About Passager

Passager (passage + passenger) is a small, independent literary press whose mission is to publish the work of older writers, encourage the imagination in the later stages of life, and create beautiful and welcoming publications.

In 1990, in Baltimore, Passager was born. The idea was to bring attention to writers over 50 by giving them opportunities to publish with a nationally recognized press. At that time, it was unusual to find men and women writing in their 80s and 90s, but now we are happy to report that more and more authors join those ranks every day.

Passager Books, founded in 2005, has published anthologies, poetry collections, short fiction and memoirs by authors whose work has appeared in our journal. Our writers are our high flying birds, our muses, who make public the passions of a generation vital to our survival.

We’d love to hear from you!

News

The 2025 Passager Poetry Contest has begun! Winner receives $1,000 prize, publication of multiple poems, and a featured interview in the next issue of Passager. Full guidelines on our Submit page.

“I refuse to turn my life over to the disease.” Read the full interview in JMore with Passager poet David Bergman, author of Plain Sight, about the unique challenges of writing with Parkinson’s.

Read “The People Who Started Again In Their 90’s,” an article from The Guardian featuring Passager poet Sarah Yerkes.

Headstone received Massachusetts Book Awards Poetry Honors! Congratulations, Mark!

Featured Reading

“I wanted to live as boldly as my mother . . . there were places that I lived in fear, and one of them was putting my writing out in public,” says poet Diane Macklin. She wants her writing “to be big enough for people to fit in and specific enough that I am not erased.”

Read the full article featuring Passager writers Elaine Logan, Diane Macklin and John Biggs —“Three local retirees publish works”—out now in The Baltimore Beacon.