Articles, News, and Commentary

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. #@callout It’s childish to suggest that the experimental mode is ...

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...

Good Grievance

May 16, 2025

Max Roland Ekstrom

File Under: News

In a recent article, [Lit Mag News](https://litmagnews.substack.com/p/q-whats-your-reaction-to-the-nea) summarized an unusual trend of online support within the poetry community for DOGE’s cancellation of federal grants to prominent literary magazines. The abrupt revocation of NEA funding from many prominent ...

Domino Effect

April 05, 2025

Max Roland Ekstrom

File Under: news

One July evening in 2022, amidst dwindling mask mandates and growing sense of new prospects, one of those “now or never” feelings arose, and Keeley and I began *The Pierian*. We knew the market for lit mags was crowded, but we had a unique vision—not a classically-themed literary ...