Blog Posts by Milkweed Staff

CREDIT ILJA HERB

Milkweed Editions is deeply saddened to share that Darrel J. McLeod passed away late last week after a sudden illness. He was 67. Darrel was an uncommonly beautiful and gentle soul whose stories about finding his voice as a two-spirit, Indigenous man moved readers across the globe. Along with his activism and service to Indigenous causes, particularly in Canada, his books brought forth vital stories of heritage, compassion, forgiveness, and hope.

“I am saddened by the news of Darrel’s passing, if also profoundly grateful to have called him a friend. He was an exceptionally beautiful human being.”—Daniel Slager, Publisher…

How do artists work within constrictions of time? How can our existence be traced through art? How does writing ekphrastic poetry compare with linguistic translation? How is historical time considered with care in stretching both towards the past and into the future? These are some of the questions poet Jessica Fisher unpacks with her work in Daywork and in our Q&A below!

Milkweed Staff: Daywork takes its title from the giornata—the term in fresco painting for the section of wet plaster that can be painted in a single day. When did you first discover this concept? And what…

Upon their return from the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, authors Diane Wilson and Erin Sharkey asked themselves: What do conversations about climate change mean for us as writers?

“Distinguished by his courage to speak in the face of the unspeakable,
in poems of lyric concision and intensity.”

Poets & Writers announced today that Fady Joudah has won the 2024 Jackson Poetry Prize, which this year carries an increased award of $100,000. Given annually by Poets & Writers to recognize an American poet of exceptional talent, the prize is endowed by a gift from the Liana Foundation and is named for the John and Susan Jackson family. There is no application process; poets are nominated by a panel of their peers, selected by Poets & Writers, who remain…

Milkweed is deeply saddened by the recent passing of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Tuệ Sỹ, whose poems we published in a bilingual edition last year as Dreaming the Mountain, with translations by Nguyen Ba Chung and Martha Collins. Born in 1943, Tuệ Sỹ joined a Zen order at the age of ten and later became an eminent Buddhist scholar, professor, translator, and poet. He actively resisted the idea that Buddhism should serve as a tool for any political agenda, and was well known for his dissidence.

Following study at the Institute of Buddhism in Nha Trang, Tuệ Sỹ moved to Saigon…

At Milkweed, we often discover great books in curious ways, and the Métis poet and storyteller Chris La Tray’s debut memoir, Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, is no exception. Nearly a decade ago, Publisher & CEO Daniel Slager attended a writers conference in Missoula, Montana. There he crossed paths with La Tray, who was hand-selling books at local indie bookstore Fact & Fiction. Their exchange morphed from pleasantries to serendipitous dialogue revealing that La Tray was writing a book of his own.

Later that evening, Slager learned that La Tray had recently begun interrogating…

Effective March 18, 2024, Craig Popelars has joined Milkweed Editions in the newly created role of Vice President, Sales & Marketing. Popelars was previously the publisher of Tin House Books, and the associate publisher of Algonquin Books

Daniel Slager, Publisher and CEO of Milkweed, said, “We are thrilled to welcome Craig to the Milkweed team. We’ve had some wind in our sails in the marketplace over the last few years, and we are all very excited to build on it.”

Popelars shared, “I’ve admired Milkweed’s storied publishing program ever since I wrote my very first bookstore shelf-talker for Larry Watson’s …

On February 22, Milkweed Editions hosted a virtual launch event to celebrate the publication of Imane Boukaila’s Tressing Motions at the Edge of Mistakes: Poems. The book is the fourth addition to Multiverse, a literary series curated by—and devoted to—neurodiverse voices. Boukaila was joined by Multiverse editor, Chris Martin, who moderated the event, and four poets selected by Boukaila to “give voice” to their favorite poems from her book. The launch concluded with a dazzling “homing rally,” a collaborative poetry exercise open to all.

Among the many feats Multiverse has accomplished in the years since its…

 

Copper Nickel and Milkweed Editions are thrilled to announce that judge Cynthia Cruz has chosen Sarah V. Schweig’s collection of poems, The Ocean in the Next Room, as the winner of the 2023–24 Jake Adam York Prize. The Ocean in the Next Room will be published by Milkweed Editions in January 2025, and Schweig will receive $2,000.

Sarah V. Schweig’s first book, Take Nothing with You, was published by the University of Iowa Press in 2016. Her poetry has appeared in Boston Review, Granta, Tin House, and the Yale Review, among others, and her critical essays have…

Debra Magpie Earling wasn’t exactly surprised when her first novel, Perma Red, was banned after its re-release in 2022. She’d already faced more than her fair share of adversity bringing the book to fruition: after spending nearly a decade conceiving of the first draft, she would lose it to a cabin fire. After tirelessly working to rewrite the story, she’d be advised—repeatedly—to adapt the ending of the work to cater to Western audiences. And after finally signing her first publication deal in 2002, the imprint would shutter its doors and force the novel out of print just four years…