a residency in 2020, submit a writing
sample of up to 1,500 words, a curricu-
lum vitae, and a statement of purpose
with a $25 application fee by August 31.
Visit the website for complete guidelines.
mit six to eight poems or up to 15 pages
of prose, a 300-word biography, a one-
page project description, and a résumé
with a $30 application fee by September
15. Visit the website for an application
and complete guidelines.
years old and not currently enrolled as
students are eligible. For residencies from
January 15, 2020, to May 13, 2020, using
the online submission system submit up
to 10 pages of poetry or up to 20 pages of
prose and contact information for three
references with a $30 application fee by

A SUMMER
OF GOOD-
BYES
by Fred Misurella

A Summer of Good-Byes,
a vital novel about love in Provence:
Erotic love, Family love,
Love of Place and Beauty.

“Fred Misurella writes in the clearest,
precise prose, and has as his special
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J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 100

September 15. Visit the website for an
application and complete guidelines.
Jentel Artist Residency Program, 130
Lower Piney Creek Road, Banner, WY
82832. (307) 737-2311. Mary Jane Edwards,
Executive Director. jentel@jentelarts.org
www.jentelarts.org
Kauai Writers Conference
The 2019 Kauai Writers Conference will
be held from November 4 to November
10 at the Marriott Resort on Kalapaki
Beach in Kauai, Hawai’i. The confer-
ence features master classes in fiction
and creative nonfiction, as well as agent
pitch sessions, manuscript critiques, and
publishing consultations. The faculty
includes fiction writers Richard Bausch,
Christina Baker Kline, Paula McLain,
Joshua Mohr, Téa Obreht, Priya Parmar,
Anne Perry, Whitney Scharer, Lisa
Wingate, Meg Wolitzer, and Victo-
ria Zackheim; and creative nonfiction
writers Amy Ferris, Linda Schreyer,
and Sheila Weller. Participating agents
include Stephanie Cabot (Gernert Com-
pany), Susan Golomb (Writers House),
and Michelle Tessler (Tessler Literary
Agency). Participating publishing profes-
sionals include Kevin Larimer (Poets &
Writers), Lisa Sharkey (HarperCollins),
David Sterry (Book Doctors), and
Brooke Warner (She Writes Press). The
cost of the conference, which includes
all lectures, performances, small group
craft workshops, and some meals, is
$695; master classes are available for an
additional $595. Individual master classes
cost $695. Agent pitch sessions are avail-
able for an additional $50; manuscript
critiques and publishing consultations
for $95; and a ticket to the Literary
Luau on November 8 is $79. Lodging is
available at the Kauai Marriott Resort
for discounted rates on a first come, first
served basis. Visit the website for more
information.
Kauai Writers Conference, P.O. Box 1300,
Kilauea, HI 96754. David Katz, Contact.
davidk@kauaiwritersconference.com
www.kauaiwritersconference.com
Kentucky Women Writers
Conference
The 2019 Kentucky Women Writers
Conference will be held from September
19 to September 22 at the Carnegie Cen-
ter in Lexington, Kentucky. The confer-
ence features workshops and craft talks
in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfic-
tion. The faculty includes poets Franny
Choi, DaMaris B. Hill, and Dorianne
CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
Laux; fiction writers Chantel Acevedo,
Lydia Millet, and Antonya Nelson;
and nonfiction writers Nicole Chung,
Barbara Hurd, and Darcey Steinke. The
cost of the conference is $125; the cost
for students is $30. Workshops are avail-
able for an additional $100. Manuscript
consultations with literary agent Alice
Speilburg (Speilburg Literary Agency)
are available for an additional $45. Work-
shop space is limited; registration is first
come, first served. Lodging is available at
nearby hotels for discounted rates. Visit
the website for more information.
Kentucky Women Writers Conference,
University of Kentucky, 232 East Maxwell
Street, Lexington, KY 40506.
(859) 257-2874. Julie Wrinn, Director.
kentuckywomenwriters@gmail.com
www.kentuckywomenwriters.org
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center
for the Arts
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for
the Arts, located in the Missouri River
town of Nebraska City, Nebraska, of-
fers residencies of two to eight weeks
year-round to poets, fiction writers, and
creative nonfiction writers. Residents
are provided with housing, studio space,
and a $100 weekly stipend. For residen-
cies from January 6, 2020, to June 19,
2020, using the online submission system
submit up to 10 poems totaling no more
than 30 pages, two stories or novel chap-
ters totaling no more than 7,500 words,
or two essays or chapters of a work of
creative nonfiction totaling no more than
7,500 words, along with a statement of
purpose, contact information for two
references, and a curriculum vitae with a
$35 application fee by September 1. The
application deadline for residencies in the
second half of the year is March 1, 2020.
Visit the website for an application and
complete guidelines.
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the
Arts, 801 Third Corso, Nebraska City, NE
68410. (402) 874-9600.
www.khncenterforthearts.org
Lanesboro Artist Residency
Program
Lanesboro Arts offers two- or four-
week residencies from January to May
and August to December to emerging
poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction
writers whose work is “place-based and
community-engaged” in Lanesboro,
Minnesota. Writers who are residents of
Minnesota or New York City are eligible.
Students enrolled in a degree-granting
101 POETS & W R ITERS
program are ineligible. Residents are
provided with private lodging, work
space, and a stipend of $1,000 per week.
Using the online submission system,
submit a writing sample of 6 to 10 pages,
a project description, an artist statement,
a résumé, and contact information for
two references by July 31. There is no
application fee. Visit the website for an
application and complete guidelines.
Lanesboro Artist Residency Program,
Lanesboro Arts, P.O. Box 152, Lanesboro,
MN 55949. Adam Wiltgen, Contact.
adam@lanesboroarts.org.
lanesboroarts.org/artist-residency-program
Mayborn Literary Nonfiction
Conference
The 2019 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction
Conference will be held from July 19 to
July 21 at the Hilton Dallas/Fort Worth
Lakes Executive Conference Center
in Grapevine, Texas. The conference
& Residencies
theme this year is “Justice in America.”
Conferences
The conference features workshops
in creative nonfiction as well as panel
discussions, lectures, and pitch sessions
with agents. Participating writers include
fiction writers Ben Fountain and Walter
Kirn and nonfiction writers Laura Bell,
Nikole Hannah-Jones, Sonia Nazario,
Naveena Sadasivam, Albert Samaha,
and Margot Lee Shetterly. Participat-
ing agents include Farley Chase (Chase
Literary) and BJ Robbins (BJ Robbins
Literary). Tuition, which includes meals,
is $475. Pitch sessions with agents are
available for an additional $50. Lodging
at the conference hotel is available for
$118 per night. Registration is first come,
first served. Visit the website for more
information.
Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference,
University of North Texas, Mayborn
Graduate Institute of Journalism, 1155
Union Circle, #311460, Denton, TX
76203.
www.themayborn.com
Poets on the Coast: A Weekend
Retreat for Women
The 2019 Poets on the Coast: A Week-
end Writing Retreat for Women will be
held from September 6 to September 8
at the Country Inn in the historic river
town of La Conner, Washington. The
retreat includes a poetry workshop, craft
classes, and one-on-one mentoring with
faculty. The faculty includes poets Kelli
Russell Agodon, Susan Rich, and Lena
Khalaf Tuffaha. Tuition, which does
not include lodging or meals, is $424.

