"When I got sober, I stayed away from the book for many years," says writer Aaron Thier in a piece for The Point about spiritual themes in the work of Denis Johnson.  "I was afraid of what I’d find." 

Denis Johnson, Francisco Cantú, and Terrance Hayes (nominated in two categories, poetry and criticism) are all finalists for the 2018 awards.

"Why not understand that everything contains at least one tiny nugget of its opposite, why not find a socially acceptable way to shriek with rage in public," asks Kim's new short story, from A People's Future of the United States, edited by fellow winner Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams.

"At the rehearsal for Choir Boy," writes Carvell Wallace in his New York Times profile of McCraney, "what I witnessed was a man who has made himself a connoisseur of grief sharing that expertise with a roomful of younger black artists." 

Wang discusses her book of nonfiction, The Collected Schizophrenias, which Publishers Weekly calls "possessed of a candor and beauty likely to earn her many devoted fans." 

On literary podcast Otherppl, Pico discusses the importance of readings, explaining, "I think it’s audacious to think that you’re going to have a reader anyway, but if you do have one and they do show up, I do want to give them something." 

Li explains why she wanted more from the language in Becoming and asks, "'When they go low we go high,' is the epitome of symbolic language.Yet what is the unnamed in the slogan?" 

"I can’t remember/ The exact date or/ Grade, but I know when I began ignoring slight alarms/ That move others to charge or retreat. I’m a kind/ Of camouflage." A new poem by Jericho Brown is featured in The Nation.

In the Believer, Smith talks to fellow winner, Poetry Editor Jericho Brown, about why, "Publishing a first book made me feel like I was finally a member of a team."