"Scarlet, gold, blue-green, gin-blue, cobalt, parrot-green, beer-brown, orange: these are remarkably color-full lines." Read Peggy Rosenthal on John Poch's new collection from Slant Books for today's Close Reading: slantbooks.substack.com/p/loving-the...
SAVE THE DATE: Join us for the live launch event for Tom Howard's new short story collection, Invisibilia, on April 14. Howard takes the reader on a mesmerizing ride through a haunting, haunted landscape of drifters, soldiers, lovers, and ghosts. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
ICYMI, our launch event with John Poch for The Future of Love is now live on YouTube! Check it out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzZz...
"For many African Americans, reading has been an epiphany, a form of insurgency and escape. Often undertaken in private, even in secrecy, reading for them was revelatory, a conversion." Read William Cain on "Black Boy" for today's Close Reading: open.substack.com/pub/slantboo...
#AWP Let's gooooo!!!!
Congratulations and happy publication day to John Poch! It's not too late to register for the launch event for The Future of Love—TONIGHT! Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
#AWP Goers! Slant will be in Baltimore this week! Come visit our booth at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference!
"The poem—its soul—spoke into and through my partially awakened state." Read Richard Chess on Elizabeth Jacobson for today's Close Reading. slantbooks.substack.com/p/i-am-turni...
"Moving through a wide field of literary & spiritual references, Wormser’s poems insist on presence, humility, & the discipline of seeing the world as it is, without surrendering tenderness." Tune into the review of Baron Wormser's posthumous volume: open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
One week away! Register now for the launch event for The Future of Love by John Poch. us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
“If I could travel anywhere, I think it would be back in time.” Read John Tuttle’s wide-ranging interview with Molly McNett, author of Child of These Tears—discussing faith, whales, commonplace books, and the significance of dreams. voegelinview.com/an-interview...
"The poems are all inspired by only her. If there are faults in the poems, they are mine. If there is beauty, it is hers." Read John Poch's interview with Brandi Willis Schreiber on The Future of Love, forthcoming March 3. brandiwillisschreiber.substack.com/p/the-future...
The Three Amigos (or maybe The Three Reprobates?). (Paul Mariani, Ron Hansen, and Yours Truly)
New York Encounter! Let's go!!!!!!!
For years you've heard me talk about Erasmus and humanism: FINALLY, a podcast that delves into the meaning of that. On SlantCast I interview leading Erasmus scholar Erika Rummel on what we mean when we say "humanism." youtu.be/lSCU-NXZGoY?...
“I’m struck . . . by the poetic energy he puts into envisioning a God who is absent, hidden, silent.” Read Peggy Rosenthal on Czeslaw Milosz for today's Close Reading. slantbooks.substack.com/p/does-god-e...
"I have just finished reading Howard Schaap’s memoir, Brooding Upon the Waters, and I must say, it has been a long time since I have been so captivated by a book." Read David Schelhaas's review at Reformed Journal: reformedjournal.com/2026/01/28/h...
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Live launch for The Future of Love: "These poems honoring a long marriage are not sentimental or nostalgic, but passionate & wild about the beautiful tensions one finds when facing distance, absence, longing, & the struggle of faith." Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Once again gathered with my friends in white for a convocation at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley. Awaiting a keynote by the brilliant Russell Hittinger.
"My soul tingles. My gut murmurs.
My past rolls over and starts to dream.
Each stab and fall comes forth.
How can I hold so little that is so much?"
Don't miss this excerpt from Baron Wormser's new volume, now available to read on our website. slantbooks.org/news/read-an...
"The idea of community can be so easily romanticized." Listen to Greg Wolfe interview Slant's managing editor, Emily Kwilinski, on her doctoral thesis for the latest episode of SlantCast: "What Literature Tells Us About the Need for Community." youtu.be/jJjDHNA7cb8
"Anne loved to read & write. She was also drawn to the transcendent beauty experienced in nature and in all of life. This attraction seeps into her characters." Read John Tuttle on "Anne Frank and the Religiosity of Fairy Stories" for today's Close Reading. slantbooks.substack.com/p/anne-frank...
We are now in the final days of our Annual Appeal! Please donate to help us reach our $15,000 matching goal for 2026. We are SO CLOSE! Please help: slantbooks.org/donate/
"Blue is a color, yes, but it is also just a general truth that hangs over us. It is an adjective that sometimes becomes a noun, just a thing, a blueness that appears and asserts itself in the world." Morgan Meis close reads a color for today's Substack and blog post. slantbooks.substack.com/p/blue
"His face recedes into the paper, into a separateness that the public King may have experienced even as he fought for integration and union." William E. Cain on a little-known but brilliant portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. Today at Slant's Close Reading blog. slantbooks.org/close-readin...
Excited, too! Such. A. Great. Book. (For teenagers everywhere and the teenager in you.)
Cover reveal! Darren Cools's debut, Light in the Canyon, new from Slant in June 2026. This astonishing debut novel for young adults & readers of all ages—in the spirit of beloved writers like Madeleine L’Engle & Claire Legrand—is by turns chilling, tender, & profound. slantbooks.org/books/light-...
Don't miss Dawn Potter's beautiful tribute in Vox Populi to the late Baron Wormser. James Baldwin Smoking a Cigarette, Wormser's final collection, is available from Slant next week. voxpopulisphere.com/2026/01/04/d...
Now available for pre-order in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats. Publication date: February 17 but it will be for sale at New York Encounter. a.co/d/eYgSgey
TWO WEEKS AWAY: Slant's launch event for the late poet Baron Wormser's final collection, James Baldwin Smoking a Cigarette and Other Poems, will take place on January 13 and feature four renowned guest poets. Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
