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Colson Whitehead, whose new novel, The Underground Railroad (Doubleday, 2016), is featured in Page One of the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, speaks with Oprah Winfrey about the inspiration behind the book.
“I feel like I must muzzle myself, / I told my psychiatrist. / ‘So you feel dangerous?’ she said. / Yes. / ‘So you feel like a threat?’ / Yes. / Why was I so surprised to hear it?” At the Asian American Writers' Workshop, Solmaz Sharif reads from her debut poetry collection, Look (Graywolf Press, 2016), which is longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award in poetry. Sharif is joined by poets Rickey Laurentiis, Mariam Ghani, and Cathy Park Hong, who they read her work and their own, and join in a discussion.
“Even when I’m writing for young people, I really try to get into the emotional side of who they are...” At the 2016 National Book Festival, Jacqueline Woodson discusses her novel Another Brooklyn (HarperCollins, 2016), which is shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award in fiction. Woodson is featured in “A Great Good” by Rigoberto González in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
At Yale University, Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses his award-winning novel, The Sympathizer (Grove Press, 2015), and his latest book, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (Harvard University Press, 2016), which is a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award in nonfiction.
“Joy is an act of resistance.” At the sixty-seventh National Book Awards ceremony, Cave Canem founders Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady accept the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community for the organization known as a home for African American poets. This is the first time the award has been given to an organization.
The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger is a documentary about art critic, novelist, essayist, painter, and poet John Berger, whose latest essay collection is Landscapes: John Berger on Art (Verso Books, 2016). Cowritten by Ben Lerner and Tilda Swinton, the film was released in August 2016.
“Anything wet and eager enough to consume the skin can be called a baptism.” In this video from Button Poetry, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib reads “Ode to Prince” from his debut poetry collection, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (Button Poetry/Exploding Pinecone Press, 2016).
As part of the Singapore Literature Festival in New York City, Alfian Sa’at, Ovidia Yu, Naomi Jackson, and Jason Koo read from their work and discuss the invisibilities and visibilities of race and gender at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop.
“When I think about what I’m going to write next, I’m like, where do we not exist?” Jason Reynolds, who won the Kirkus Prize for young readers’ literature for his novel As Brave As You (Caitlyn Dlouhy, 2016), speaks about growing up in Brooklyn and not seeing characters like himself in literature as a child.
Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, a documentary directed by Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack, celebrates Maya Angelou with rare interviews, home movies and videos, and archival photographs that offer an intimate glimpse into her life.
