Poets & Writers Theater

In this episode of the New Social Environment series hosted by the Brooklyn Rail, poets Eve L. Ewing and Andrea Faye Hart read a selection of their poems and join journalist trina reynolds-tyler to discuss how they became co-owners of Build Coffee & Books, a community-centered bookstore and coffee shop in Chicago.

In this Amanpour and Company segment, Hari Sreenivasan speaks with poet Megan Falley and comedian Tig Notaro about their Oscar-nominated documentary film Come See Me in the Good Light, which follows Colorado poet laureate Andrea Gibson’s journey with terminal cancer.

In this PBS NewsHour video, Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation, speaks about the efforts to support literary nonprofits, including independent publishers, residencies, and fellowships for writers.

This short film produced by Boa Editions and Hunger Media highlights the life and career of Lucille Clifton and how her work continues to influence and inspire the poetry community, including Boa’s Blessing the Boats Selections series. For more on the press’s work, read “Poetry to Save Us: Boa at 50” in the March/April 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2022 event from UC Berkeley’s Lunch Poems series, Jake Skeets reads a selection of poems, some of which appear in his debut collection, Eyes Bottle Dark With a Mouthful of Flowers (Milkweed Editions, 2019). A Q&A with Skeets about his second collection, Horses (Milkweed Editions, 2026), appears in the March/April 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2024 LanguageBack Retreat Reading hosted by Indigenous Nations Poets, Kalehua Kim reads her poem “Mystique.” Kim, author of Mele (Trio House Press, 2025), is featured in “New Ways of Seeing: Our Twenty-First Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Virtual Craft Chat event hosted by Poet Lore and the Writer’s Center, Ally Ang reads from their debut collection, Let the Moon Wobble (Alice James Books, 2025), and talks about how formal challenges and constraints can inspire new poems in a conversation with Emily Holland.

In this 1997 interview for the Poet to Poet series, X. J. Kennedy reads his poems, including “Nude Descending a Staircase” and “Nothing in Heaven Functions as It Ought,” and talks about his start as a writer with host Robert Dunn. Kennedy died at the age of ninety-six on February 1, 2026.

In this video, Rachel Eliza Griffiths talks about grief, poetry, vulnerability, and writing her first memoir, The Flower Bearers (Random House, 2026), for an episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast with host Miwa Messer. For more on Griffiths, read “Marvelous and Dangerous: A Q&A With Rachel Eliza Griffiths” by Renée H. Shea.

Watch Poets & Writers Magazine features editor India Lena González host this two-part event celebrating the ten debut poets featured in “New Ways of Seeing: Our Twenty-First Annual Look at Debut Poets” from our January/February 2026 issue. The virtual event includes readings from the poets, as well as conversations about their debut books, their influences and inspirations, and their individual paths to publication.

In this Books Are Magic event, Andrés Cerpa reads from his third collection, The Palace (Alice James Books, 2025), and talks about the importance of myth in poetry in a conversation with Iain Haley Pollock. Cerpa’s collection is featured in Page One in the January/February 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, fourteen Black poets from ten different countries read in multiple languages and in translation for this 2024 Furious Flower Poetry Center virtual event hosted by Gbenga Adesina, who is featured in “New Ways of Seeing: Our Twenty-First Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this reading celebrating the annual Poets House Showcase exhibition, Hala Alyan reads from The Moon That Turns You Back (Ecco, 2024), Cynthia Cruz reads from Sweet Repetition (University of Chicago Press, 2025), Carl Phillips reads from Scattered Snows, to the North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), and Rowan Ricardo Phillips reads from Silver (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024).

“may the tide / that is entering even now / the lip of our understanding / carry you out / beyond the face of fear…” Here’s a poem to help welcome in the new year: Elizabeth Acevedo reads “blessing the boats” by Lucille Clifton in this 2021 installment of the Ours Poetica series, sponsored by Complexly and the Poetry Foundation.

Lena Moses-Schmitt reads from her debut collection, True Mistakes (University of Arkansas Press, 2025), and talks about how a constant sense of awe continuously inspires her life and poetics in this Green Apple Books event with Leigh Lucas. Moses-Schmitt is featured in “New Ways of Seeing: Our Twenty-First Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey is a film adaptation of Homer’s epic poem chronicling the journey and adventures of the legendary Greek king of Ithaca as he returns home after the Trojan War. Starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong’o, and Zendaya, the film is set to be released on July 17, 2026.

Watch authors Malcolm Gladwell, Meg Rosoff, Emma Thompson, Colm Toibin, and others read the classic poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore in this Penguin Books video from 2013.

Nadia Alexis reads from her debut collection, Beyond the Watershed (CavanKerry Books, 2025), and talks about her process of writing poetry and compiling photography around the Haitian American experience with Melissa Ginsburg in this event at Square Books. Alexis is featured in “New Ways of Seeing: Our Twenty-First Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Library of Congress video, Arthur Sze speaks about his journey to poetry and his plans to have a special focus on poetry in translation as the twenty-fifth U.S. poet laureate. An interview with Sze by Rigoberto González appears in the January/February 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Beyond Baroque celebration of Teresa Dzieglewicz’s debut collection, Something Small of How to See a River (Tupelo Press, 2025), poets Jessica Abughattas, Meghann Plunkett, and Arumandhira Howard read their work exploring strength, care, and radical joy along with Dzieglewicz, whose collection is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.