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Carving for an ink print of a quail in a forest

Hearing Voices: Women Versing Life presents Katherine Case and Meridian Press

I knew Katherine Case as a poet first. We were in a poetry workshop together at Mills College, and I was enthralled with her ability to integrate so many ideas into a poem that was usually one breathless sentence. Little did I know that when class ended, and I was bobbing around in water aerobics,…

a photograph of Valentino Pier at dusk, featuring an ocean that stretches into the center of the photograph and an empty boardwalk

Literary Boroughs #5: Brooklyn, NY

The Literary Boroughs series will explore little-known and well-known literary communities across the country and world and show that while literary culture can exist online without regard to geographic location, it also continues to thrive locally. The series will run on our blog from May 2012 until AWP13 in Boston. Please enjoy the fifth post on Brooklyn, New York by…

a young person on a stage is in the spotlight, reading from a red book

First Drafts: Playwriting. A Conversation with Beth Henley, Young Jean Lee, and Enrique Urueta

I’ll admit up front: of all the literary genres, I know the least about playwriting. I’ve written fiction and nonfiction, obviously, and I’ve dabbled (mostly unsuccessfully) in poetry, but the stage play? Never attempted it. I’m not sure why. When I’m at conferences or artists’ colonies, I never miss a playwright’s performance. They’re invariably my…

Black and white photo of a person sitting with their hands crossed on their lap.

Hearing Voices: Women Versing Life presents Janice N. Harrington

As a poetry editor at Prick of the Spindle, I find that poems about certain subjects, such as childhood, love, aging, and death, often lean too heavily on nostalgia, so that the language limps. In fact, I’ve been guilty of writing my own nostalgic poems now and again— and again. Hey, nobody said this poetic…

a collage of the various book covers of Wave

Books by Their Covers: best poetry presses, by design

Here’s some Not-News-To-Anyone: poetry doesn’t sell itself. Successful first books, in particular, depend on a poet’s overall visibility online, a real-world group of friends and friends-of-friends to assist in writing and publishing reviews, the poet’s willingness to go on a thankless monetary sinkhole of a cross-country “tour” with several other poets packed in the back…