Magazine Writing: Getting Your Work Into Print


For poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers, publishing your work in magazines can often be the best way to jumpstart—and sustain—your writing career. From commercial, trade, and arts and culture publications to literary magazines and online journals, editors are always looking for interesting new work from emerging writers. And no matter what form you work in, publishing your work—from creative pieces to cultural criticism, craft essays and profiles, to book, music, and art reviews—getting your work published in magazines is often the first step in getting your name and work out into the world. In this course we’ll talk about the kinds of pieces that magazines look to publish, how to identify the right outlet for your work, and how to craft a successful query letter. We’ll read personal essays, articles, and reviews from a wide variety of publications, and discuss the many different opportunities available for getting your work into print (and online). Each student will write one piece and a targeted query letter to be workshopped in class, with the goal of submitting that work by the time the class is complete.

Melissa Faliveno is the Senior Editor of Poets & Writers Magazine. She has worked as a freelance features writer and columnist for Isthmus, Madison, Wisconsin’s alternative weekly, and in various editorial capacities for a major fiction publisher, an independent nonfiction press, and several literary magazines. Her essays, articles, profiles, and reviews have appeared in DIAGRAM, Isthmus, Lumina, Green Mountains Review, Martin Magazine, Midwestern Gothic, and Poets & Writers Magazine, among other publications, and in the book Derby Life, an anthology of essays about women’s roller derby published in 2015 by Gutpunch Press. She holds a BA in English and creative writing from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College.

Event Location and Ticket Information

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Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College 1 Mead Way
Bronxville, New York 10708
Handicap Accessible? Yes

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Times: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Ticket pricing:


Presenter: Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute
Presenter Phone: 914 337 0700