In 2019, Ninth Letter had the honor of featuring Xochitl Gonzalez’ first publication: her stunning essay “Paloma Negra”, which was the winner of that year’s Disquiet International Literary Program Prize in Nonfiction. None of us are surprised that Gonzalez has since achieved far greater success. Her first novel, Olga Dies Dreaming, was a New York Times bestseller, and in 2023 she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, for her monthly columns in The Atlantic.

Now she has written a new novel, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, and it embodies all the promise and achievement of her first novel, and then some.

Read an exclusive excerpt from Anita de Monte Laughs Last and a short interview between Xochtil Gonzalez and Ninth Letter editor-at-large Philip Graham.

Submit to the 2024 Ninth Letter Literary Awards!

$1000 prize for the winner of each genre (creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry).
Ninth Letter Literary Awards

Our web edition is open for submissions with the theme “Caretaking” until March 31!

Check out full guidelines and submit your poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Submit to “Caretaking”

Print Issue Available Now

Vol. 20 No. 02 is available for purchase and features new work from Marguerite Alley, Ellie Black, Nina Boals, Brittany Cavallaro, Matt Del Busto, Dustin M. Hoffman, Taylor Johnston-Levy, Alonso Llerena, Alexander Lumans, Robert Wood Lynn, Oksana Maksymchuk, Alissa Morgan, Weijia Pan, Rebecca Poynor, Hannah Smith, Gina Alexandra Srmabekian, Avia Tadmor, Matthew Tuckner, Penny Walker, and Felicia Zamora.

This issue also includes a special feature on the Gwendolyn Brooks Archives (including exclusive images of personal writings, notes, and ephemera from Brooks) housed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, plus an interview with the inaugural Gwendolyn Brooks Social Justice Initiative scholar, Roger Reeves, about his experience exploring the archive and his relationship to Brooks’ work.

Check out some selected work for free and purchase the print issue to support Ninth Letter!