Poets & Writers Theater

Book reviewer Michael Orthofer and economist Tyler Cowen take up the challenge of buying three books in one hour at the Strand Book Store in New York City, discussing their tips for shopping and book choices along the way.

Based on the 1966 Southern gothic novel by Thomas Cullinan, The Beguiled takes place during the Civil War as a young, injured Union Army corporal is taken in at a Southern girls’ boarding school. This film adaptation is written and directed by Sofia Coppola and stars Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, and Colin Farrell.

“That’s the beauty of fiction...you can tell a really specific story and it has a way of connecting with people. And they can continue telling that story to other people.” Editor and author Rakesh Satyal speaks about his writing process and new novel, No One Can Pronounce My Name (Picador, 2017), on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

“The first summer fair of the season, the East Avalon Fair, was a ‘coming out’ party for everyone on the eastern tip of the island.” Julia Fierro reads from a draft of her novel The Gypsy Moth Summer (St. Martin’s Press, 2017), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, for the Why There Are Words reading series.

“The Portuguese have a word for haunting desire, for an imaginary, impossible, never-to-be experienced love: whoop-de-doo.” For the Hugo Literary Series, Téa Obreht, Eduardo C. Corral, and Quenton Baker share their poems and stories meditating on the theme of theft.

Authors and independent bookstore owners Louise Erdrich, owner of Birchbark Books & Native Arts, and Emma Straub, owner of Books Are Magic, offer their recommendations for summer reading including books by Natalie Diaz, Sarah Gerard, and Lesley Nneka Arimah.

“I think there was a huge priority in terms of the writing for me to create the intimacies of these friendships and to show real friendships between women...” Fatimah Asghar, whose debut poetry collection, Today We’re American, is forthcoming from One World/Random House, talks with director Sam Bailey about the motivations behind their web series Brown Girls, which the cocreators will be adapting for HBO.

Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers (Riverhead Books, 2016), speaks about her first memorable piece of writing and her experiences as a young reader and writer.

“One person’s didacticism is another person’s revelation.” At the Center for Fiction, Parul Sehgal moderates a conversation with authors Viet Thanh Nguyen and Chinelo Okparanta as part of the 2017 PEN World Voices Festival.

Poet and actress Amber Tamblyn makes her directorial debut with the film adaptation of Janet Fitch’s novel Paint It Black (Little, Brown, 2006), which stars Janet McTeer, Alfred Molina, and Alia Shawkat. The film is set in the 1980s Los Angeles punk scene and follows a young woman dealing with the aftermath of her boyfriend’s death, and her conflicted relationship with his grieving mother.

“I am the mother of the universe. I am the planets and the years of light and darkness in between.” Vivek Shraya, author of the novel, She of the Mountains (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2014), reads for the Radar Reading Series at the San Francisco Public Library.

Paul Muldoon speaks with PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown about “Muldoon’s Picnic,” a monthly show held at the Irish Arts Center in New York featuring music, storytelling, and poetry.

Denis Johnson reads a selection of short stories to a captive audience as part of the Spring 2016 Barbara and David Zalaznick Creative Writing Reading Series at Cornell University. Johnson died at the age of sixty-seven on May 25, 2017.

This animated book trailer captures the elements of thriller, mystery, and fable present in Australian author Fiona McFarlane’s debut novel, The Night Guest (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013). McFarlane received the 2017 International Dylan Thomas Prize for her story collection, The High Places (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016).  

“The snake is the whole plot and then the rats are the elements. So the rats have to be fed to the snake in order to nourish the snake.” Fiction writer Annie Hartnett, author of the debut novel Rabbit Cake (Tin House, 2017), is interviewed by Bill Kenower in Seattle for the Pacific Northwest Writers Association.

“Today I will take pride in my appearance. I’ll shower, get dressed in proper clothes, and only change into yoga clothes for yoga, which, today, I will actually attend.” Maria Semple reads from and discusses her novel Today Will Be Different (Little, Brown and Company, 2016).

“It had started as a family joke: Dad always orders the mixed grill in restaurants, Dad only wants to go to restaurants with mixed grill on the menu.” Patricia Lockwood, poet and author of the memoir Priestdaddy (Riverhead Books, 2017), performs a dramatic reading of a passage from Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001) for the literary nonprofit O, Miami.

The Dark Tower is a film sequel to Stephen King’s eight-novel series of the same name, which was published between 1982 and 2004 and inspired by Robert Browning’s poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.” Directed by Nikolaj Arcel and starring Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, and Katheryn Winnick, the film will premiere in August.

“He always plays with this tension between the life above and the life below.” In this short animated film, artist Ilana Simons presents a biography of Haruki Murakami and highlights moments in his life that have influenced his writing.

In this video, writers and book lovers—including Rumaan Alam, Ann Patchett, Jacqueline Woodson, Neil Gaiman, Mira Jacob, Benjamin Percy, and Peter Straub—help celebrate Independent Bookstore Day and the opening of Books Are Magic. The new bookstore is run by novelist Emma Straub and her husband Michael Fusco-Straub in Brooklyn.