Poets & Writers Theater

Looking for a prescription of poetry? In this Intelligence Squared video, William Sieghart, author of The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul (Penguin Books, 2017), and Jeanette Winterson, author of Frankissstein: A Love Story (Grove Press, 2019), introduce poems that have changed their lives as a cast of actors—including Tom Burke, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Isaacs, and Sue Perkins—recite them.

“It would be silly to waste time daydreaming about, if only I were twenty years old again. It’s more interesting to figure out, how do I see the world now.” In this 2015 PBS NewsHour video, the late W. S. Merwin reflects on growing old and writing poems on the three acres of land he purchased in the late 1970s, now known as the Merwin Conservancy, an arts and ecology organization located on the island of Maui.

“My poetry, never a quiet moment. You are mine, and you are content with the idea of having nowhere to go.” In this video, Marlon Lizama reads “Poetry” for the Write About Now Poetry series in Houston.

“for the lingering / eyes of the children, staring...” In this video, the late poet Lucille Clifton reads “report from the angel of eden” and “sorrow song” at the 2008 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.

During National Poetry Month last April, Words Without Borders asked its contributors to read their favorite poems from their archive. In this video, Valzhyna Mort reads her poem “Belarusian 1,” translated from the Belarusian by Franz Wright. Mort talks about her new poetry collection, Music for the Dead and Resurrected (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020), in a recent installment of Ten Questions.

“So how do you discern a shape for / What is often called g-d.” Kazim Ali reads from his latest collection, The Voice of Sheila Chandra (Alice James Books, 2020), in this Academy of American Poets virtual reading and conversation with Joshua Bennett, author of Owed (Penguin Poets, 2020). For more from these poets, read what motivates Ali’s writing in Writers Recommend and about Bennett’s writing process in Ten Questions.

“To me, it always comes back to, ‘What are the real questions that I want to ask through the piece?’ And then it becomes an act, not so much of representation...but it’s more a matter of discovery.” In this 2019 episode of The Poetry Vlog, Chen Chen reads the titular poem from his collection, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), and discusses the process of expressing vulnerability authentically on the page. For more Chen, read his series of Craft Capsule essays.

“I was born passing / off the problem of the twentieth century: I was born.” In this 2016 video, Gregory Pardlo reads “Written By Himself” from his Pulitzer Prize–winning poetry collection, Digest (Four Way Books, 2014), accompanied by the Finnish jazz combo Hot Heros at the Annikki Poetry Festival in Finland. For a writing prompt inspired by this poem, visit The Time Is Now.

“Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you. / Remember language comes from this.”​ In this video from the Academy of American Poets, Joy Harjo reads her poem “Remember” from her 1983 collection, She Had Some Horses. Harjo has been appointed to serve a second term as poet laureate of the United States and is the first Native American to hold the post.

“There is the nobleness of the human spirit, despite it all.” In this video, the late Maya Angelou introduces and recites her poem “Still I Rise.”

In this clip from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Julie Andrews speaks about her latest book, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years (Hachette Books, 2019), which is cowritten by her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, and exchanges personalized limericks with the host.

In this installment of the “New Social Environment” series for the Brooklyn Rail recorded in April, Charles Bernstein speaks with Erica Hunt about unpacking language and how writers have reimagined ways to communicate amongst each other during the pandemic. Hunt talks about her new poetry collection, Jump the Clock (Nightboat Books, 2020), in Ten Questions.

In this Asian American Writers’ Workshop video, Arthur Sze reads and discusses the origin of his poem “Winter Stars,” featured in The Best American Poetry 2020 anthology guest edited by Paisley Rekdal. Sze won the 2019 National Book Award in poetry for his collection Sight Lines (Copper Canyon Press, 2019).

“My mouth / had been a helmet forever / greased with secrets…” Tim Seibles narrates his poem “First Kiss” from his collection Buffalo Head Solos (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2004) for this TED-Ed animated short film directed by Hannah Jacobs, part of the “There’s a Poem for That” series.

In this Library of America video, Kevin Young discusses Claude McKay’s 1919 poem “If We Must Die,” the rhymes and the collective voice in lines such as, “Though far outnumbered let us show us brave.” This poem is included in African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song, an anthology edited by Young and published by the Library of America, which is featured in The Anthologist in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video for Poets House, Carl Phillips, whose most recent poetry collection, Pale Colors in a Tall Field, was published in March by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reflects on his process for putting a book together, as well as his journey as a poet, teacher, and mentor. 

“Great stones of whitewater / hammer down.” In this 2017 reading at the Bookworm, an independent bookstore in Beijing, Tracy K. Smith reads a translation of Yi Lei’s poem “Huangguoshu Waterfall,” included in My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree (Graywolf Press, 2020), translated from the Chinese by Changtai Bi and Smith, which is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Cardinal is conjuring the question: Where can Black people go to be safe?” Tyree Daye introduces his second poetry collection, Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), and reads “Miss Mary Mack Introduces Her Wings” and other poems. Cardinal is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Many people aren’t even remotely interested in [poetry]. But it’s so clear to me that, of course, it’s what you want to do.” Louise Glück ruminates about her writing process in this short documentary from the Academy of American Poets. Glück has been named the winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature.

“I think that the body does not let you forget.” In this PBS NewsHour video, Natasha Trethewey reflects on the trauma of her mother’s murder, the subject of her book Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir (Ecco, 2020), and how the events led her to become a poet and writer. Trethewey is interviewed by Joshunda Sanders in “A Poetics of Resilience” in the July/August 2020 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.