A Public Space Magazine

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Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014) published more than fifty-five books of poetry in Slovenia and received numerous awards, among them the Jenko Prize, Prešeren Prize, and the European Prize for Poetry. In the 1990s, he served for several years as the cultural attaché for the Slovenian Embassy in New York City.

We are pleased to announce that applications for the 2024 Writing Fellowships at A Public Space will open on March 1, 2024. The aim of these fellowships is to seek out and support writers who embrace risk in their work and their own singular vision.

About the author Lisa Olstein is the author of seven books, including the poetry collection Dream Apartment, which will be published this fall by Copper Canyon; the book-length lyric essay Pain Studies (Bellevue Literary); and Climate (Essay Press), an exchange of epistolary essays with the poet Julie Carr.

December 8, 2023 We are pleased to announce that applications for the 2024 Editorial Fellowships, a program for aspiring editors, will open on January 1, 2024. Established in 2019, the Editorial Fellowships at A Public Space aim to support the next generation of editors who will offer a more diverse publishing community—culturally, aesthetically, economically; and to explore new possibilities for editing, writing, and literature.

Over the past few years, I’ve become increasingly drawn to works of creative nonfiction. From Yiyun Li’s Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life to Don Mee Choi’s DMZ Colony, these works have expanded the breadth of what I thought creative nonfiction could do. The creative nonfiction I’m interested in is multifaceted, experimental, polyvocal, and spans a wide variety of forms—from personal essays to hybrid poetry.

When I first read Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang I was twenty-two, fresh out of college, and had just arrived in New York City. Hunger debuted in 1998. I was reading it in 2015. Thinking back on that period, there was an atmosphere of suspension. I felt strongly the sense that my life had not begun yet but was about to, and observed myself the way one might observe a particle in the air, guessing where it will land. I wanted to be a writer.

Saturday, November 11, 2023 Starts Whatever book a writer first fell in love with as a child makes its appearance—in some form—in everything that writer writes forever after. We’ll begin class by looking at evidence of this observation in examples provided by Louise Glück, Christine Schutt, Garth Greenwell, Sigrid Nunez, Richard Powers, and Jamaica Kincaid. Everyone will be required to bring their own first-beloved book with them to class, and to engage with it in a writing exercise.

What is an editor's role? How can an author work with an editor to elevate their writing? Join Writing and Editorial Fellows from A Public Space for a conversation about the editor-writer relationship. They'll discuss lessons learned and insights gained, formative experiences, and their questions for each other about the surprises they found on their side of the relationship. With Editorial Fellow Lydia Mathis and Writing Fellows Kate Doyle, Cory Howell Hamada, and Kyle Francis Williams.

Sep 14 Thursday, September 14, 2023 | 7:00 p.m. CT Prairie Lights, 15 South Dubuque St, Iowa City, IA On Thursday, September 14, join Ada Zhang for a reading and conversation in person at Prairie Lights to celebrate the launch of her debut story collection, The Sorrows of Others, from A Public Space Books. Moderated by Jamel Brinkley, author of Witness. This event will be held in person at Prairie Lights.