Brit Bennett’s Early Writing
Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers (Riverhead Books, 2016), speaks about her first memorable piece of writing and her experiences as a young reader and writer.
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Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers (Riverhead Books, 2016), speaks about her first memorable piece of writing and her experiences as a young reader and writer.
“We harness a wildness in the ‘I’ of our poems.” In this 2013 video at the Library of Congress, Dorothea Lasky delivers the Bagley Wright Lecture on Poetry and explores how poetry makes us human. Lasky interviews the late Max Ritvo about his poetry and process in “The World Beyond: A Last Interview With Max Ritvo” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“Upon moments like these, time never stops gnawing its little beaver teeth and the dialogue never stops even after we stop listening.” In this 2012 video, Peter Orner reads from his novel Love and Shame and Love (Little, Brown, 2011). His first essay collection, Am I Alone Here? Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live (Catapult, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“Never in my mind did I think I was writing about love. Now I look at it and there’s no question, it’s all about the intimacies of love...” Chloe Caldwell reads from and talks about her first collection of essays, Legs Get Led Astray (Future Tense Books, 2012). Caldwell’s second essay collection, I’ll Tell You in Person (Emily Books, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“‘Sometimes on American Idol, Nicki Minaj says I’m obsessed with you,’ she says. ‘I’m obsessed with you right now,’ I say.” Chloe Caldwell, whose second essay collection, I’ll Tell You in Person (Emily Books, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from her novella, Women (Short Flight/Long Drive Books, 2014).
In this book trailer for his debut memoir, All Tomorrow’s Parties (Grove Press, 2016), Rob Spillman recounts defining experiences from time spent as a child in Berlin, Aspen, and Baltimore. Spillman, who serves as the editor of Tin House and the executive editor of Tin House Books, is featured in Agents & Editors in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
In this short film for the Sonnet Project, Michelle Beck performs Shakespeare's Sonnet 8 at Central Park's Naumburg Bandshell in New York City. The Sonnet Project, which aims to film all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets, is featured in News and Trends in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“You do not believe you are sexy. You do not believe you are beautiful. You believe you are intelligent, but sometimes the effort to convince others isn’t worth it.” Jennifer Bartlett, whose essay "A Call to Action: Working Toward Inclusiveness for Poets With Disabilities" is in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from “The Hindrances of a Householder” at the 2016 Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington, D.C.
“I ask them to take a poem / and hold it up to the light...” This animated video by Milos features Billy Collins narrating his poem “Introduction to Poetry” fromThe Apple That Astonished Paris (University of Arkansas Press, 1996). Collins’s new poetry collection, The Rain in Portugal (Random House, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
In this book trailer for her debut story collection, Know the Mother (Wayne State University Press, 2016), Desiree Cooper reads from "In the Ginza." Cooper is featured in "5 Over 50 Reads" in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.