Poets & Writers Theater

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.

“I should share with you that I did not intend to be a fiction writer, I did not intend to write a historical novel…I did intend to always, however, tell the truth,” says Min Jin Lee about writing her novel Pachinko (Grand Central Publishing, 2017), which has been adapted into a television series, in this 2018 reading and conversation with Claire Messud at Harvard University.

“One morning, I decide to spin backwards around the sun, says Earth. / One step behind / another behind another, I watch the chipper dance / of human beings in reverse.” In this Ours Poetica video, Mike Birbiglia reads the poem “Earth (in reverse)” by J. Hope Stein from their book, The New One: Painfully True Stories From a Reluctant Dad (Grand Central Publishing, 2020).

Kat Chow reads from her debut memoir, Seeing Ghosts (Grand Central Publishing, 2021), and speaks about the macabre humor of her family and growing up with loss in this virtual event for DC Public Library’s Summer Challenge series. The memoir is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Fiction has the ability to expand people’s points of view, and also to have the contradictions...” In this video, Min Jin Lee answers questions from readers about her novel Pachinko (Grand Central Publishing, 2017) for PBS NewsHour’s Now Read This book club, a partnership with the New York Times.

“I wanted very much to write an accurate historical novel because I was so troubled about how hate can operate in our hearts.” Min Jin Lee introduces herself and talks about the impetus for her second novel, Pachinko (Grand Central Publishing, 2017), a story that follows four generations of a Korean immigrant family in twentieth-century Japan.

Watch "TENDER BLACK," a video poem by Melissa Broder. So Sad Today (Grand Central Publishing, 2016), a collection of essays by Broder, is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

The book trailer for Melissa Broder's debut essay collection, So Sad Today (Grand Central Publishing, 2016), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, follows the author as she shops for a coffin. For more from Broder, listen to the latest episode of Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast.

"I fell in love with any number of literary writers... but I never fell out of love with genre." Benjamin Percy talks about genre fiction, favorite authors, and his novel Red Moon (Grand Central Publishing, 2013). Percy will lead the seminar, Staging the Iconic Moment: Set-Pieces, on January 9 at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas.

"I think that in writing, we do try to fix moments so that somehow they're captured." Elizabeth Alexander speaks with PBS NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown about the loss of her husband and her experiences in writing her new memoir, The Light of the World (Grand Central Publishing, 2015).

"Human beings have such a hard time asking for help." In her debut book, published by Grand Central Publishing this week, Amanda Palmer explores the complicated feelings involved in seeking help from others. Included are personal stories about her marriage to author Neil Gaiman and her struggles as an artist and musician.

A frequent contributor to Poets & Writers Magazine (check out his urgent essay in the current issue), Benjamin Percy has a new book coming out. A werewolf novel for the literary set, Red Moon is forthcoming in May from Grand Central Publishing. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Jami Attenberg, a recent contributor to the magazine and the author of the new novel The Middlesteins, and Jeffrey Yoskowitz, cofounder of Gefliteria, a boutique purveyor of Old World Jewish foods in Brooklyn, New York, recently got together and made some pickles. 

"Just because it happened doesn't make it interesting." Author and teacher Marion Roach Smith offers this and other priceless nuggets of advice for anyone thinking of writing a memoir in The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life, forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing on June 9.