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On February fifth, Marne Zafar sat down for a Friends Lecture at the Minneapolis Institute of Art with Max Ritvo-award winning poet Michael Kleber-Diggs and Publisher Daniel Slager. Together, they discussed dual perspectives between author and publisher, from winning awards to forging literary friendships within the Twin Cities.  

Good people show up where they’re meant to be. —Michael Kleber-Diggs

This line, from his poetry collection Worldly Things, won’t be read until later in the night, but the crowd that gathers in the Minneapolis Institute of Art already evokes this notion. Just as tonight’s Friends Lecture suggests, everyone checks up…

In celebration of his newest poetry collection, Nocturama, we spoke with Will Brewer about his experience with critical mentorship from Louise Glück, listening for the lightning strike, and the hope for a poem to exist as a flash that echoes beyond its reading.

Milkweed Staff: Henri Cole likened your voice to Robert Frost’s, whose America was lonely, bewildered, and grieving. What are the characteristics of your America? How does your relationship with the United States influence your poetics?

Will Brewer: I never think about “poetics,” period! As for America, I never sit down and think to discuss it…

ANNOUNCING THE WINNER OF THE 2025–26 JAKE ADAM YORK PRIZE!

Copper Nickel and Milkweed Editions are thrilled to announce that judge Patricia Smith has chosen Constant Laval Williams’ book Elegy with Beautiful Child as the winner of the 2025–26 Jake Adam York Prize. Elegy with Beautiful Child will be published by Milkweed Editions in January of 2027, and Williams will receive $2,000.

Constant Laval Williams received the Beau J. Boudreaux Poetry Award at the University of Southern California and holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He volunteers as a senior reader for Ploughshares, and…

We are thrilled to announce that Hajjar Baban has been named one of five winners of the 2025 National Poetry Series. Her manuscript LOW FLYING PLANES was selected by poet Jake Skeets and will be published by Milkweed Editions in August 2026. In addition to publication, Baban will receive $10,000.

Hajjar Baban is a Pakistan-born Afghan Kurdish poet. Her work appears in publications including Prairie Schooner, Guernica, Poetry Daily, and Hayden’s Ferry Review, where she won the 2025 Poetry Contest, selected by Hieu Minh Nguyen. Recipient of a Pushcart Prize in Poetry, Baban is…

Last fall, I received an amazing invitation from Defne Egbo, a fellow at Gloria’s Foundation, to be part of her Between The Lines literary salon that uplifts the work of emerging authors. On a brisk evening in December, we assembled a confluence of amazing women in a wide range of fields—art, literature, science, education, engineering, policy, planning, media, animal care, social work, and more— in Gloria Steinem’s living room in Manhattan. “Between the Lines, was born out of my own desire to bring online book conversations in person and really ground them around one special book and…

In this conversation, we talk with celebrated translator Bruce Humes about his favorite reads and bookstores, as well as the importance of reading literature in translation. Bruce lives in Taiwan and specializes in translating writing by/about China-based Altaic peoples and Silk Road culture.

If monolingual Americans read more fiction in translation–and US publishers published more!–readers might be better placed to recognize how bizarre Trumpian Norms actually are.—Bruce Humes

Milkweed Staff: What was the first translated book you read?

Bruce Humes: Perhaps Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, translated from Jules Verne’s original in French. I hadn’t a clue…

In anticipation of his newest poetry collection Horses, we sat down with author Jake Skeets—the third poet laureate of the Navajo Nation and previous National Poetry Series winner—to discuss the ways in which his two collections converse with one another, his path forward as Navajo Nation Poet Laureate, and what he would say to every rez kid that speaks in stanzas, and dreams in poetry.

In Horses, queerness becomes relational and mirrors the poetics I’m working toward where the land becomes witness, and the body becomes a carrier of meaning. — Jake Skeets

Milkweed Staff: I’m interested in…

On Thursday, October 9th, 2025, Robin Wall Kimmerer and an abundance of writers, readers, and Milkweed supporters coalesced along the historic Minneapolis riverfront for our annual Book Lovers Ball. There, they were joined by Milkweed publisher Daniel Slager for a celebration of confluences between publishing, plants, and poetry. All throughout the week, she was joined by poets Ada Limón, Heid E. Erdrich, Chris La Tray and memoirists Helen Whybrow, Nicholas Triolo, Scott Chaskey, Erin Sharkey, Angela Pelster, and Beth Dooley, as they consider what it means to publish transformative literature in…

In anticipation of her forthcoming memoir Company of Owls, we sat down with author Polly Atkin—recently longlisted for the 2025 Wainwright prize—to discuss the kinds of company we keep, the habits that hold us steady, and the birds that transform our journey along the way.

 I try to be a good neighbor to humans and nonhumans alike, mindful of community both present and future.

Milkweed staff: We were delighted to discover that you own the independent bookstore, Sam Read Bookseller! Living alongside the owls, how have they informed your place within the community—both as a bookseller…

In celebration of our newest National Poetry Series Winner, Milkweed hosted a reading featuring Keith S. Wilson and his debut poetry collection, Games for Children on September 24th. While here, Keith was joined in conversation with graphic designer and Milkweed Fellow Alex Guerra to discuss the creation of his book cover. Later, Keith took the stage alongside poets Chaun Webster and Douglas Kearney to discuss graphic design, poetry, and how they’ve blurred the boundaries between the two disciplines.

Within minutes of his arrival at Milkweed, Keith S. Wilson and Milkweed Fellow Alex Guerra sparked into conversation over their many…