Poets & Writers Theater

Shirley (Blue Rider Press, 2014), Susan Scarf Merrell’s historical fiction novel about a young couple who stay at the home of horror writer Shirley Jackson and literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman in 1964, has been adapted into a feature film of the same name. Directed by Josephine Decker, the thriller stars Logan Lerman, Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Odessa Young.

Nicholson Baker discusses writing about the details in objects, focusing on the positives of technology, and cross-cultural respect at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Baker’s new nonfiction book, Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids (Blue Rider Press, 2016), which chronicles his experiences as a public school substitute teacher, is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I just like writing...the subject isn’t the point—it’s how you write, and it’s what you find to say about it, what you can glean from it, what you can dissect from it. That’s the pleasure in writing.” A. A. Gill, whose new memoir Pour Me a Life (Blue Rider Press, 2016), is featured in “Nine More New Memoirs” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, talks about starting out as an artist, and his work as a journalist, columnist, and novelist.

"I guess this book is about surviving and what we are born into." New Yorker cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan explains his intentions for his illustrated memoir, I Was a Child, published by Blue Rider Press this month.