We are pleased to announce the finalists of the 2017 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry! Presented in partnership by Milkweed Editions and the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation, the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry seeks to support outstanding poets residing in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota and bring their work to a national stage. This year, we received more than 200 submissions.

We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Letters from Max, a book including the correspondence between Max Ritvo and Sarah Ruhl. Letters from Max tells the story of the relationship between a young poet diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma and a celebrated playwright who began as his teacher and became, over the course of an extended correspondence, his friend, and finally, his student.

As you will have heard by now, President Trump's administration submitted its first federal budget request to Congress this week. The proposal calls for the elimination of a number of federal agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Here at Milkweed Editions, our publishing program is sustained by a healthy mix of revenue, including revenue from the sales of books we have published as well as support from readers like you, from private foundations, and from government agencies such as the Minnesota State Arts Board and the NEA. In fact, we have received financial support from the NEA almost every year since our founding in 1980.

Milkweed Editions is deeply saddened to report that Richard Wagamese passed away in his home on Friday, March 10, 2017. He was 61. Wagamese was the author of more than 15 books ranging across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including the novels Medicine Walk, Dream Wheels, and Indian Horse. Much of his work drew from his own struggle with family dysfunction that he attributed to the isolating government- and church-run schools, attended by his parents and extended family members. Wagamese called himself a second-generation survivor of these experiences.