Poets & Writers Theater

“Bread pudding was the first thing that I baked after I came out to my parents,” says Bryan Washington in this New Yorker video about his personal connection to the dish. For more on Washington, read his installment of Ten Questions, where he speaks about his debut story collection, Lot (Riverhead Books, 2019).

“In the morning, the one who is mostly enlightened comes in.” At this Free Library of Philadelphia author event, Jenny Offill reads from her new novel, Weather (Knopf, 2020), and speaks about her writing process and love of libraries. Weather is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“We are all connected. We are not separate from the waters of the world.” In this TEDx Talk, artist and water advocate Basia Irland speaks about her ongoing project Ice Receding/Books Reseeding, which is featured in “The Written Image” in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The book mixes elements of their real life and how and why they came to create these worlds, but also mixes up my imaginings of what their world would have been like.” Isabel Greenberg talks about the process of writing and illustrating her graphic novel Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës (Abrams ComicArts, 2020), which incorporates stories written by Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne Brontë during their childhood about an imaginary world.

Sally Rooney’s second novel, Normal People (Hogarth, 2019), has been adapted into a Hulu and BBC television miniseries directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald. The twelve-episode series stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal as two teenagers in Ireland from different backgrounds navigating friendship and romance through the years.

“It’s particularly, specifically, about what it means to be Asian American, which is a subject that I’ve always actually kind of avoided. I’ve always indirectly approached it, but I’ve never directly tackled it.” At Malvern Books, Cathy Park Hong describes her experience writing her first essay collection, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (One World, 2020), featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, and reads “The End of White Innocence” from the book.

“Obsession is uncomfortable. It is almost always something that you would not choose to be obsessed with.” At an event at the New School, Ann Napolitano talks about the importance of paying attention to one’s obsessions and about the inspiration for her third novel, Dear Edward (Dial Press, 2020).

“Tan speaks to anxieties that plague many immigrants, who often feel both alienated from their homeland and disconnected from their adopted country.” In this TED-Ed animated film, Sheila Marie Orfano breaks down the themes of Amy Tan’s first novel, The Joy Luck Club, and the lessons learned from the intergenerational relationships of the characters.

John Murillo reads “Trouble Man,” a poem from his first collection, Up Jump the Boogie (Cypher Books, 2010), and a poem by Etheridge Knight for the P.O.P series, shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. Murillo’s second collection, Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry (Four Way Books, 2020), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The rain will eventually come, or not. / Until then, we touch our bodies like wounds…” In this Mellon Foundation video, Natalie Diaz reads the title poem from her forthcoming collection, Postcolonial Love Poem (Graywolf Press, 2020). A Q&A with Diaz by Jacqueline Woodson appears in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

At Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Angela So and Monica Sok read from their work and talk about displacement, what it means to be children of refugees, and the search for home. Sok discusses her debut poetry collection, A Nail the Evening Hangs On (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), in “First” by Rigoberto González in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I successfully avoided husbands and children and day jobs—those things can all really interfere with your productivity.” In an interview with Emma Watson, Rebecca Solnit discusses how she has managed to write so prolifically, the communication of information as a cultural phenomenon, and the themes in her first memoir, Recollections of My Nonexistence (Viking, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I’ve always found that the things I find the most intimidating end up being the most intellectually satisfying.” At the Louisiana Literature Festival in 2019, Roxane Gay speaks about what moved her to write Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (Harper, 2017), and begins her reading with a piece about loving Mister Rogers.

The Invisible Man is a new feature film loosely based on the classic science fiction novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, which has inspired a number of television and film adaptations since it was first published in 1897. Directed by Leigh Whannell, the new thriller stars Aldis Hodge, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Elisabeth Moss, and Storm Reid.

“Whatever shall i do with my dead / my tombs & mausoleums / these potted plants tended by strangers...” Mahogany L. Browne reads “for my dead & loved ones” and “Blood Rhythms - Blood Currents - Black N’ Blue Stylin’” by Ntozake Shange, and her own poem “Black Girl Magic” at a tribute for Shange at New York City’s 92nd Street Y.

The Plot Against America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004), Philip Roth’s alternative history novel in which Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 presidential election and fascist anti-Semitism is on the rise, has been adapted into an HBO television miniseries. The series, directed by Minkie Spiro and adapted by David Simon, stars Ben Cole, Winona Ryder, Morgan Spector, John Turturro, and Zoe Kazan.

“Each winter a new storm bent on our shoreline and damage / bloomed wild. When the neighbors left, we stayed / watching the seawall recede stone by stone.” Meghann Plunkett’s poem “South County” is featured in this Motionpoems short film directed by Kenneth Kegley.

“People turn to the dictionary for lots of reasons and we can be sure of one thing from this evidence: words matter.” In this video, Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large of Merriam-Webster, explains how the 2019 Word of the Year was chosen and what the most looked up words say about our mindset.

In this 1981 Brockport Writers Forum interview, June Jordan reads “A Poem about Intelligence for my Brothers and Sisters,” and speaks about how she came to poetry and fell in love with “the possibility of language.”

Nick Hornby’s first novel, High Fidelity (Riverhead Books, 1995), whose 2000 film adaptation starred John Cusack and moved the story from London to Chicago, has been adapted into a Hulu television show. The series stars Zoë Kravitz as the neurotic owner of a local record store in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood who revisits former romantic partners after a recent breakup.