Lodging is available at the conference
hotel for $119 to $199 per night. A lim-
ited number of scholarships are available.
The registration deadline is July 31. Visit
the website for more information.
Poets on the Coast: A Weekend Retreat
for Women, c/o Kelli Russell Agodon and
Susan Rich, P.O. Box 1524, Kingston, WA
98346. poetsonthecoast@gmail.com
poetsonthecoast.weebly.com
Renaissance House Residency
Program
The Renaissance House Residency
Program, sponsored by the Helene and
Dorothy West Foundation for Artists in
Need, offers residencies of one to two
weeks from July to September to poets,
fiction writers, and creative nonfiction
writers in the Catskill Mountains of
Napanoch, New York, and Martha’s
Vineyard, Massachusetts. The residen-
cies include workshops, lectures, and
& Residencies
Conferences
time to write. Participating writers in-
clude poet Afaa Michael Weaver, fiction
writer Elizabeth Benedict, and creative
nonfiction writers Wickham Boyle and
Jill Nelson. The cost of the residency,
which includes workshops, lodging, and
all meals, is $950 for private lodging
CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
and $600 for shared lodging. Submit an
application with a work sample of any
length. Applications are considered on a
rolling basis; there is no application fee.
Visit the website for more information.
Renaissance House Residency Program,
Helene and Dorothy West Foundation
for Artists in Need, 484 West 43rd Street,
Suite 37E, New York, NY 10036.
(917) 747-0367. Abigail McGrath, Contact.
renaissancehse@aol.com
renaissance-house-harlem.com
Slice Literary Writers’
Conference
The 2019 Slice Literary Writers’ Confer-
ence will be held from September 7 to
September 8 at St. Francis College in
downtown Brooklyn, New York. The
conference features workshops, panels,
and one-on-one agent meetings for fic-
tion and nonfiction writers. Fiction and
nonfiction writers Mira Jacob and Kiese
Laymon will deliver the keynotes. Partic-
ipating publishing professionals include
agents Amy Elizabeth Bishop (Dystel,
Goderich & Bourret), Sarah Bowlin
(Aevitas Creative Management), Reiko
Davis (DeFiore & Company), Stepha-
nie Delman (Greenburger Associates),
Florida’s Premier
Low-Residency MFA
Fiction • Nonfiction • Poetry
www.ut.edu/mfacw • (813) 258-7409
J U LY AU G U S T 2 019 102
Mitch Hoffman (Aaron Priest Literary
Agency), Annie Hwang (Folio Literary
Management), Heather Jackson (Heather
Jackson Literary Agency), Jacqueline Ko
(Wylie Agency), Ayesha Pande (Ayesha
Pande Literary), Anjali Singh (Ayesha
Pande Literary), and DongWon Song
(Howard Morhaim Literary Agency).
The cost of the conference is $375 for
both days or $275 for one day; students
receive a $50 discount. Agent meetings
are an additional $100 to $175; workshops
are $50. Using the online submission
system, submit an application form and
a writing sample of 250 to 500 words.
Admissions are made on a rolling basis.
Visit the website for the required applica-
tion and complete guidelines.
Slice Literary Writers’ Conference, P.O.
Box 659, Village Station, New York, NY
10014. info@slicemagazine.org
slicelitcon.org
Villa Josefina
Villa Josefina offers three- and seven-day
residencies in May, June, August, Sep-
tember, October, and November for po-
ets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers
º Dul,
at a house in Josefuv º a village in the
Czech Republic approximately 70 miles

