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In anticipation of the release of Governing Bodies: A Memoir, A Confluence, A Watershed this fall, we sat down with author Sangamithra Iyer to learn more about the structure, themes, and interconnected layers in the book, including her work with animal rights.

Milkweed: Governing Bodies is uniquely structured. Can you talk about how you came to that form and why you chose it?

Sangamithra Iyer: Governing Bodies was an ungovernable book to write. The structure was not something I could engineer or impose. The blueprint didn’t come first; it was shaped with iteration over time.

I…

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…

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…

Because reading is life-changing, and books make the best gifts! In addition to our perennial favorite gift book, the hardcover special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, our hand-selected recommendations are here to help you work through your holiday list.

Join our membership program to support the publication of life-changing literature like this and receive a 20% discount on all Milkweed books! Learn more here.

For the romantic adventurer:
North American Odyssey by Amy & Dave Freeman

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Imagine taking a 12,000 mile journey from the Pacific Northwest, through Canada, and all the way down the…

Please join us in honoring and celebrating […] by Fady Joudah, 2024 National Book Award Finalist for Poetry.

“Fady Joudah’s […] scribes the elliptical seam between heritage and history into a sustained meditation on war, displacement, and love. Punctuated with the music of maqam in the marrow of its mission, this timeless collection illuminates an existential Palestinian struggle that rises to the universal through Joudah’s deft, querying verse.”—National Book Award judges citation

From the 2024 Jackson Poetry Prize winner and one of our most acclaimed contemporary writers, this urgent and essential collection combats the erasure of Palestinian resistance and…

By Melissa Kwasny

One of the first things I learned as a hospice volunteer is to think of death not as a medical emergency but rather as a spiritual event. After attending many deaths, including that of both my parents, I have learned something else: dying is a spiritual process, not a moment. It is a process not only for the person experiencing it but also for their loved ones who are left with grief.

Grief is universal. All peoples, and most animals, experience it. It is, paradoxically, also individual. We each suffer grief uniquely. It is perhaps our…

Weijia Pan’s debut collection of poems, Motherlands, was selected by the late Louise Glück as the winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize in 2024. Among other things, the book is a transnational exploration of personal, familial, and cultural trauma, as well as the more universal trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pan’s poetry draws on countless juxtapositions (of two countries, two languages, past and present, and national loyalty versus personal transparency), questioning “home,” nostalgia, and self-exile in order to express himself through the lens of a dual citizen. In the following interview conducted by Milkweed Editions, Pan opens up about the…

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…