Please visit our picks of some of the best the web has to offer for poets and writers.
Once you have had a look, please return to add your favorites.
- Fiction Writer's Connection (http://www.fictionwriters.com) provides help with novel writing and information on finding agents and editors and getting published. If you are working on a book or a story and need some advice, or if you have just finished a project, but are not sure what to do next, FWC is where you can turn. FWC stresses personal attention as its number one benefit. Other benefits of membership include free critiquing, two free newsletters, and access to the private Members Only area at the FWC website, which is packed with information. Open to the public as well as members, the website has message boards, tip sheets, chatrooms, online courses, and a bookstore for writers.
- Poets & Writers (http://www.pw.org) is an essential literary arts organization which publishes Poets & Writers Magazine and acts as a clearinghouse of information for writers. PW magazine includes a listing of contests and competitions for poets and fiction writers, a listing of state grants, announcements of litearary awards, interviews with notable writers, and essays on the business and craft of writing. The PW website offers a speakeasy, job bank, and a great monthy literary trivia question challenge.
- Alien Flower Poetry Workshop (http://www.sonic.net/web/albany/workshop). The AFW began as the Albany Poetry Workshop in June of 1995 as an on-line project by and for the students of this class. The Alien Flower quickly transformed, and now features weekly guest poets, writing exercises, selected poetry links with contests, and a selection of on-line realtime discussion areas dealing with craft and poetics. Though little of the material on this page originates from the AFW, the carefully selected reviews and discussion topics written by poets such as Joy Acey, Tom Williams, and Molly Fisk offer a wide variety of ideas to consider on this poetry website.
- ZIPZAP (http://www.dnai.com/~zipzap/welcome.html). With two years of web publishing to their credit, the editors of this site show us an excellent example of how literary publishing on-line has evolved. Check out the back issues here to see the style and content changes from earlier issues to the latest. Check out issue No. 1, featuring written and audio poems by Kim Addonizio, and don't miss Dorianne Laux's poems in the later issues. These pages include paintings, essays, poetry, and humor, and the overall graphics are designed to wow you while remaining playful. Deep Style Magazine (in paper from Accountable Publishing) also appears at this site.
- Switched-On Gutenberg (http://weber.u.washington.edu/~jnh/). Johann Gutenberg (1398-1468), reported to have been the first European to print with moveable type, would stroke his silky beard and roll his blue eyes to see his image digitized on this page. SoG also shows an evolution from earlier to later issues. Now in its third issue, this site remains one of triumph of content over form. Graphics and layout are kept to a minimum while an emphasis is placed on the publishing of high-quality literary work from authors such as Jane Hirshfield, David Ignatow, Galway Kinnell, Maxine Kumin and Joyce Carol Oats. Reginald Gibbons, Patricia Goedicke, Heather McHugh, Alicia Ostriker and Stan Rice appear in the second issue. Accepts poetry submissions.