Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s Seven Bold And New International Voices
Not all stories have been written, far from it. Have you ever read a book about food from West Africa? You have? Well, then…
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TaraShea Nesbit’s Six Women Writing Through History
The women on this list write through history in unpredictable ways, trouble a linear narrative’s perpetuation of a solid past, draw closer the space…
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Emily Raboteau’s Seven Writers With un Pie Aquí y uno Allá
Because I’m writing a novel set in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, where I live and which is predominantly Dominican, I’ve been…
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Ellen McGrath Smith’s Four Books That Prove You Can Get the News from Poems
“It is difficult / to get the news from poems.” Yeah, William Carlos Williams said that, but I always thought he was making a…
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Marissa Landrigan’s Seven Nonfiction Writers on the Natural World
I’ve always been drawn to writing about the natural world: nonfiction that engages with a particular geography, explores wild or backyard landscapes, travels into…
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Maureen N. McLane’s Seven Poets on the Verge
When Vela invited me to contribute a piece on emerging women writers, I jumped at the chance—this past year has found me thrilling to…
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Aubrey Hirsch’s Five Masters of Voice
Voice is the main thing that draws me to a piece of writing. I can admire a story for its characters, an essay for…
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Celia Bland’s Six Emerging, Emergent Poets
When the Brits say, I’ll get you sorted out, they mean, in the voice of a formidable nanny, You are a mess that will…
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Lizzie Harris’s Seven Poet/Editors
We’ve all heard the assertion, only poets read poetry. There are, of course, many poets who become exceptions to the rule—the award-winners, the list-toppers,…
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Chloe Honum’s Seven Poets on Grief
Grief was what first drove me to poetry. As a teenager, in the throes of loss, I felt language slipping away from me—or me…
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Samantha Hunt’s Six Picture Book Authors
With picture books, there’s a question: Is this only for children? I am a grown woman who devours picture books because they mobilize new…
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CM Burroughs’s Five Books of Poetry
I am constantly on the lookout for teachable texts, and I have gathered these five with the ambition that they might teach not only my students, but teach me, too, how beauty and brutality continue to coexist in verse and in our world.
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