Our Blog

In anticipation for the release of The Possibility of Tenderness this fall, we sat down with author Jason Allen-Paisant to talk about his forthcoming book. It was an illuminating and profound conversation with wonderful insight of what is in store in the book.

Milkweed: The title of the book, The Possibility of Tenderness, is such a wonderful and welcoming lead into what the reader will find between its pages. Can you say a bit more about what you mean about tenderness and how the book explores it?

Jason: Racism doesn’t just affect how people are treated—it affects how…

On April 13, 2025, Milkweed Editions delighted in collaborating with The Obodo Collective, a Las Vegas-based urban farm, to break ground on their second annual Our Mothers’ Garden Book Festival. To join in the festivities, Milkweed Editions donated a bundle of books to distribute to the community.

Collaborating with The Obodo Collective to break ground on a successful festival, for Milkweed, means more than just extending this act of mutual flourishing—it is the chance to delight in a gift economy over tilled earth. Per their website, their namesake embodies their mission in its entirety: “Obodo comes from the Igbo…

On May 6th, Milkweed Editions hosted a concert and album release party for late poet Bill Holm’s Playing Haydn for the Angel of Death. The album—a musical rendition of the late author’s namesake poem—was composed by Martha Helen Schmidt, sung by operatic baritone Ryan Hugh Ross, and accompanied by pianist Dr. Daniel Rieppel. They were joined by Milkweed Editions founder Emilie Buchwald, and visiting poets Freya Manfred and Barton Sutter. Together, they conjured Open Book into a concert hall to demonstrate the mastery of poetics, the transformative power of art song, and how Bill Holm challenged…

As we pass the perihelion of National Poetry Month, Milkweed Editions celebrated the launch of Chris Santiago’s newest poetry collection, Small Wars Manual, on April 16th. There, he was joined by poets that have each tackled small wars of their own: Kathryn Nuernberger, MC Hyland, and Rebecca Lehmann. Between the four of them—they alchemized militant warfare with poetry, prose, and shared community.

Around the room, poetry peeks from purses and palms. Signed copies curl into the crooks of elbows. In honor of National Poetry Month, poets from around the world strike pen to paper, writing a poem each…

On March 18th, Becoming Little Shell author Chris La Tray partnered with Milkweed Editions and Bimosedaa—a supportive, culturally-relevant housing program serving vulnerable indigenous populations in Minneapolis—to tour their on-site location.

“Bimosedaa, it’s Ojibwe for ‘let’s walk together,’” Program Manager Heather Day says, welcoming Chris and Milkweed staff into their apartment-style housing program. Around us, sunlight filters in through sloping glass walls.

“Bimosedaa: It’s Ojibwe for ‘let’s walk together.’”

True to their namesake, Chris and Heather radiate into the very embodiment of the phrase. As they drift past tenant rooms and gathering spaces, Heather gestures to a traditional star…

Photograph by Christopher Zebo

ANNOUNCING THE WINNER OF THE 2024–25 JAKE ADAM YORK PRIZE

Milkweed Editions and Copper Nickel are thrilled to announce that judge Matthew Olzmann has chosen Bo Hee Moon’s book Birthstones in the Province of Mercy as the winner of the 2024–25 Jake Adam York Prize. Birthstones in the Province of Mercy will be published by Milkweed Editions in January, 2026, and Moon will receive $2,000. 

A South Korean adoptee, Bo Hee Moon is the author of one previous book of poems, Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, which she published under another name with…

On February 27th, Milkweed Editions and the University of Minnesota Press hosted a book launch to celebrate Creature Needs: Writers Respond to the Science of Animal Conservation, in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Creature Conserve.

“Before we read, I want a moment to breathe with you.”—Claire Wahmanholm

“Before we read,” Claire Wahmanholm—author of Meltwater and—began, “I want a moment to breathe with you.” Under her instruction, she coaxed the crowd into a gentle meditation of hummed breath. Within three exhales, she transformed the room into a living, vibrating singing bowl. By the final round, the…

Milkweed Editions is an independent publisher of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Our mission is to identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it.

As a publisher, we join in thoughtful partnerships to “build an engaged community” around the books and authors we publish. Sometimes partners are community organizations, libraries, or independent bookstores who host readings with the authors we publish. And sometimes our partners are organizations with connections to specific communities of readers that we may not otherwise reach through bookstore, digital, library, or other traditional publishing channels. One such partner is the Women’s…

We recently sat down with author (and Milkweed editor-at-large) Helen Whybrow to talk about her forthcoming book, The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life. Touching on everything from cycles of life in nature to the art of belonging to parenting on a farm, read on for a taste of what’s to come in this profoundly moving book.

Photograph by Helen Whybrow

Milkweed Staff: A favorite section from the book is your description of belonging actually being a practice of participation. Can you say a bit more about how that looks as a Shepherd, mother, and activist?

Helen Whybrow: Belonging is something so…

A locally grown collaboration with national impact: Indigenous Library Steward-sustaining Partnership

Photograph by Anna Min

Chris La Tray placing his book Becoming Little Shell into the new Indigenous Little Free Library at Red Lake Nation College in Minneapolis.

Milkweed Editions and Little Free Library are excited to share our new “steward-sustaining” partnership for the Indigenous Little Free Library Program.

What is the Indigenous Little Free Library Program? Little Free Library grants no-cost book-sharing boxes where needed most on tribal lands and in Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. They work with Indigenous community leaders and members to place book exchanges in locations where book access is important to improving literacy. Learn more here.

Intended to help sustain the library selections for these granted libraries…