Multimedia - Audio

Alice Eve Cohen reads four excerpts from her memoir, The Year My Mother Came Back, forthcoming in March from Algonquin Books.   The Year My Mother Came Back One day, my brilliant, beautiful, complicated mother...

Tim Johnston reads an excerpt from his novel Descent, published in January by Algonquin Books.From The Life Before Her name was Caitlin, she was eighteen, and her own heart would sometimes wake her—flying...

Dawn Lundy Martin reads two poems from her collection Life in a Box is a Pretty Life, published in December by Nightboat Books.

Meghan Daum reads two excerpts from her essay collection The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion, forthcoming in November from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  From the Introduction For more than twenty years...

Chloe Caldwell reads an excerpt from her novella, Women, published in October by Short Flight / Long Drive Books. What I know for certain about this time: My pupils were expanding. I never did figure out if this was a symp­tom of...

Shane Book reads a selection of poems from his latest collection, Congotronic, forthcoming in September from University of Iowa Press. African Evening I had a thing for mange.Her skin was fluorescent with it.The...

Courtney Moreno reads an excerpt from her debut novel, In Case of Emergency, forthcoming in September from McSweeney's Books.In Case of EmergencyWhen conducting the triage of a multi-casualty incident, start by...

Jess Row reads an excerpt from his novel, Your Face in Mine, published in August by Riverhead Books. Your Face in Mine It doesn’t seem possible, even now, that it could begin the way it begins, in the blank light...

Megan Stielstra reads an excerpt from her debut essay collection, Once I Was Cool, forthcoming in May from Curbside Splendor. Stop Reading and Listen   1. Just after we eloped and just before the housing market crashed, my...

Sally Wen Mao reads five poems from her debut collection, Mad Honey Symposium, forthcoming in May from Alice James Books. Valentine for a Flytrap You are a hairy painting. I belong to your jaw.Nothing slakes you—no...

Michael Earl Craig reads four poems from his collection Talkativeness, published in April by Wave Books. Quick Sketch of a Bullet There is a bullet here on my desk.Tipped over on its side.Its jacket is brassand...

Kyle Minor reads the first story in his new collection, Praying Drunk, published in February by Sarabande Books. The Question of Where We Begin We begin with the trouble, but where does the trouble begin? My uncle...

Marianne Boruch reads three poems from her new collection, Cadaver, Speak, published in February by Copper Canyon Press. Face On winter's long red-eye out of Anchorage, small lampsnear the floor madea grainy blurry...

Justin Hocking reads the first chapter of his new memoir, The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in March. Ophelia, Part I Late summer 2005 and everything’s underwater. The news...

It turns out our annual Inspiration Issue inspires more than writing. Singer-songwriter and novelist Ben Arthur (benarthur.com), who wrote and recorded a song inspired by Frank Bures's article "The Secret Lives of Stories: Rewriting Our Personal...

Gary Shteyngart reads an excerpt from his memoir, Little Failure, forthcoming from Random House in January. Excerpted with permission by Random House, a division of Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be...

Ishmael Beah reads an excerpt from his forthcoming novel, Radiance of Tomorrow, published in January by Sarah Crichton Books. She was the first to arrive where it seemed the wind no longer exhaled. Several miles from town, the...

Rachel Cantor reads an excerpt from her debut novel, A Highly Unlikely Scenario: Or, A Neetsa Pizza Employee's Guide to Saving the World, published in January by Melville House.Leonard’s usual complaint volume was twelve calls per...

Carmen Giménez Smith reads two poems from her latest collection, Milk and Filth, published in October by University of Arizona Press. Happy Trigger Off-season and inthe burnt forestof my nightgown, a...

Laura van den Berg reads a story excerpt from her forthcoming collection, The Isle of Youth, published in November by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. I Looked For You, I Called Your Name The first thing that went wrong...

Justin St. Germain reads from his debut memoir, Son of a Gun, published in August by Random House.   I was riding my bike home from class when a plane roared overhead, a green A-10 flying so low I could read its markings. I took my...