Articles, News, and Commentary

2025 Alexander Pope Award Announcement

January 05, 2026

Pierian Staff

File Under: News

Please join us in congratulating Jonathan Ukah for his poem, "From a Distant Country", our choice for the 2025 Alexander Pope Award! Every poem we receive via our fee-free submissions is eligible for our annual prize. This is the second time in ...

The Pierian Volume 3 Now Available

December 29, 2025

Pierian Staff

File Under: News

Proudly in our third year of distinctive verse! *The Pierian* Volume Three is an omnibus of every poem from ten web issues, plus additional special features, in a handsomely printed perfect-bound journal featuring work from Erica Breen, David Elliot Eisenstat, Anton Getzlaf, Judith Janoo, Steven Kent, Neal Mason, Shama, ...

A Rather Personable Journey

September 06, 2025

Max Roland Ekstrom

File Under: News

*Originally Published in the October 2023 Newsletter* Duotrope.com, the leading database of submission opportunities for writers, listed *The Pierian* among its “Most Personable Poetry Publishers” in September 2023. Duotrope lists 3,685 poetry publishers and ranks fewer than 25 of them as “Most Personable,” placing *The Pierian* squarely in...

The Experiments of Bill Knott

September 06, 2025

Max Roland Ekstrom

File Under: Commentary

What does it mean to experiment in art, and particularly poetry? More significantly, what distinguishes the goal of the experimental poet from others? The poetry and teachings of Bill Knott (1940—2014) offer us one possible template, however inimitable. It’s childish to suggest that the experimental mode is one ...

Lessons Learned

September 05, 2025

Max Roland Ekstrom

File Under: News

*Originally Published in the October 2023 Newsletter* This article marks our tenth web issue and our last web release of 2023, making for an ideal moment to reflect upon some of the things that most surprised us about running a literary magazine. What have we learned, and how will we...

Barber's Adagio

September 05, 2025

Max Roland Ekstrom

File Under: Commentary

*Originally Published in the November 2023 Newsletter* David Barber’s debut, *The Spirit Level*, was released in 1995, and Barber would wait more than a decade before his second poetry collection, the more tightly woven (if guarded) *Wonder Cabinet*, saw the light. During these intervening years, Barber’s mentor and...