Authors / What Matters Most / News / Interviews

Surrender to the current; on writing to survive grief, finding comfort in one’s hybridity, and resisting the urge to write like Rimbaud

Milkweed Staff — 03/15/2023

Chris Dombrowski is the author of The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water. He is also the author of Body of Water: A Sage, A Seeker, and the World’s Most Elusive Fish, and of three acclaimed collections of poems. Currently the Assistant Director of the Creative Writing program at the University of Montana, he lives with his family in Missoula.

In the following interview, the famously personable hybrid-author made a stop in to the Milkweed Editions offices in Minneapolis, MN in the midst of touring for his new book, which has just been named a finalist…

News / Events

On View: Waking Worlds, a museum exhibition featuring World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, illustrated by Fumi Nakamura

Milkweed Staff — 03/10/2023

 

On the evening of January 27th, 2023, a few members of the Milkweed team ventured two hours south to the city of Winona, in the “bluff country” of Minnesota. As the sun began to set across the snowy expanse, we traded views of sparkling white fields for road-passes winding through hills and chasing the Mississippi River. Long before we arrived at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum’s Waking Worlds exhibition preview party, I’d begun to ponder what world we had left behind, and what new one awaited. I’d been hoping for an experience immersive enough to stop time if…

Minneapolis, MN —

In Person: Claire Wahmanholm and Chaun Webster at Milkweed Books

Join us for a special event with poets Claire Wahmanholm and Chaun Webster as they read and discuss their new books Meltwater and Wail Song. Along with this event’s reading and conversation between the authors, there will be time for audience questions and book signing.

Please join us at Milkweed Books, our brick-and-mortar independent bookstore located on the first floor of Open Book, at 7 pm for an evening of transformative poetry!

 

About the speakers:

Claire Wahmanholm is the author of Meltwater, Redmouth, and Wilder, which won the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry and the Society of…

New York,, NY —

In Person: Chris Dombrowski appearing at CCNY Chai & Chat Reading Series

On Tuesday, February 28, author Chris Dombrowski will read from his latest book The River You Touch as part of the CCNY MFA in Creative Writing’s Chai & Chat reading series. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Michelle Valladares, director of the MFA, followed by a Q&A and book signing with the author. Dombrowski’s book will be available for purchase at a discounted price for those who attend.

Los Angeles, CA —

In Person: K. Iver Appearing at Skylight Books

Join K. Iver at Skylight Books!

Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco sees us through a particular kind of grief—one so relentless, it’s precious. It presses us, also, to continue advocating for a world in which queer love fantasies become reality and queer love poems “swaddle the impossible / contours of joy.”

Yalie Saweda Kamara

Yalie Saweda Kamara is the author of Besaydoo, winner of the 2023 Jake Adam York Prize. She is a Sierra Leonean American writer, educator, and researcher from Oakland, California and the 2022–2023 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate.

Awards & Prizes

Yalie Saweda Kamara Wins the Seventh Annual Jake Adam York Prize

Milkweed Staff — 02/21/2023

 

ANNOUNCING THE WINNER OF THE 2022–23 JAKE ADAM YORK PRIZE!

Copper Nickel and Milkweed Editions are thrilled to announce that judge Amaud Jamaul Johnson, has chosen Yalie Saweda Kamara’s book Besaydoo as the winner of the 2022–23 Jake Adam York Prize. Besaydoo will be published by Milkweed Editions in Winter 2024, and Kamara will receive $2,000.

Yalie Saweda Kamara is a Sierra Leonean American writer, educator, and researcher from Oakland, California, and the 2022–23 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate (two-year term). She has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the National Book Critics Circle, and Callaloo. Kamara’s poetry…

Seattle, WA —

In Person: Milkweed Editions AWP Offsite Party

A gathering and celebration of Milkweed authors and readers featuring an exclusive reading from 5 of our recently published poets (Ama Codjoe, Kathy Fagan, K. Iver, Sara Eliza Johnson, Elizabeth Metzger, and Claire Wahmanholm) accessible through a QR code at the event. The poets have also contributed a “book artifact”—an object, playlist, piece of memorabilia that is connected to their collection—available to win through a raffle along with other Milkweed swag during the event. Bring a friend and help us toast our amazing authors and readers. We can’t wait to celebrate with you!

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