from Prague. Residents are provided
with private lodging that includes a
bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and work
space. Residents can take free work-
shops in art therapy and professional
development; additional workshops are
available for an additional €25 to €35
(approximately $28 to $39). The cost of
the retreat is €140 (approximately $157)
for a three-day retreat and €190 (approxi-
mately $213) for a seven-day retreat. Reg-
istration is first come, first served. Visit
the website for more information.
° Dul
Villa Josefina, Josefuv ° 299, 468 44,
Czech Republic. Marta Nesbitt, Contact.
artistretreatczech.com
Willapa Bay AiR
Willapa Bay AiR offers monthlong resi-
dencies from March through September
to poets, fiction writers, and creative
nonfiction writers on 16 wooded acres
near Oysterville, Washington, 30 miles
north of the Columbia River. Residents
are provided with a private cottage
with living and work space, bath, and
all meals. Using the online submission
system, submit up to 10 pages of poetry
or up to 20 pages of prose with a $30
CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
application fee by July 31. Visit the web-
site for complete guidelines.
Willapa Bay AiR, P.O. Box 209, 32101
Douglas Drive, Oysterville, WA 98641.
(360) 665-6782. info@willapabayair.org
www.willapabayair.org
Writers at the Eyrie
A residency of two weeks or one month
in September is offered to a poet, a
fiction writer, or a nonfiction writer at
a private apartment in Brooklyn, New
York. The resident is provided with some
meals. Writers over the age of 24 who
are not residents of New York City are
eligible. Submit via postal mail a writing
sample of 7 to 10 poems or one to two
stories or essays of up to 30 pages, a proj-
ect description, a brief bio, and a résumé
with a $10 application fee by July 15. Visit
the website for complete guidelines.
Writers at the Eyrie, 118 North Ninth
Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249. Margot
Farrington, Director.
www.writersateyrie.org
Yaddo
Yaddo offers residencies of two to eight
weeks year-round to poets, fiction writ-
ers, and creative nonfiction writers on
103 POETS & W R ITERS
a 400-acre estate in Saratoga Springs,
New York. Residents are provided with a
private bedroom, work space, and meals.
Writers who are not currently enrolled in
undergraduate or graduate programs are
eligible. For residencies from November
2019 through May 2020, using the online
submission system submit up to 10 short
poems or an excerpt of a longer poem
totaling no more than 10 pages, or up to
20 pages of prose, along with a résumé,
contact information for one reference,
and a $35 application fee by August 1.
The deadline for residencies from May
2020 through February 2021 is Janu-
ary 1. Limited financial aid is available.
Visit the website for an application and
complete guidelines.
Yaddo, P.O. Box 395, Saratoga Springs,
NY 12866. (518) 584-0746. Christin
Williams, Program Manager.
cwilliams@yaddo.org
& Residencies
Conferences
www.yaddo.org
PW.ORG
Visit our Conferences & Residencies
database for information about more
writers retreats.
 THE FRIENDS OF POETS & WRITERS, INC.
We are happy to acknowledge these Friends whose recent gifts help make all of Poets & Writers’ programs possible.

John Ballantine David Galef Marc Losquadro Susan Scardina

Joseph Benti Donna M. Glass David Lunde Carol Schoen
Lori Benton Joseph Gonnella Tara Macmahon Robert A. Schwab
Marsha Lee Berkman Holter F. Graham Shirin Malkani Margaret Sharkey
Elsa Bonstein Kelly Guinan Thomas J. Mangan Anitra P. Sheen
Paul Bryce Maureen Henegan David Margolis Larry Siems
Lorenzo Carcaterra James P. Higgins J. F. Margos Anita C. Skeen
Susan Carlson Earl James Eric Mattson Kevin Smith
Paul Carlson Karen I. Jaquish Ann D. McCormick Morton Sosland
Johanna V. Castillo Joann Johnson Jacqueline McKeon Kate Stark
Ina B. Chadwick Jon Karp Cat Mihos George J. Stevenson
Faith Childs Susan Karwoska Robert Miller Jamison Stoltz
Matt Conlin Marcia Kelly Fred Misurella Anne R. Taylor
Charlotte Conner Emily Kern Andrew Nicholls Laurence W. Thomas
Amanda D’Acierno The Kerner Family Fund Mary Norris Nina Von Moltke
Richard J. Davies Sussy Komala Linda Palladino Don Weisberg
Stephen R. Donaldson Robert C. Kuser Mary Pender-Coplan Sarah M. White
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Cheryl Fillion Emily Leider Stewart Potter Vonetta Young
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hand column. Type August 31. Send us throughout the United form nonfiction, collec- complete guidelines, e-mail queries can be
“Anthology” on the title your poems about States, are in the tions of stories, hybrid which must be followed. sent to ajimagazine@
line and include the title writs, wills, certificates Library of Congress, collections, and Online submission fee gmail.com.

