Poet, scholar, and nonfiction writer Maggie Nelson’s body of work is often described as hybrid and genre-bending; some say it defies classification. The Paris Review pinpoints the nexus of her writing as, “fluidity: gender, pleasure, desire, and the body are questioned with equal rigor as modality, criticality, and theory.” The author of the cult-classic Bluets and, more recently, The Argonauts, a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Award, Nelson is back with a new volume that interweaves critical theory, pop culture, and the intimate exchanges of daily living. Her new book, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Restraint, explores how we think, experience, and talk about freedom in ways responsive to the conditions of our experience. All Women You Need to Know (WYNK) Series, Create Your Own Series, and Super SAL subscribers (except Student/25 & Under and complimentary subscriptions) receive Nelson’s forthcoming book, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint, mailed to the subscriber’s address.

The author of six books of fiction, Lauren Groff has been described as brilliant and hard-working, “a woman of intellect and integrity, generous and warm, and hard to keep up with.” The same could be said of her stunning, glimmering prose. The two-time National Book Award finalist and the New York Times bestselling author returns with an exhilarating new novel called Matrix, her first since the groundbreaking Fates and Furies. In this tale of historical fiction, Groff follows the real-life figure of Marie de France into a violent, sensual world of religious ecstasy and consuming passion—a world that refuses to reconcile itself with Marie’s bold heart and crusading existence. All Literary Arts Series, Create Your Own Series, and Super SAL subscribers (except Student/25 & Under and complimentary subscriptions) receive Groff’s forthcoming book, Matrix, mailed to the subscriber’s address.

How does one recover from addiction without destroying the self-as-addict? Pilgrim Bell, Kaveh Akbar’s newest collection of poems, meditates on this question, taking readers on a spiritual journey through disavowal, divinity, and belonging. With formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Akbar’s brilliant poems unfold in the empty space where song lives, teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness.

Since 2012, Jelani Cobb has been contributing his deep knowledge of history and masterful journalism to The New Yorker, bringing nuance and clarity around issues of race, politics, history, and culture. Cobb is the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, specializing in post-Civil War African American history, 20th-century American politics, and the history of the Cold War. Now, with co-editor David Remnick, he’s releasing The Matter of Black Lives, The New Yorker’s groundbreaking anthology on race in America—including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and more—with a foreword by Cobb. All Journalism Series, Create Your Own Series, and Super SAL subscribers (except Student/25 & Under and complimentary subscriptions) receive Cobb’s forthcoming book, The Matter of Black Lives, mailed to the subscriber’s address.

Social activist Patrisse Cullors is the New York Times bestselling author of When They Call You A Terrorist and the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. Since she began the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013, it has expanded into a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated global foundation, supporting Black-led movements in the US, UK, and Canada. Now, in her new book, An Abolitionist’s Handbook, Cullors charts a framework for how everyday activists can effectively fight for an abolitionist present and future. Filled with relatable pedagogy on the history of abolition, a reimagining of what reparations look like for Black lives and real-life anecdotes from Cullors, An Abolitionist’s Handbook offers a bold, innovative, and humanistic approach to how to be a modern-day abolitionist. Cullors will be in conversation with Our Existence Beyond Trauma Series curator, Ijeoma Oluo, for this online-only event, which is co-presented by Langston Seattle.

The inaugural James Welch Prize reading, celebrating two Indigenous poets from the U.S., will be presented in partnership with Hugo House and Poetry Northwest, featuring judge Sherwin Bitsui and winner Kenzie Allen.