I vaguely recall the first time I picked up an issue of Poets & Writers. I was probably about eleven or twelve years old and I had just come to the conclusion that I was going to be a big writer. I picked up the magazine and set out to learn everything I needed to know from its pages.
At the time, Poets & Writers was what I would call a “fuddy-duddy” magazine, at least from the eyes of a twelve-year-old and didn’t get much out of it. Now, many years later, I couldn’t possibly recommend it more.
The most recent issue’s focus was on writing contests and included an extensive list of contests and due dates in the back of the magazine. The cover story was an interview with four people who run writing contests. While the interview was interesting, it didn’t really give any information I didn’t already know or that was useful to me personally. That said, the rest of the magazine’s content was extremely useful.
Some of the topics discussed that I found interesting were e-book lending/pirating, social media for authors, and navigating literary magazine contracts. Each of these articles were very well-written and informative.
There were also a few author spotlights that discussed each author and gave an excerpt of their work which was nice to read about, though these particular writers weren’t hugely engaging for me personally.
Both the print issue and website are fantastic resources for writers and I highly suggest getting a subscription or at least checking out the website. The website alone has an extensive database of literary journals to submit to (including Line Zero), information on literary agents and grants, and even job listings.
Bent Shelf Book Reviews 