105 POETS & WRITERS

 C AL L F O R: MA GAZ INES

ALGORITHM - FREE illness: Either self, if identified as such. CALL FOR life. Four-hundred- combat zone. Accepts
readers! Real and family, or friend. We Please notify immedi- submissions: The word limit, must be age submissions year-
Classif ieds

sentient humans will accept hard copies only ately if your submission Westchester Review, an 50 or over. For details, round, does not accept
read your submissions mailed to The Awaken- is placed elsewhere. annual print journal, click “about us” at www previously published
of funkadelic, saucy, ings Review, P.O. Box Electronic submissions seeks short fiction, .boomspeak.com. work, no reading fee,
and will-o’-the-wispy 177, Wheaton, IL 60187. encouraged, as Word poetry, creative publishes in May and
creative nonfiction, For submission guide- files, to blueline@ nonfiction, excerpts November. Send
lines, visit www CHANGES IN LIFE
poetry, fiction, and potsdam.edu. Please of plays, and graphic submissions via Submit-
.awakeningsproject.org. identify the genre in monthly online
text/image pieces for novels for its upcoming table: https://collateral
the subject line. Further newsletter is seeking
issue #15. Send us your issue. Submissions .submittable.com/
information at blueline personal essays from
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adkmagazine.org. women of all ages. New
medium-length, and Literary Magazine Writers should have a
connection to West- writers are encouraged
flash pieces. We love Dedicated to the Spirit
to submit their work. EKPHRASIS , A
it all. Reading period: of the Adirondacks CALL FOR
chester County, NY,
For further details and biannual journal, is
August 1–November 1. seeks poems and stories area. See website for
submissions to SPANK seeking poems, each
Samples and more info about the Adirondacks guidelines: www submission guidelines,
the CARP. I’m looking based on a single work
at slablitmag.org. and regions similar in .westchesterreview.com. please visit the website
for flash fiction, short of art. No simultaneous
geography and spirit, at: www.changesinlife
stories, CNF, and submissions. Previously
focusing on nature’s .com.
THE AWAKENINGS poetry, including shape CALLING ALL BABY published poems okay
shaping influence. We
Review is now accepting also welcome nonfic- poetry. If your work boomer writers! Boom- if credited. Send 3–5
submissions for its is thought-provoking, Speak e-zine is looking COLLATERAL IS AN original poems, bio,
tion about the region’s
2020 issue. The AR is literature or culture. sophisticated, yet not for fresh baby boomer online literary journal e-mail, SASE, to:
the nation’s leading lit Submission period: July pretentious or obscure, voices. Essays, fiction, publishing poetry, Ekphrasis, Laverne &
review that publishes 1 through November I’m interested. For travel, arts—we publish fiction, CNF, and Carol Frith, P.O. Box
poetry, fiction, drama, 30. Decisions mid- submission guidelines writing that is about the visual art that examines 161236, Sacramento, CA
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new juniper prize winners

The Juniper Literary Prizes
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J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 106
EVENING STREET Nancy Reddy, Clyde Hardcopy submissions $25 honorarium and MANZANO rolling basis. You can
Review (published Edgerton, and Joyce may still be sent to: a featured writer Mountain Review seeks follow us on Instagram,

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twice a year) seeks Carol Oates. descant Blair Oliver, Faculty interview. No reading submissions! Prose until Facebook, and Twitter
previously unpublished specifies no particular Advisor, Front Range fee. For details, visit October 1. Poetry & art @medlitmessenger
work. Submit 3–6 subject matter or style. Review, FRCC, 4616 S. lammergeier.org or open August–October and visit us at https://
poems or 1–2 prose We welcome online Shields, Ft. Collins, CO twitter.com/lammer 1. We love flash fiction/ med-lit.vcu.edu.
pieces. Payment is 1 submissions (up to 5 80526. geiermag. Lammergeier: memoir. Also: short
contributor’s copy. poems or a single story Literature with prose, poetry, visual
PEN + BRUSH IN
E-mail submissions of up to 5,000 words) at Marrow. art, photography. Plot.
FULL BLEED , AN Print, the publishing
are preferred as a descant.submittable Character. Place. The
annual print journal arm of a 125-year-old
.com from September terse and the lyrical.
single .docx or .rtf nonprofit supporting
of art and design, LITTLE PATUXENT Work that crosses
file. Mail to: editor@ 1, 2019–April 1, 2020. the work of emerging
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eveningstreetpress Deadline: April 1. and mid-career women
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issue. Deadline: January of nonfiction, fiction, “Wilderness.” Website: writers, seeks poetry
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-bleed.org/submit. art for its unthemed mountainreview.com/
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FRONT RANGE Winter 2020 issue. submissions.
streetpress.com. accept novels; see our
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online submissions of LAMMERGEIER accepted from August website for more infor-
THE MEDICAL
is a quarterly online mation. No submission
A FORUM OF literary short fiction, 1 through October Literary Messenger
journal specializing in fee! Website: www
fiction and poetry for poetry, and creative 24. LPR publishes seeks thought-
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over 50 years, descant nonfiction for its 20th diverse voices and provoking poetry,
tion of beautiful and explore/literary.
seeks high-quality annual issue. Our aesthetics and encour- fiction, nonfiction, and
work in both innova- reading period is August macabre. We accept ages both emerging visual art related to
tive and traditional 15–December 1. To see fiction, nonfiction, and established authors medicine, illness, and PINYON INVITES
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recent contributors visit www.frontrange work. Three writers guidelines at little submissions are free sions of poetry and
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107 POETS & WRITERS

