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A Public Space

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Independent publisher of the literary magazine + A Public Space Books. Host of #APStogether. Read No. 33 and subscribe.

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A PUBLIC SPACE IS TURNING 20!! 🎉🎉🎉Come help us celebrate! For tickets: https://apublicspace.org/events/the-2026-deborah-pease-prize by @apublicspace

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A Public Space Books is delighted to announce two astonishing debut story collections, coming this fall.

ON BOARD THE DOG STAR by Edward McWhinney follows a man—introspective, almost anonymous, keenly observant—as recounts his life: “It would be wiser to take life by its scruffy neck and change it before it changes itself.” Edward’s story “Four Stories” appeared in A Public Space No. 28.

THE SUN’S POINT OF VIEW by Marzia Grillo, translated from the Italian by Lourdes Contreras and Julia Pelosi-Thorpe, plays out in a nexus of overlapping scenes across the city and countryside of Grillo’s Rome. Marzia’s story “Ghost in Translation” appeared in A Public Space No. 31.

Edward and Marzia’s remarkable collections are available for pre-order now at the link in bio. by @apublicspace

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4 months ago

The third Weekend Writers’ Retreat with A Public Space is in the books! Thank you to our partners @kaatsbaan for a beautiful long weekend in the Hudson Valley, surrounded by art, fall foliage, and company.

This year, participants nurtured new and ongoing projects with workshop instructors Jo Ann Beard, Mary-Beth Hughes, Han Ong, Tracy O’Neill, Robert Sullivan, Peter Trachtenberg, and Ada Zhang; gained inspiration from craft and literary talks with Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Samantha Hunt, Amitava Kumar, and Dave King; and joined a movement class for writers with Sondra Loring. For the first time, writers culminated the weekend with a Literary Open Mic, sharing work old and new, before heading to the Farmhouse backyard for a celebratory dinner by our friends @tables.of.contents.

Until next year! Learn more about the Weekend Writers’ Retreat and upcoming classes, workshops, and programs with A Public Space on our website: apublicspace.org taken in Kaatsbaan by @apublicspace

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Next week, A Public Space returns to the Hudson Valley for a long weekend of writing, reading, and conversation. Seek inspiration and nurture new writing in the vast countryside landscape of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, an artist sanctuary.

There’s still space for you; join us.

Take advantage of the idyllic views to practice new ways of seeing, and reframe place in your writing. Join critically acclaimed author Robert Sullivan in an immersive, interdisciplinary workshop READING AND WRITING LANDSCAPES. How can centering place in our writing inform the way we observe? What do we notice? miss?

Instructor Robert Sullivan is the author of eight books, including the critically acclaimed bestseller RATS: OBSERVATIONS ON THE HISTORY AND HABITAT OF THE CITY’S MOST UNWANTED INHABITANTS. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Arts and Letters Award in Literature. He is a contributing editor of A Public Space.

The third annual Weekend Writers’ Retreat is presented in partnership with Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, which has long been a creative home and retreat for dancers, choreographers, performers, and composers. Instructors include Robert Sullivan, Mary-Beth Hughes, Jo Ann Beard, Han Ong, Tracy O’Neill, Peter Trachtenberg, and Ada Zhang. In the afternoons and evenings, join talks with Samantha Hunt, Amitava Kumar, and Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts; a movement class for writers with Sondra Loring; and literary events with fellow authors and editors. The weekend culminates with our Saturday celebratory dinner.

CREDITS
Robert Sullivan, “Almanac” (A Public Space No. 16)
Photographs by Suzanne Sullivan taken in Kaatsbaan by @apublicspace

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The countdown to the 2026 Brooklyn Book Festival begins!

Join us on Tuesday 9/22 at Unnameable Books @unnameablebooks for a discussion on where the editorial and writing processes meet. Editor-writer pairs Taylor Michael and Carolina Murriel and Louis Harnett O’Meara and Joanna Yamakami will offer an intimate look into that conversation, colloquy, and back-and-forth for forthcoming pieces in A Public Space.

The panel will be facilitated by current Editorial Fellows Berta Coll Bosch and Sam Karagulin.

