Poets & Writers Theater

In this interview for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, George Saunders speaks about his latest story collection, Liberation Day (Random House, 2022), and the need to be in a “holy state of not knowing anything” when starting a new writing project. Liberation Day is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Bill Gates shares his annual summer reading list, which includes Walter Isaacson’s biography Leonardo da Vinci (Simon & Schuster, 2017) and George Saunders’s novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (Random House, 2017).

“This tonight is culture, it’s international culture, it’s compassionate culture, it’s activist culture—it’s a room full of believers…” In this video, George Saunders accepts the 2017 Man Booker Prize for his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (Bloomsbury, 2017). Saunders is the second American in a row to win the award.

Written and directed by Graham Sack, this virtual reality film is an adaptation of George Saunders’s debut novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (Random House, 2017). Saunders speaks about his debut novel in “The Emotional Realist Talks to Ghosts” in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"Prose, when it's done right, is like empathy training wheels." On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, George Saunders explains why books feel like friends and breaks down his writing process, which includes a nun in his head.

"I'd say, as a goal in life, you could do worse than 'Try to be kinder.'" In May 2013 George Saunders gave a commencement speech at Syracuse University. It was recently published as a book, Congratulations, by the Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness, published earlier this month by Random House, as well as, in abbreviated form, this animated video, narrated by Saunders himself.

“There is some kind of energy that I’m manifesting as I’m writing line to line.” English professor and author George Saunders discusses the thought processes and creative forces that shape his characters and inform his stories. His latest book, Tenth of December: Stories, was published by Random House this year.

The master of the short story, whose first collection in six years, Tenth of December, was published in January by Random House, reads from his new book and talks about his writing process in this recent installment of the Talks at Google series.

This documentary about a wannabe poet who sets off on a quest for answers about writing, featuring interviews with literary figures such as Nick Flynn, D.A. Powell, George Saunders, and David Sedaris, opened in select cities on Friday.