Poets & Writers Theater

“I never know what to say after someone says ‘that’s beautiful’ except to agree with them. For me, beauty is an end of conversation.” In this 2011 video for the Cortland Review, as a part of the documentary series Poets in Person, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn speaks about his writing practice from his home. Dunn died at the age of eighty-two on June 24, 2021.

“We in the fields, the watchers from the burnt slope, / Facing the west, facing the bright sky, hopelessly longing / to know the red beauty…” In this 2011 PBS NewsHour video, Jeffrey Yang reads William Everson’s poem “We in the Fields” along with other poems published in Birds, Beasts, and Seas: Nature Poems From New Directions, an anthology edited by the poet celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of New Directions. Yang’s new poetry collection, Line and Light (Graywolf Press, 2022), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“My impression is that there is a much bigger audience for poetry than there was when I was young,” says the late poet John Ashbery in this 2011 interview with Belinda Luscombe for TIME Magazine on fame, poverty, art criticism, obscurity, and why he dislikes poetry readings.

In this excerpt from a short film directed by Griffin Dunne, Joan Didion reads from the second chapter of her memoir Blue Nights (Knopf, 2011). Be sure to read Kevin Nance’s moving profile of Didion from the November/December 2011 issue and listen to Kimberly Farr read a passage of the audio book.

“I do not believe that I have ever written a children’s book,” says Maurice Sendak, iconic illustrator and author of Where the Wild Things Are, in this 2011 episode of TateShots discussing his creative process, influences, and body of work.

“Listen to me. I am telling you / a true thing. This is the only kingdom.” In this installment of Ours Poetica, a series produced by the Poetry Foundation in collaboration with Complexly, chef and author of Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking Samin Nosrat reads Aracelis Girmay’s poem “Elegy.”

“I pulled down a book by Gayl Jones, Eva’s Man, and I sat down and didn’t get back up until I finished it—and I felt so haunted,” says Rachel Eliza Griffiths about what inspired her third poetry collection, Mule & Pear (New Issues Press, 2011), in this conversation at the 2013 Poets Forum for the Academy of American Poets.

“When they did the first printing of Tinkers, I immediately went through and started changing it,” says Paul Harding about writing his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, Tinkers (Bellevue Literary Press, 2009), in this 2011 interview about his writing process and learning from mentors at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

“When you’re judging a contest I’m looking for something to just knock me over, and that’s what happened when I read Natasha’s manuscript,” says Rita Dove about first encountering Natasha Trethewey’s poetry while judging a book contest. In this 2011 conversation at Emory University, the two former U.S. poets laureate discuss writing, mentorship, and literary ancestries. 

“The biggest misconception that people have about the literary life is the romance of it.” In this 2011 Big Think interview, Walter Mosley talks about the influence of comic books and early reading on his writing, and his opinion of great literature.

“When you’re looking at the transitions in your own poetry, one of the things to do is feel as you’re reading over your poem, ‘Am I bored? Do I feel lectured at?’” says Jane Hirshfield in this video from a 2011 Poets House event. “Take out some of the transitions. Allow more mystery. Allow things to stand on their own two feet.” Hirshfield is the author of nine books of poetry, including her most recent collection, Ledger (Knopf, 2020).

“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.

“We begin with history. The slave codes of South Carolina, 1739,” begins Nikky Finney’s 2011 National Book Award acceptance speech for Head Off & Split (Northwestern University Press, 2011), where she traces the history of literacy in her own life and in the lives of African Americans. Finney is the recipient of the 2020 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, conferred annually to honor outstanding artistic achievement over a poet’s career.

“You don’t write a book for a market, a publisher, or an agent; you write it because your heart calls you to write it.” Tayari Jones speaks about her “most personal” novel Silver Sparrow (Algonquin Books, 2011) and about what keeps her going as a writer in this Waterstones video.

“I want to live a life of free imagination.” In this video, Binyavanga Wainaina describes his dream for Africans to tell their own stories and be set free of certain traditional systems and structures. The Kenyan author and gay rights activist, who won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002, died at the age of forty-eight on May 21, 2019. For more from his work, read an excerpt from his memoir, One Day I Will Write About This Place (Graywolf Press, 2011).

A Discovery of Witches (Viking, 2011), the first novel in Deborah Harkness’s All Souls historical fantasy trilogy, has been adapted into a television miniseries. The eight-part series stars Edward Bluemel, Gregg Chillin, Matthew Goode, Teresa Palmer, and follows the story of a history scholar witch, a geneticist vampire, and a long-lost alchemical manuscript.

“Look at us growing up. Who will we be?” We the Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), Justin Torres’s debut novel, has been adapted into a film directed and cowritten by Jeremiah Zagar. Starring Raúl Castillo, Sheila Vand, and Evan Rosado, the film follows Jonah, growing up with his brothers and escaping into a fantasy world to cope with his volatile home life.

The Sisters Brothers (Ecco, 2011), Patrick deWitt’s Booker-nominated picaresque western novel about two assassin brothers during the California Gold Rush, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Jacques Audiard, the film stars Riz Ahmed, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rutger Hauer, Carol Kane, Joaquin Phoenix, and John C. Reilly.

Luljeta Lleshanaku reads from her collection Haywire: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2011) in English translation and in the original Albanian, and talks about how history, politics, and religion have informed her writing. Lleshanaku’s new collection, Negative Space (New Directions, 2018), translated from the Albanian by Ani Gjika, is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Ernest Cline’s debut novel, Ready Player One (Crown, 2011), a dystopian science fiction adventure following a teenager’s quest for fortune through a virtual reality game, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Steven Spielberg with a screenplay by Cline and Zak Penn, the film stars Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Tye Sheridan.