“Editing with a writer is a joyous collaboration — not even a collaboration, but a conversation, a colloquy, a back-and-forth.” —Michael Pietsch on editing David Foster Wallace (2011, The Atlantic)

The event is free to attend–please RSVP at the link in bio! #BKBF #bookends taken in Unnameable Books by @apublicspace

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2 months ago

Treat yourself, and your writing, to a long weekend in the Hudson Valley. From October 8-11, join us for three days of writing, discussion, and communion with fellow writers and readers in Tivoli, NY.

Write in view of the idyllic Hudson River Valley and wonderful company. Then, enjoy afternoon literary talks and evening events with treats and small drinks, and a Saturday celebratory dinner.

Swipe to meet this year’s retreat instructors and their workshops.

Apply now! The extended regular registration deadline is August 24. Link in bio.

@kaatsbaan @tracysoneill @robt.sullivan @jo.ann.beard2 @sorrowsofothers @petertrachtenberg @samanthahunt___ @amitavawriter

PHOTOS

[1] Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Aditi Bhattacharjee
[2] Merce Cunningham and Catherine Kerr in Duets (1980). (Photo by Nathaniel Tileston, 1980; courtesy of the Merce Cunningham Trust and the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library)
[3] José Limón in The Moor’s Pavane, by Daniel Lewis
[4] Thom Carroll, Philly Voice, rehearsal of “In Motion, In Place: The Trisha Brown Dance Company in Fairmount Park,” 2019
[5] Margaretta Mitchell, Dance for Life: Isadora Duncan and Her California Dance Legacy at the Temple of Wings (Berkeley, Calif.: Elysian Editions, 1985). Copy 23 of 50. Rare Books: Theatre Collection (ThX) Oversize GV1785.D8 M57f
[6] Joan Jonas, Mirror Piece I, 1969, performance view. Courtesy: © Joan Jonas/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
[7] Trisha Brown, Walking on the Wall, 1971, performance documentation, Whitney Museum of American Art. New York. Courtesy: Trisha Brown Company; photograph. C Carol Goodden, 1971.
[8] Martha Graham, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

NARRATIVE DUETS | MARY-BETH HUGHES

Much of how I think about narrative is shaped by my experience as a dancer. Moving through Merce Cunnigham’s studio, I learned to see narrative as a sequence of patterns, not enacted, but embodied.

In this workshop, we’ll explore the idea of narrative patterns, with a focus on narrative duets. We’ll look at passages from Tolstoy’s ANNA KARENINA, among other work, for patterns to mark and move through and break away from.

Each day of the workshop, we’ll tak taken in Kaatsbaan by @apublicspace

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2 months ago

This fall with A Public Space, explore the craft of the long sentence. Visualize architectural space. Uncover form through the novella. Translate art into narrative.

Join Jamil Jan Kochai, Charles D’Ambrosio, Anne Elliott, and Annie Coogan for workshops and master classes, all online. Register at the link in bio.

Apply for scholarships for master classes by emailing office@apublicspace.org. See our website FAQ for instructions.

BUILDING GREAT SENTENCES, a master class with Jamil Jan Kochai (Saturday, August 22): How can long sentence writing reshape our relationship to narrative?

ASPECTS OF THE NOVELLA, a master class with Charles D’Ambrosio (Saturday, October 17): Discover the novella as a form, and a lens to look at time, point of view, characterization, shape, and structure.

ART AND TEXT, a workshop with Anne Elliott (Sundays, October 18-November 22): How can ekphrasis–the literary response to visual art, often taking the form of poetry–generate narrative?

DRAWING STORIES, a workshop with Annie Coggan (Saturday, October 24): How can the techniques of architectural drawing bring to life a fictional world? taken in Online by @apublicspace

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BOMB’s Small Press Flea 2026 is just around the corner on Saturday, August 15! We are continuing to share inside looks into the incredible, unique small and independent presses joining us this year. This week, check out two presses vending at SPF for the first time: Seaton Street Press and Tiny Cutlery—and two presses returning to vend with us: A Public Space and Archipelago Books.

Stay tuned for more insights into the presses tabling with us at SPF 2026.