 C AL L F OR : MA G A ZIN ES

emerging and estab- genres) + SASE to SFLR, fiction, and nonfiction. TWO HAWKS Robin Hemley, Sue a strong narrative
lished writers. Reading 6401 Richards Ave., We pay $50 for poetry Quarterly is an online William Silverman, element. Submissions:
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period is August 1– Santa Fe, NM 87508 by & flash prose, $125 journal affiliated with Dani Shapiro, Douglas kathleenglassburn@
December 1. Send short November 1. Website: for longer work. Antioch University Los Glover, Robert Olen comcast.net. For
bio, including e-mail www.sfcc.edu/santa-fe Everything we accept Angeles’s BA program Butler, Joan Wicker- more, contact nick@
address and SASE, to -literary-review. in Creative Writing sham, Andre Dubus III, thewritersworkshop.net.
comes from the open
Pinyon, Department of and is setting the bar Robin Black, and Ann Websites: www.the
submission queue.
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SUBMIT TO Work from TLR has
and Mass Communica- literature with bold and TNG, Media Solutions. www.thewriters
The Halcyone Literary appeared in major
tion, Colorado Mesa illuminating poetry, Chains: Barnes & workshopreview.net.
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J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 108
audio edition. Notable GLINTMOON , AN Brown, Reginald workshops, panel the editors. You display 2020 MIAMI
contributors include online quarterly, seeks Gibbons, Jessica Jacobs, discussions, interviews, a fairness not found University Press

Classif ieds
2 O. Henry Award diverse, innovative Major Jackson, Ilya pitch sessions, and more many other places.”— Novella Prize: Winner
winners: Merrill Joan poetry of 10 lines or Kaminsky, Dana Levin, with Jonathan Maberry, receives $750, book
S.E. Ingraham, Alberta,
Gerber and Karen fewer. We want to see Adrian Matejka, and Sherrilyn Kenyon, Canada. Visit www publication, 10 copies,
Heuler. Third issue fervent, unorthodox Maggie Smith. Six days Delilah S. Dawson, plus reading at Miami
.newmillenniumwritings
release: July 2019. work that stretches and of workshops, readings, other faculty, agents, U. Final judge: Joe
.org.
reimagines what the editors, and publishers. Squance. Deadline:
craft talks, panel discus-
CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS short poem is and what sion, social events, For registration and all August 31. Manuscript
2019 NEW WRITER length: 18–40k. Reading
Websites it can do. Give us life and so much more. upcoming events, visit
Awards offer $1,000+ fee: $25. Previous
and depth, the human Other faculty: Lorna www.floridawriters.net.
BLUE MARBLE in prizes and publica- winners include: Garth
and the now. No fees. Blake, Sally Bliumis-
Review is an online tion in Sequestrum Greenwell, Lee Upton,
Pay: $5/poem. Website: Dunn, Angela Narciso Contests Clancy McGilligan, and
literary journal show- www.glintmoon.com. for writers of fiction,
Torres. Special guest: Paul Skenazy. Submit:
casing the creative work nonfiction, and poetry
Joy Harjo. To find out $4,000 IN AWARDS miamioh.edu/mupress/
of young writers ages Conferences yet to publish a book-
more, visit www.palm + 23 years of paying novella. Questions:
13–21. We are looking and publishing writers! length manuscript. Two
beachpoetryfestival mupress@miamioh
for poetry, fiction, 16 TH ANNUAL .org. Apply to attend a Enter New Millennium grand prize winners (1 .edu.
creative nonfiction and Palm Beach Poetry Writing Awards by July fiction/nonfiction, 1
workshop!
personal essays, as well Festival in Delray 3—Best Poetry: $1,000; poetry), plus runners-
2020 PRESS 53
as art and photography. Beach, FL, January Fiction: $1,000; Nonfic- up. Submit via our Award for Poetry.
The goal of our journal 20–25, 2020. Focus on 18 TH ANNUAL tion: $1,000; Flash online submission
$1,000 and 50 copies
is to assemble in each your work with Florida Writers Fiction: $1,000. All system. Deadline:
awarded to an unpub-
issue a broad range of America’s most Conference and winners are published October 30. E-mail: lished 60- to 120-page
voices, perspectives, engaging and award- Celebrity Workshop in our anthology and sequr.info@gmail.com. collection of poems.
and life experiences. winning poets. Work- at the Hilton Orlando/ online. “I like the Full guidelines: www Prizes awarded upon
Website: www.blue shops with Laure-Anne Altamonte Springs, variety, diversity, and .sequestrum.org/ publication. Tom
marblereview.com. Bosselaar, Nickole October 17–20. 50+ egalitarian attitude of contests. Lombardo, Press 53

109 POETS & WRITERS

 C ONT ES TS

Poetry Series Editor, 16 TH ANNUAL You can find complete collection of poems BELLINGHAM manuscripts are consid-
will serve as judge. Gival Press Short Story submission details at: with the winner Review’s annual ered for publication.
Classif ieds

