Poets & Writers Theater

In this 2014 interview, Celeste Ng talks with Amazon senior editor Chris Schluep about becoming a mother while writing her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You (Penguin Press, 2014), elements of story inspiration, and the setting of her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere (Penguin Press, 2017). Ng is one of the honorees for the 2023 Poets & Writers Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award.

“When you have a name like Alejandra Kim, teachers always stare at you like you’re a typo on the attendance sheet.” In this Politics and Prose event, Patricia Park reads from her debut YA novel, Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2023), and speaks about shifting from writing adult fiction to YA fiction with author Dolen Perkins-Valdez.

In this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview, Margaret Atwood speaks about grief, unburnable books, and her latest story collection, Old Babes in the Wood (Doubleday, 2023).

In this PBS NewsHour video, National Book Award-winning poet and professor Nikky Finney discusses the work of social justice activism and preservation in her community of Columbia, South Carolina, which includes opening a cultural arts center honoring her father’s legacy as the first Black chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court since the Reconstruction era.

In this Free Library of Philadelphia event, Joseph Earl Thomas reads from his debut memoir, Sink (Grand Central, 2023), and speaks with author Elias Rodriques about writing in third person and on the subjects of violence, care, and family. Sink is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

This Wall Street Journal video analyzes the history and business model of the bookstore chain Barnes & Noble and how they are adopting the strategies of independent bookstores by empowering their local booksellers to make more decisions on inventory and displays in order to boost sales.

Thierry Kehou, director of Programs & Partnerships at Poets & Writers, hosts this celebratory reading by the inaugural fiction cohort of Get the Word Out, a publicity incubator for debut authors. Publicity mentor Lauren Cerand introduces authors Federico Erebia, Kristen Gentry, Anita Gail Jones, Chin-Sun Lee, Magogodi Makhene, Mark Ernest Pothier, Shannon Sanders, Brenda Wilson, Lauren Yero, and Ada Zhang for the event.

Poet Brian Blanchfield reads Carl Phillips’s poem “Corral” at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana in this short film directed by Matthew Thompson as part of the Above Strands of Earth series produced in collaboration with Tippet Rise and the Academy of American Poets, and commissioned by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation.

Watch this surreal animated book trailer for Colin Winnette’s new novel, Users (Soft Skull, 2023), animated by Casey Jarman with music by Ben Morton and Kyle Morton. For more about the book, read this installment of our Ten Questions series featuring Winnette.

In this 2020 McSweeney’s Instagram Live reading, Mai Nardone reads an excerpt from his short story “The Tum-Boon Brigade,” which appears in his debut story collection, Welcome Me to the Kingdom (Random House, 2023). Nardone’s book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2022 virtual reading, Charif Shanahan reads from his second poetry collection, Trace Evidence (Tin House, 2023), alongside Keetje Kuipers, author of All Its Charms (BOA Editions, 2019), for the Chicago Poetry Center’s Blue Hour reading series. Trace Evidence is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I pop tins of the greasiest luncheon meat open, / slather my chin with animal salt…” In this video, Ina Cariño, a 2022 Whiting Award winner in poetry, reads their poem “Lean Economy” from their debut collection, Feast (Alice James Books, 2023), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“This is where our story as Black Americans begins.” Watch the trailer for The 1619 Project, a six-part Hulu docuseries adaptation of the book of the same name hosted by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author Nikole Hannah-Jones.

In this video, Simon & Schuster president and CEO Jonathan Karp gives writers advice on how to get a literary agent and their books published, including useful websites and reference books such as The Poets & Writers Complete Guide to Being a Writer (Avid Reader Press, 2020).

Filmed at the Milwaukee Public Library, this video featuring local artists Genesis Renji, Klassik, and Marli Amor aims to raise awareness for Penguin Random House’s All Ways Black initiative, which is partnering with Little Free Libraries to build a number of free libraries with a curated selection of Black authors and classic stories. For every share of the video on social media, Penguin Random House has pledged to donate a book to the initiative.

In this video, actor Benedict Cumberbatch reads an apologetic guest’s hilarious letter to a hotel involving pizza and seagulls for the Letters Live series which celebrates the power of literary correspondence. Inspired by Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note series, Letters Live is an initiative by publishing company Canongate and Cumberbatch’s production company SunnyMarch.

In this Books Are Magic event, Patricia Engel reads from her story collection The Faraway World (Avid Reader Press, 2023) and speaks with Naima Coster about writing habits and what inspires her to write. The Faraway World is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I travel across America twice a year making lots of stops along the way, and each time the country feels a little different.” In this CBS Sunday Morning video, author and satirist David Sedaris comments on recent word choices he finds irritating.

The Lying Life of Adults is a television series adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s 2019 coming-of-age novel of the same name. Set in Naples in the 1990s, the six-episode Netflix series follows the adventures of Giovanna, who leaves the suburbs to meet her estranged aunt in the city.

“The way in is always through human beings.” Stephen Markley discusses his new novel, The Deluge (Simon & Schuster, 2023), and the importance of emotionally connecting to characters when writing about topics such as climate change in this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview.