Poets & Writers Theater

“Remember her name. Isabel Allende.” In this trailer for Isabel: The Intimate Story of Isabel Allende, a three-part biopic miniseries premiering on HBO Max on March 12, the prolific Chilean writer’s life is portrayed from her childhood in Chile to her career as a celebrated and award-winning author.

“Talking about poetry, especially in the U.S. context, you’re treated like you’re the village fool,” says Natalie Scenters-Zapico about identifying as a poet in this episode of Line /Break with host Laura Buccieri. “Usually, if we learn anything the fool is the one that carries most of the wisdom.” Scenters-Zapico is the author of Lima :: Limón (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), which was included on the international shortlist for the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize.

French Exit is a film adaptation of the 2018 novel of the same name by Patrick deWitt. Directed by Azazel Jacobs and starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges, the film follows a mother and son who are forced to relocate after losing their fortune.

“Wait, for now. / Distrust everything if you have to. / But trust the hours.” Galway Kinnell reads his poem “Wait” in this installment of Poetry Breaks, a series created by Leita Luchetti in the late 1980s and early 1990s and presented in partnership with the Academy of American Poets.

“I just wanted to show you what is to me, home, and always will be,” says Andrew J. Graff in this video offering a view of the Michigan landscape that inspired his debut novel, Raft of Stars (Ecco, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I consider myself essentially a storyteller who’s chosen the genre of poetry.” Lynne Thompson, author of Start With a Small Guitar (What Books Press, 2013) and Beg No Pardon (Perugia Press, 2007), speaks about family stories and how she came to poetry after a career in law with Mariano Zaro for the Poetry.LA interview series. Thompson is the 2021 poet laureate of Los Angeles.

In this virtual launch of Land of Big Numbers (Mariner Books, 2021) hosted by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, author Te-Ping Chen reads from her debut story collection and speaks with Charles Yu about releasing a book during a pandemic. Land of Big Numbers is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It is so painful to be loved sometimes. Intolerable even.” In this 2020 virtual event hosted by Salve Regina University, Melissa Febos reads from her new essay collection, Girlhood (Bloomsbury, 2021), and answers questions about her writing process. A profile of Febos by Brian Gresko appears in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It was still the last frontier when I arrived in 1951. It was a wide-open city.” In this 2015 video, Lawrence Ferlinghetti recalls his early days in San Francisco and speaks about the changing life of the city. Ferlinghetti died at the age of 101 on February 22, 2021. An interview with the legendary poet and founder of City Lights Booksellers and Publishers is featured in the March/April 2007 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Watch the “first, the greatest, and possibly the last” Riverhead Variety Show hosted by Traci Thomas and starring Kristen Arnett, Katie Kitamura, Chang-rae Lee, Brandon Taylor, and Joanne Tompkins, as they speak about their new books and invite viewers into their refrigerators and closets.

“When I first saw him, I knew then: This was the master for me.” Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize–winning novel, The White Tiger, has been adapted into a Netflix film directed by Ramin Bahrani. Starring Adarsh Gourav, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Rajkummar Rao, the film follows an ambitious driver in India who escapes poverty through deceptive acts.

In this virtual book launch hosted by Books & Books in Florida, Dantiel W. Moniz discusses the inspiration behind her debut short story collection, Milk Blood Heat (Grove Press, 2021), with Lauren Groff, author of Florida (Riverhead Books, 2018). Milk Blood Heat is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I’m not sorry for my one-way streets, my way or the highway, manly waters incompatible with my sex,” reads Arisa White from her poetry collection Who’s Your Daddy (Augury Books, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, for this Foglifter virtual event.

“There’s nothing more riveting on the page than somebody willing to honestly tell what that life is,” says Joyce Maynard, author of the memoirs At Home in the World (Picador, 1998) and The Best of Us (Bloomsbury, 2017), about the roots of writing a memoir in this CreativeLive video.

In this Milkweed Editions video, Aimee Nezhukumatathil introduces torrin a. greathouse who reads from her debut poetry collection, Wound From the Mouth of a Wound (Milkweed Editions, 2020), winner of the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry. greathouse is featured in “A Life in Poetry: Our Sixteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

To All the Boys: Always and Forever is the final installment of the three-part Netflix film series based on the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before YA novel series by Jenny Han. The series follows high schooler Lara Jean Song Covey, played by Lana Condor, and her relationship with her former crush Peter Kavinsky, played by Noah Centineo.

“I want so badly to rub the sponge of gratitude / over every last thing, including you,” reads Ross Gay from his poem “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” in this video set to the music of Bon Iver. This piece is featured in a new album called Dilate Your Heart, part of a yearlong release campaign celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of indie record label Jagjaguwar.

“I love you like a vulture loves the careless deer on the roadside,” reads Traci Brimhall from “Love Poem Without a Drop of Hyperbole,” which is included in her latest collection, Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod, for this virtual Copper Canyon Press launch party in 2020. This reading features Brimhall as well as Leila Chatti, author of Deluge, and John Freeman, author of The Park.

“No matter the pull toward brink. No / matter the florid, deep sleep awaits. / There is a time for everything.” Ada Limón reads “Sorrow Is Not My Name” by Ross Gay and shares why this poem means so much to her for this new video series “The Poem I Wish I Had Read,” created by the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College.

“Is this a voice that I can sustain throughout this novel? Will it continue to be, and also most importantly, can it sustain my curiosity?” In this AAWW virtual event, Chang-rae Lee reads from his novel My Year Abroad (Riverhead Books, 2021) and speaks with Bryan Washington about developing characters and publishing a book during a pandemic.