Deadline: July 31, Award for best original, www.americanliterary receiving $1,000 and contests for fiction, Authors are invited
midnight. Winner and previously unpublished review.com. book publication with poetry, and nonfiction to read at our Spring
finalists announced our Spring 2020 titles. are open December 1 AWP and Summer and
literary story in English,
before November 1. Entry fee: $25. Post- to March 15. $1,000 Fall New York City
approximately 5,000 to THE ANNUAL
Reading fee: $30. Infor- mark/submission dead- first-place prizes. $20 events. C&R Press
15,000 words. Prize: Rattle Poetry Prize
mation at www.press53 line: June 30. Judged by publishes a range of
$1,000; publication on entry fee. General
offers $10,000 for work from a variety of
.com/award-for-poetry. website. Reading fee: Deborah Gorlin. For submissions are open
a single poem, plus voices. Website: www
submission guidelines: September 15 to
$25 per story submitted. a $2,000 Readers’ .crpress.org.
www.bauhanpublishing December 1. Bellingham
14 TH ANNUAL Deadline: August 8. Choice Award. Entry .com/may-sarton-prize. Review is dedicated
Smith College Poetry Details, visit website: fee of $25 includes a
to offering continual CALVINO PRIZE :
Prize for New England www.givalpress.com or 1-year subscription to
support to our authors. 15th Annual Calvino
& New York High givalpress.submittable the magazine. Dead- BE PART OF A
See complete submis- Prize sponsored by the
School Girls in 10th .com. Address: Gival 152-year legacy! Cali-
line: July 15. Submit sion guidelines at University of Louisville.
& 11th grades. Award: Press, P.O. Box 3812, fornia’s oldest literary
up to 4 unpublished bhreview.org. For short story or novel
$500 & opportunity to Arlington, VA 22203. journal is seeking orig-
poems per entry. For in the fabulist, experi-
read poem at Smith. inal works of fiction,
guidelines and to read mental vein of Italo
Judge: Paisley Rekdal. nonfiction, poetry,
past winners, visit our C & R PRESS IS Calvino. Final judge for
THE AMERICAN
No entry fee. Submis- and visual art for Reed
website: www.rattle pleased to announce our 2019: Kim Chinquee,
sions: September 1– Literary Review’s Magazine: Issue 153. $1,000 prizes in fiction, senior editor of New
.com/poetry/prize.
December 1. Sponsored Annual Writing General submissions poetry, and creative World Writing, Henfield
by Poetry Center Awards are open for are free. Our 4 tributed nonfiction and memoir and Pushcart Prize
at Smith College. submissions through BAUHAN contests award $1,000. are open. Winners, winner. First prize:
Guidelines, eligibility, October 1. Send us your Publishing’s May Submissions open June runners-up, and a short- $2,000 plus publica-
required entry form: best work in creative Sarton New Hampshire 1–November 1. Let list are announced in tion in Miracle Monocle,
www.smith.edu/poetry nonfiction, fiction, and Poetry Prize deadline your voice be heard: January 2020. Winners celebrating a decade of
center/wp/outreach/ poetry. $1,000 will be is June 30! The prize www.reedmag.org/ receive the prize and select works. Second
hs-poetry-prize. awarded to each winner. is for a book-length submit. publication. All prize: $300. First-place

J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 110
winner invited, expenses THE CRAZYSHORTS ! June 1 for a chance to DZANC BOOKS IS awarded $1,000, publi- HEART POETRY
paid, to read winning Contest: From July 1 win $1,000, print publi- seeking innovative cation, and 10 copies. Award: $500, publica-

Classif ieds
entry at the Louisville to July 31, Crazyhorse cation, and an online literary fiction in the Simultaneous submis- tion in HEART 14.
Conference on Litera- will accept entries for feature. For full guide- form of novels, short sions acceptable. Robert Honorable mentions
ture and Culture held in our annual short-short lines, please visit www story collections, and Cording to judge. published. $10 covers
February at the Univer- fiction contest. Submit .creamcityreview.org/ novellas. Contests open Website: www 3 unpublished poems,
sity of Louisville. Fee: 3 short-shorts of up to contests. March 1, including the .graysonbooks.com. reserves copy of
$25. Deadline: October 500 words each through annual Prize for Fiction, HEART 14. Visit
15. Details: louisville our website: crazyhorse awarding a $5,000 website to view past
CROSSWINDS HEADMISTRESS
.edu/english. .cofc.edu. First place advance and publica- issues, style preferred,
Poetry Journal’s fifth Press, publisher
tion. $25 reading fee guidelines, and bio of
wins $1,000 and publi- annual poetry contest of LBT+ poetry,
per submission. Open judge, John Williams.
CONGRATULATIONS cation; 3 runners-up starts July 1! Awards announces our fifth
March 1–September 30. Deadline: postmark
to the 2018 winners of will be announced. All $1,000, $250, and
Details at dzancbooks annual Charlotte Mew August 31. Submit
the Brighthorse Prize: entries will be consid- $100 for the winning
.org. Chapbook Contest. online at www
Kavita Jindal (novel), ered for publication; the 3 poems, plus 15
Judge is Robin Becker. .nostalgiapress.com
Mara Adamitz Scrupe $15 entry fee includes highlighted honorable
Prize of $300. Submis- or mail to Nostalgia
(poetry), and Barbara de a subscription to mentions. 100 poems THE GRAYSON
sions welcomed from Press, 115 Randazzo Ct.,
la Cuesta (short fiction). Crazyhorse. Website: will be selected for our Books Poetry Prize,
lesbians, bi/trans Elloree, SC 29047.
Brighthorse Books will http://crazyhorse.cofc annual spring contest open to all poets writing
women, Two Spirit,
again award $1,000 and .edu/crazyshorts. issue. Crosswinds is in English, is accepting
publication for the best pleased to announce submissions. Submit genderqueer, and non- INDIANA REVIEW
novel, poetry collection, that Richard Blanco, 50–80 pages, including binary poets. Submit and IU Press are
and short fiction collec- CREAM CITY Presidential Inaugural title page and contents, May 4 to July 4. Sliding reading short story
tion. Deadline: August Review is excited to Poet and recipient by August 15. Elec- scale, fee waived if collections for the 2020
16. To learn more: announce the 2019 of numerous literary tronic submissions only requested. Details at Blue Light Books Prize.
http://brighthorse Summer Prizes in awards, will be the at https://grayson https://headmistress Submit a manuscript
books.com. To submit: Fiction and Poetry! judge for this year’s books.submittable.com/ press.blogspot.com/ between 35–45k words
https://brighthorse Send up to 4 poems contest. For guidelines, submit. No contact info 2017/07/2019-charlotte ($20 reading fee) by
books.submittable.com/ or a short story up to visit crosswindspoetry on manuscript. Entry -mew-chapbook-contest October 31. Win
submit. 9,000 words starting .com. fee $25. Winner will be .html. $2,000, publication with

