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The Circle (Knopf/McSweeney’s Books, 2013), Dave Eggers’s dystopian novel about a young woman who rises through the ranks of a powerful tech and social media company, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by James Ponsoldt, the film stars John Boyega, Tom Hanks, and Emma Watson.
“So why not / make a soup / of what’s left? Why / not boil & chop / something outside / the mind...” Kevin Young reads “Ode to Gumbo” from his poetry collection Dear Darkness (Knopf, 2008) at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City.
In this book trailer, Richard Flanagan, winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize, narrates a selection from his forthcoming novel, First Person, to be published by Knopf in 2018. Written in the style of a memoir, the novel follows a struggling writer who has six weeks to ghostwrite the memoir of a con artist.
“I’ve always been quite preoccupied with identity—personal identity—and also how the individual is constructed or constituted by larger social forces...” Hari Kunzru, author most recently of White Tears (Knopf, 2017), talks about his thematic interests and a book project on privacy and surveillance which he worked on during his fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin.
“For me, books are the things that tell you what you need to do in life and they’re also the things that help you make sense of your life.” Will Schwalbe, author of Books for Living (Knopf, 2016), speaks with PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown about the importance of reading and the books that have taught him life lessons such as Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train (Riverhead Books, 2015), James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (Dial Press, 1956), and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (Knopf, 1977).
Ayelet Waldman talks about her family history, working in different styles of writing, and sharing a moving moment with an elderly reader in this video for the World Affairs Council. Waldman’s first memoir, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life (Knopf, 2017), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
In this TEDx Talk, Sharon Olds speaks about the moments “in between” that have inspired her life and poetry, and reads from her collection Stag's Leap (Knopf, 2012), as well as her poem “Ode to the Hymen.” Olds's latest collection, Odes (Knopf, 2016), is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“I moved around a lot, and every place where I worked had its own narrative.” Author, editor, and screenwriter Terry McDonell talks about working in the publishing industry and the future of magazine publishing during his acceptance speech for the Magazine Editor’s Hall of Fame in 2012. McDonell’s new book, The Accidental Life: An Editor’s Notes on Writing and Writers (Knopf, 2016), is featured in “Nine More New Memoirs” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“I wanted it to be very clear, all of the ways that slavery has come to leave a lasting legacy on American history, on Ghanaian history, and on many other countries’ histories.” Yaa Gyasi joins host Shad on CBC Radio to speak about exploring slavery and history through the individual characters in her debut novel, Homegoing (Knopf, 2016). Gyasi is featured in "First Fiction 2016" in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine and can be heard in the eighth episode of Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast.
“There was no drinking gourd, no spiritual soothing enough to mend a broken spirit.” Yaa Gyasi reads from her debut novel, Homegoing (Knopf, 2016), for the Harvard Book Store's New Voices in Fiction series.