We hope to see you all at SPF on August 15 from 12–6 PM at Amant, 316 Ten Eyck St, Brooklyn, NY! Follow our link in bio to RSVP. by @apublicspace

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A selection of sounds, tones, and silences from A Public Space No. 33, an issue of choreographies. Order your copy, or subscribe at the link in bio. by @apublicspace

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3 months ago

It is a thrill to announce Kelly Link as the recipient of the 2026 Deborah Pease Prize. Founding subscribers to A Public Space may remember her “Origin Story” from the magazine’s inaugural issue—its parallel universes and superhero origin stories; nemeses and levitating waitresses and tabloid reporters; its Land of Oz.

This was 2006. Kelly Link was the author of two story collections, STRANGER THINGS and MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS, which had been published by Small Beer Press, the small press she co-founded with Gavin Grant that ushered in a remarkable generation of innovative writers.

Twenty years later, she is one of the indispensable short story writers of the twenty-first century: the author of now five collections, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist GET IN TROUBLE, and a novel, THE BOOK OF LOVE, both published by Random House; and the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship for “pushing the boundaries of literary fiction.” She has influenced a generation of genre-defiant writers and readers. What was rare in 2006, and found support in small presses, is now central to our literature.

“Kelly Link specializes in seeing the extraordinary in ordinary situations. The monsters, the ghosts, the magic and inexplicable creatures in her fiction are not stranger than our own lives,” our board member Yiyun Li, described her work. “We’re delighted to be able to honor this master storyteller and her singular vision through the 2026 Deborah Pease Prize. And also to recognize Kelly Link for her contributions as a dedicated publisher and bookseller, and to celebrate the kindred spirits—both writers and readers—she has created an enduring space for.”

The Deborah Pease Prize, our board president, Charles Buice, noted, “carries forward the legacy of one of the founders of A Public Space. Since 2019, the prize has honored remarkable figures whose deep talents and advocacy have helped ensure the vitality of literature and the arts.”

Please save Wednesday, October 28 in your calendar to join us in New York City for a celebration with friends from@the literary and arts community.

For inquiries about sponsorships, write support@apublicspace.org by @apublicspace

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3 months ago

What a joy it was to gather with so many friends, old and new, to celebrate A Public Space No. 33 at @efluxbarlaika 🥂

Thank you to our readers Fiona McCrae @mmqalit; Dani Oliver @itsdanioliver; Imogen Osborne; and Parker Menzimer @peter_luger. A special thank you also to assistant editors Yasmin Bashir @cogbott and Theodore Heil @theodore.heil for introductions.

We loved celebrating our newest issue with you and hope you’ll join us again. Stay up to date with events by subscribing to our newsletter. Order your copy, or subscribe at the link in bio.

A subscription to A Public Space includes:
• Three issues of our award-winning magazine;
• Early access to magazine and book launch parties and events, including our upcoming 20th anniversary celebration;
• Exclusive offers and discounts, such as the Weekend Writers’ Retreat;
• Full access to a digital archive of work by critically acclaimed authors and emerging voices in fiction, poetry, translation, art, and more including: Marilynne Robinson, Jesmyn Ward, Yiyun Li, Jamel Brinkley, Nam Le, Arinze Ifeakandu, and more.

Until next time! taken in Bar Laika by e-flux by @apublicspace

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3 months ago

What would you do if you encountered a door and didn’t own the key? Or if you met someone and didn’t speak the same language? Or if you read a book and it felt inscrutable?

You could try to break the barrier one way or another. You could get angry because you couldn’t pass through. Or you could stare at the barrier and examine it to see what it can tell you. We have been trained to get closer, to go deeper, to reach a point.

But what if we celebrate impenetrability? What if we champion those things that cannot be entered, pierced, or understood? What if we treat them as something worth protecting?

In this open call, Editorial Fellow Berta Coll Bosch @bertacoll77 is requesting prose on IMPENETRABILITY as a generative force, as a quality that unlocks unexpected doors.

Submissions are open from now until July 13. Link in bio for guidelines on how to submit.
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Image: Mona Hatoum, Impenetrable, 2009 / Art Unlimited / Art Basel 42. Galleria Continua, San Gimignano. White Cube, London. © Lux & Jourik. by @apublicspace

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