Directed by James Franco, this film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1936 novel, In Dubious Battle, follows the lives of California fruit pickers who go on strike. The film stars Franco, Robert Duvall, Vincent D’Onofrio, Selena Gomez, and Nat Wolff.

“Your inspiration has become low, but can be regained by reading, attending to sounds of life in the distance, enjoying solitude...” Walden, a Game is a video game inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s time spent in solitude and reflection at Walden Pond. The goal is to achieve a well-balanced way of life by completing simple activities such as fishing, foraging, reading and writing, and communing with the natural environment.

“It turns out that the universe is heavier than our initial calculations—some people call this extra weight dark matter.” This animated short film by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of the debut novel, Harmless Like You (Norton, 2017), explores connections between the physical weight of the universe and the human struggle for emotional well-being.

“Who knew our pudgy American dream was so combustible?” Patricia Smith reads a poem from her seventh poetry collection, Incendiary Art (TriQuarterly Books, 2017), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“You never really know when you’re going to find that thing that’s extraordinary.” Laird Hunt talks about a surprising source of inspiration that he discovered while researching his new novel, The Evening Road (Little, Brown, 2017), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Morgan Parker reads a selection of poems including “Heaven Be a Xanax,” “Hottentot Venus,” and “Slouching Toward Beyoncé” from her second poetry collection, There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (Tin House Books, 2017), with musical accompaniment by David Cieri. Parker’s book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Dean Rader reads his poem inspired by Leilani Bustamante’s painting “Lady Moore” and “Self-Portrait in Place” for a Quiet Lightning reading series event. Rader’s most recent collection, Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“They’re unwanted where they come from, they’re unwanted when they arrive, but we have a great tradition of welcoming refugees and turning them into Pulitzer Prize winners.” Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen speaks about his experience as a refugee and the significance of refugees in the United States on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Nguyen’s first short story collection, The Refugees (Grove Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Written and directed by Graham Sack, this virtual reality film is an adaptation of George Saunders’s debut novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (Random House, 2017). Saunders speaks about his debut novel in “The Emotional Realist Talks to Ghosts” in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.