Poets & Writers Theater
Every day we share a new clip of interest to creative writers—author readings, book trailers, publishing panels, craft talks, and more. So grab some popcorn, filter the theater tags by keyword or genre, and explore our sizable archive of literary videos.
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“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.
Tags: Poetry | 2014 | jazz | reading | Gregory Pardlo | Digest | Four Way Books | Pulitzer Prize | Annikki Poetry Festival -
Joanna Rakoff’s memoir My Salinger Year (Knopf, 2014) has been adapted into a feature film directed by Philippe Falardeau and starring Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver. Set in 1995, an aspiring writer and poet takes a job at a literary agency in New York City that represents the notoriously reclusive J. D. Salinger and handles his fan mail.
Tags: Creative Nonfiction | My Salinger Year | Knopf | 2014 | memoir | movie trailer | film adaptation | 2020 -
“It looked like a pancake, / but it was creation flattened out— / the fist of God on a head of wheat.” This Motionpoems short film, directed by Dan Sickles, features the titular poem from Melissa Studdard’s debut collection, I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast (Saint Julian Press, 2014).
Tags: Poetry | Melissa Studdard | I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast | Motionpoems | video poem | short film | Saint Julian Press | 2014 -
“It doesn’t interest me to know how a book will end, I have to discover that for myself.” In this video from the National Centre for Writing, Eimear McBride, who won the 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction for her debut novel A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, speaks about how character and story and the process of discovery are the keys to her writing process.
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“We are all writing about each other // in chorus, an out loud wince...” Maggie Glover reads poems from her debut collection, How I Went Red (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2014), and speaks about her writing in this interview with Lisa Grove for Poetry.LA.
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Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Spiegel & Grau, 2014) by Bryan Stevenson, a memoir recounting his experience as a young defense attorney fighting for a death row inmate wrongfully convicted of murder, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the legal drama stars Jamie Foxx, Michael B. Jordan, Brie Larson, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, and Rafe Spall.
Tags: Creative Nonfiction | Bryan Stevenson | Just Mercy | 2014 | Spiegel & Grau | movie trailer | trailer | film adaptation | memoir | 2020 -
In this Academy of American Poets video, Rachel Zucker reads “Please Alice Notley Tell Me How to Be Old” from her poetry collection The Pedestrians (Wave Books, 2014) at the 2014 Poets Forum. Zucker’s tenth book, SoundMachine, is out today from Wave Books.
Tags: Poetry | Rachel Zucker | SoundMachine | The Pedestrians | 2014 | Wave Books | reading | Academy of American Poets | Poets Forum -
“My favorite form is the long short story or the novella because I think it allows you a little bit more breadth and scope in terms of what you can do.” Brian Evenson, whose eighth story collection, Song for the Unraveling of the World (Coffee House Press, 2019), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from his work and talks about teaching, writing habits, and spirituality in this video from the 2014 Mission Creek Festival.
Tags: Fiction | Brian Evenson | 2014 | Mission Creek Festival | reading | interview | Page One | July/August 2019 | Coffee House Press -
Josh Malerman talks about writing novels while touring with his band, incorporating performance and radio play elements into his book readings, and the inspiration behind his debut novel, Bird Box (Ecco, 2014), in this video from the 2015 Midwest Literary Walk. The novel has been adapted into a feature film directed by Susanne Bier and starring Sandra Bullock, John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, and Trevante Rhodes.
Tags: Fiction | Josh Malerman | Bird Box | Ecco | 2014 | interview | 2015 | Midwest Literary Walk -
Bird Box (Ecco, 2014), the debut novel by Josh Malerman has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Susanne Bier, the psychological thriller film stars Sandra Bullock, John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, and Trevante Rhodes and follows a woman and her two children as they traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape while blindfolded to escape an unseen, supernatural adversary.
Tags: Fiction | Bird Box | Josh Malerman | movie trailer | film adaptation | Netflix | Ecco | 2014 | 2018 -
In this 2015 video, Jess Row reads from his debut novel, Your Face in Mine (Riverhead Books, 2014), for the Story Hour in the Library series at the University of California in Berkeley. Row is a recipient of the 2018 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant for White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination, forthcoming from Graywolf Press.
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William Giraldi’s 2014 novel, Hold the Dark, has been adapted into a film for Netflix. Directed by Jeremy Saulnier, the film stars Riley Keough, Alexander Skarsgård, and Jeffrey Wright. Giraldi is a frequent contributor to Poets & Writers Magazine, most recently with “The Art of Reading James Baldwin” in the November/December 2017 issue.
Tags: Fiction | William Giraldi | Hold the Dark | Liveright | 2014 | film adaptation | movie trailer | Netflix | 2018 | November/December 2017 -
The Miniaturist (Ecco, 2014), Jessie Burton’s debut novel revolving around a mysterious dollhouse in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, has been adapted into a three-part television miniseries for Masterpiece on PBS. Directed by Guillem Morales, the series stars Emily Berrington, Romola Garai, Alex Hassell, Hayley Squires, and Anya Taylor-Joy.
Tags: Fiction | The Miniaturist | Jessie Burton | Ecco | 2014 | television adaptation | trailer | PBS Masterpiece -
“I’m always too busy, the law can take over your life.” Emma Thompson plays eminent High Court judge Fiona Maye in the film adaptation of The Children Act (Nan A. Talese, 2014) by Ian McEwan, who also wrote the screenplay. Directed by Richard Eyre, the film also stars Stanley Tucci and Fionn Whitehead.
Tags: Fiction | The Children Act | Ian McEwan | Nan A. Talese | 2014 | film adaptation | movie trailer -
Leslie Jamison reads her essay “The Broken Heart of James Agee” from The Empathy Exams (Graywolf Press, 2014) for a reading series hosted by the Center for Documentary Studies and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. Jamison speaks about her new book, The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath (Little, Brown, 2018), in “The Infinite World” by Michele Filgate in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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In this video, Claudia Rankine talks about how touring for her award-winning book Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2014) organically led to the development of her new play, The White Card. The play unfolds as an influential white couple invites an up-and-coming black artist over to their posh New York City loft for a dinner party. The world premiere is directed by Diane Paulus and produced by the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Tags: Poetry | Claudia Rankine | Citizen: An American Lyric | Graywolf Press | 2014 | 2018 | The White Card | play | theater -
David Tomas Martinez reads his poem “Hoodies” accompanied by musicians David Cieri and Mike Brown for the Gavagai music and reading series at Cornelia Street Café in New York City. Martinez is the author of Hustle (Sarabande Books, 2014) and Post Traumatic Hood Disorder (Sarabande Books, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | David Tomas Martinez | Hustle | Post Traumatic Hood Disorder | Sarabande Books | 2014 | 2018 | music | GAVAGAI | Page One | March/April 2018 -
In this video, Tarfia Faizullah reads her poem “Self-Portrait as Slinky” for the Brooklyn Poets Reading Series. Faizullah is the author of Seam (Southern Illinois University Press, 2014) and Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf Press, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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“In place of a mother tongue, I grew a forked fin.” Franny Choi reads her poem “Split Mouth” at the 2017 Rustbelt Regional Poetry Festival. Choi is the author of the debut collection, Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014), and the chapbook, Death by Sex Machine (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017).
Tags: Poetry | Spoken Word | Franny Choi | Split Mouth | Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam | Rustbelt Regional Poetry Festival | performance | 2017 | 2014 -
“We will need writers who can remember freedom.” In this video, Ursula K. Le Guin accepts the National Book Foundation’s 2014 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Le Guin’s essay collection, No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.