111 POETS & WRITERS

 C ONT ES TS

IU Press, and read at Memorial Short Fiction LITMAG ’ S ANTON NAUGATUCK RIVER ON THE PREMISES 4 times a year in April,
2021 Blue Light Books Prize receives $1,000. Chekhov Award for Review, a print journal is an online fiction May, October, and
Classif ieds

Reading. Visit our Michael Noll will judge. Flash Fiction. First of narrative poetry, magazine entering its November. Winning
website for complete Julia Darling Memorial announces our 11th 12th year. We feature mini-contest entries
prize: $1,250 plus
guidelines: https:// Poetry Prize receives narrative poetry newer and/or relatively are published on our
publication in LitMag;
indianareview.org/ $1,000. Natalia Trevino contest. Open for unknown writers who website and pay up
agency review. Three
prizes/blue-light-books. will judge. $20 to enter. submissions July 1 write creative, compel- to $25. OTP does not
finalists: $100 each. All through September
A portion of proceeds ling, well-crafted charge fees for entering
entries will be consid- 1. $20 submission fee. stories that use our
THE INTERNATIONAL
support medical its contests. To learn
research for breast ered for publication. All winners and final- contest premises well. more about OTP, write
Lawrence Durrell
cancer and Parkinson’s Deadline: October 1. ists will be published We are open to authors to questions@onthe
Society announces
disease. Website: www Entry fee: $16. Guide- in the Winter 2020 from any country if premises.com or visit
the 2019 White Mice
lines at www.litmag issue. Website: http:// their stories are written www.onthepremises
Poetry Contest. Submit .kallistogaiapress.org.
naugatuckriverreview in English. Winning
1–3 poems focusing on .com. .com.
.com. entries in no-fee short
“the heavens” (celestial LITERAL LATTE story contests launched
bodies, dark matter, Poetry Awards. 25th THE ORISON
THE MIGHTY RIVER each December and
etc.), literal or figura- NILSEN PRIZE FOR
anniversary year. Win Short Story Contest. June are published in Anthology Awards offer
tive. No entry fee. a First Novel. Winner
$1,500 in prizes and $1,000, publication in On The Premises. Each $500 and publication
Deadline: October 1. receives $2,000, publi-
publication. For tastes, for individual works
For further informa- Big Muddy. Best short cation, and distribution. contest challenges
guidelines, and to Authors must not have writers to produce a of fiction, poetry, and
tion, go to www story, any theme. $20
submit delicious, mind- great story based on nonfiction. The Orison
.lawrencedurrell.org fee includes copy of Big previously published a
stimulating words, see full-length fiction book. a broad premise that Anthology is an annual
and click on “Poetry Muddy with winning
www.literal-latte.com. Deadline: November 1. we supply. Winning collection of the finest
Contest.” story. Submit through
Got poems?! Submit at $30 fee. Enter through stories are published spiritually engaged
www.literal-latte.com or our Submittable page. writing. 2019 judges:
our Submittable page. in individual magazine
KALLISTO GAIA send to 200 E. 10th St., Deadline: October 1. Full guidelines on our issues each April and Nina McConigley
Press’ Summer Writing Ste. 240, New York, NY Guidelines at www website at: www October and pay up (fiction), Kaveh Akbar
Contests: Winner of 10003. E-mail: litlatte@ .semopress.com/events/ .semopress.com/ to $220. We also hold (poetry), Stephanie
the Chester B. Himes aol.com. mighty-river-contest. events/nilsen-prize. no-fee “mini-contests” Elizondo Griest

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J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 112
(nonfiction). Entry fee: living in the U.S. who a poem written for refu- entry fee. Deadline: KY-affiliated writer of SLAB ’ S 2020
$15. Deadline: August haven’t published a gees currently detained August 15. For English. In addition to Curry Poetry Prize

