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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Viet Thanh Nguyen and Chinelo Okparanta
“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.
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Teenage Hate
“There was something blurry about it, how she tipped moment by moment between woman and child.” In this 2012 video, Leopoldine Core reads from her short story “Teenage Hate” at the Center for Fiction. Her debut short story collection, When Watched (Penguin Books, 2016), is a finalist for the 29th annual Lambda Literary Awards.
Tags: Fiction | Leopoldine Core | When Watched | Teenage Hate | Lambda Literary Awards | Center for Fiction | Penguin Books | 2017 -
Moving Between Genres
“You have to really free your mind from the word obligation.” During an event at the Center for Fiction, authors Francisco Goldman, Idra Novey, and Rivka Galchen answer questions from the audience about moving between fiction and other genres, which leads to a discussion about the importance of donuts.
Tags: panel | Center for Fiction | Rivka Galchen | Idra Novey | Francisco Goldman | Poetry | Fiction | Creative Nonfiction -
Emma Cline
"I wanted to write about that moment where everything is at such a high pitch...that you could make one bad decision that could change your life forever." Emma Cline speaks about her debut novel, The Girls (Random House, 2016), which is longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize.
Tags: Random House | Center for Fiction | 2016 | Emma Cline | The Girls | Fiction -
Rumaan Alam
Rumaan Alam reads from his short story "A Certainty" at an event for the Center for Fiction's literary magazine, The Literarian, alongside Terese Svoboda and Sigrid Nunez. Alam is featured in "First Fiction 2016" in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine and reads from his debut novel, Rich and Pretty (Ecco, 2016), on Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast.
Tags: Ecco | reading | Center for Fiction | Ampersand | 2013 | Terese Svoboda | short story | 2016 | First Fiction 2016 | July/August 2016 | Rumaan Alam | A Certainty | The Literarian | Sigrid Nunez | Rich and Pretty | Fiction -
Jhumpa Lahiri and Ann Goldstein
Jhumpa Lahiri talks with Ann Goldstein, translator of Elena Ferrante's novels, about Ferrante, literature, translation, and writing at the Center for Jewish History. Lahiri, who is featured in the the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, has a new memoir, In Other Words (Knopf, 2016), which is translated from the Italian by Goldstein. For more from Lahiri and Goldstein, listen to the latest episode of Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast.
Tags: Knopf | memoir | talk | translation | Center for Fiction | Ampersand | Jhumpa Lahiri | Ann Goldstein | 2016 | March/April 2016 | Elena Ferrante | In Other Words | Center for Jewish History | Women in Translation month | Fiction | Creative Nonfiction -
Sarah Manguso With Lorin Stein
“You might as well start by confessing your greatest shame. Anything else would just be exposition.” Sarah Manguso reads from her essay collection 300 Arguments (Graywolf Press, 2017) and speaks with Paris Review editor in chief Lorin Stein at the Center for Fiction.
Tags: Creative Nonfiction | Sarah Manguso | Lorin Stein | 300 Arguments | Graywolf Press | Center for Fiction | 2017 -
Belinda McKeon with Colm Tóibín
"What's very odd is the difference between the dream world of the United States and the reality." In a conversation at the Center for Fiction in 2012, Irish novelists Belinda McKeon and Colm Tóibín discuss the struggles and triumphs that come with writing while traveling between Ireland and the United States.
Tags: interview | Center for Fiction | Belinda McKeon | Colm Tóibín | Fiction -
Mary Gaitskill
"A written story can inhabit an individual vision far more intensely and deeply than film is able to do." Mary Gaitskill, whose new novel, The Mare (Pantheon Books, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, talks about the powerful worlds that can be built by great literature.
Tags: 2015 | Page One | talk | November/December 2015 | Center for Fiction | Mary Gaitskill | The Mare | Pantheon Books | Fiction -
Ruth Rendell
Ruth Rendell speaks about how to get into the mind of a character in a talk at the Center for Fiction in New York City. Rendell, best known for her Chief Inspector Wexford series, passed away on May 2 at the age of eighty-five.
Tags: talk | Ruth Rendell | Chief Inspector Wexford series | Center for Fiction | Fiction