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1. Submit at: full-length book of pending their hearings. complete guidelines, see publication by contest is seeking
www.orisonbooks poetry, fiction, or Ilya Kaminsky will www.redwheelbarrow Sarabande, the author submissions. $600 for
.submittable.com. nonfiction (chapbooks judge. Using the online .submittable.com. of the Bruckheimer first place; $400 for
excluded). Winner submission system, selection will receive second. All winners
ORISON BOOKS receives $1,000; publi- submit your best poem a 2-week residency at published. Judge: Kathy
ROSEBUD MAGAZINE
announces its first cation in Voices from the with a $10 entry fee Blackacre Conservancy. Fagan, author most
offers prize of $500 for
annual Orison Chap- Attic; round-trip travel, by September 30. For Complete guidelines at recently of Sycamore, the
best poem submitted
book Prize! Submit a lodging, and reading at www.sarabandebooks National Poetry Series
more information, in any style. Three
manuscript of 20–45 .org/bruckheimer. selection The Raft, et
Carlow University in visit https://poetry runners-up will
pages in any literary Pittsburgh with final al. Reading period
international get $100. Winners
genre—poetry, fiction, August 1–December 1;
judge. Poems must be .submittable.com/ published. All entrants SENECA REVIEW
nonfiction, or hybrid— $10 reading fee. Details:
unpublished, up to 75 submit/140955/dignity will receive a free accepts submissions
from April 1–July 1. slablitmag.org.
lines; up to 2 poems, notdetention-poetry 3-issue subscription to for the Deborah Tall
Orison Books founder
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113 POETS & WRITERS

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119 POETS & WRITERS

POETS & WRITERS IS MORE than a magazine. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving creative writers. We pay fees
to writers giving readings and leading workshops, provide information and advice to authors, and help them connect with one another and
with audiences. We also sponsor a number of awards and prizes. Learn more at pw.org.
Directory Assistance Since 1970
The Poets & Writers Directory—which for decades has
provided a way for published poets, fiction writers, and cre-
ative nonfiction writers to be discovered and contacted for
a range of professional opportunities—has recently under-
gone a complete transformation.
The origins of the Directory are intertwined with the
origins of Poets & Writers itself. Pictured above is the pri-
mogenitor of the Directory: the Rolodex that belonged to
Galen Williams, who founded Poets & Writers in 1970—
nearly fifty years ago. In those pre-Internet days, Galen
found herself fielding calls from people who wanted to
invite an author to give a reading or a talk, teach a work-
shop, or be on a panel but didn’t know how to contact
them. Poets & Writers became a kind of de facto “direc-
tory assistance,” providing writers’ addresses and telephone
numbers. Soon the decision was made to publish an index,
which would share authors’ contact information as well as
details about whether they were open to giving readings,
whether they were willing to travel, and the kinds of audi-
ences they preferred to work with.
The Directory continued to evolve over time: By 2004,
the last year Poets & Writers published a print edition, it was
a hefty tome, listing thousands of writers nationwide, and in
2005 it was converted to an online resource at pw.org. The
Directory now holds more than 10,000 author profiles, and
moving all that data onto a new platform was a major data
migration event. The project, which was supported in part
by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, took
J U LY A U G U S T 2 0 1 9
about eighteen months to complete and required writing
approximately 15,000 lines of code.
The new interface is more intuitive, making it easier
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apply to be listed. Once approved and published, profiles
are easier to update and can include embedded audio and
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our most popular databases. Now, if authors note that their
work has been published by a press in our Small Press
Database or represented by an agent in our Literary Agents
Database, those listings will be automatically linked to their
profiles. Another important improvement to the Directory
is the addition of translators.
As a research tool, the Directory is more powerful than
ever. Want to see all the authors who have been published
in a particular journal or are represented by a particular
agent? Filter to see that list. Understanding connections
like these can help writers target their submissions more
effectively. The Directory can also help build and main-
tain networks. Want to reconnect with colleagues from an
MFA program or retreat? Filter to find people who list that
program on their profiles. And of course event organizers
can still discover writers they want to invite to take part
in a reading—filtering by location, genre, and many other
variables.
To learn more, to browse the Directory’s 10,000-plus
profiles, or to apply to be listed, go to pw.org/directory.
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Announcing...

The Litowitz Creative Writing

Graduate Program
MFA+MA Dual Degree in Creative Writing and English
This unique, new program offers students the opportunity to develop their creative writing
abilities and to deepen their study of literature. Students will receive full support, for three
academic years and two summers, to complete both degrees—an MFA in Creative Writing and
an MA in English. We offer intimate classes, interplay between creative and critical work, close
mentorship by renowned faculty, and easy access to the vibrant literary arts scene of Chicago.
For program information and deadlines visit:
www.english.northwestern.edu/graduate/mfa-ma-program/
Apply for Fall 2020 in Fiction or Poetry – application deadline December 2019
Apply in Fall 2021 in Poetry or Creative Nonfiction
Apply in Fall 2022 in Creative Nonfiction or Fiction
Writing Faculty include:
Chris Abani ~ Eula Biss ~ Brian Bouldrey ~ John Bresland ~ Averill Curdy ~ Sheila Donohue ~ Stuart Dybek
Reginald Gibbons ~ Juan Martinez ~ Shauna Seliy ~ Natasha Trethewey ~ Rachel Jamison Webster

Northwestern University Department of English

University Hall 215, 1897 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208
Phone: 847-491-7294 english-dept@northwestern.edu