Poets & Writers Theater

“Librarians and libraries have such a special place in my heart because growing up, like a lot of people, they were a safe place to go to after school.” In this video for Baker & Taylor, a provider of books for public libraries, Mateo Askaripour talks about the importance of libraries and his debut novel, Black Buck (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

The Plot Against America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004), Philip Roth’s alternative history novel in which Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 presidential election and fascist anti-Semitism is on the rise, has been adapted into an HBO television miniseries. The series, directed by Minkie Spiro and adapted by David Simon, stars Ben Cole, Winona Ryder, Morgan Spector, John Turturro, and Zoe Kazan.

“The very act of reading is an empathetic act.” In this Aspen Institute video, Adrienne Brodeur talks about her writing process and reads from her debut memoir, Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019), which is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I picked up languages the way some people pick up viruses. I was armed with literature.” In this video by Alma Books, Azareen van der Vliet Oloomi reads an excerpt from her novel Call Me Zebra (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), for which she won the 2019 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

“It’s the way we have to connect not only the intellect, but also the heart, to engage the whole body with breath, with rhythm.” Natasha Trethewey, recipient of the 22nd Heinz Award for the Arts and Humanities, talks about the immense value of poetry. Trethewey’s fifth poetry collection, Monument: Poems New and Selected (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Beautiful Boy is adapted from the memoirs Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction (Houghton Mifflin, 2008) by David Sheff and Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines (Antheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008) by Nic Sheff, and chronicles a family coping with addiction over many years. Starring Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Amy Ryan, and Maura Tierney, the film is directed by Felix Van Groeningen.

“Look at us growing up. Who will we be?” We the Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), Justin Torres’s debut novel, has been adapted into a film directed and cowritten by Jeremiah Zagar. Starring Raúl Castillo, Sheila Vand, and Evan Rosado, the film follows Jonah, growing up with his brothers and escaping into a fantasy world to cope with his volatile home life.

“Everything you live through changes you, inevitably, and I think as you change, your writing changes.” Maggie O’Farrell speaks about receiving Specsavers Bestseller Awards for four of her novels, including The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007), and how she has evolved as a writer. O’Farrell’s debut memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death (Knopf, 2018), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“We will need writers who can remember freedom.” In this video, Ursula K. Le Guin accepts the National Book Foundation’s 2014 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Le Guin’s essay collection, No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Honestly I think that the reason his head was in my brain was because of that hair metal band Tesla...” Samantha Hunt reveals the inspiration behind her second novel, The Invention of Everything Else (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008), which fictionalizes the last days of inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla’s life. Hunt’s first story collection, The Dark Dark (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

As part of the Aquinas College Contemporary Writers Series, Peter Ho Davies reads a section from his novel The Fortunes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), which at the time was titled Your Name in Chinese. The Fortunes is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“High school changed my life. Suddenly, there was Latin and German, and Silas Marner and The Odyssey.” Cynthia Ozick talks about her childhood, family influences, and the inspiration behind her book, The Shawl (Knopf, 1989). Ozick’s new nonfiction book, Critics, Monsters, Fanatics, and Other Literary Essays (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"What is it you think you did?" Watch the trailer for the film adaptation of Indignation (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008), one of Philip Roth's last books before his retirement as a novelist. The film is directed by James Schamus who also wrote the screenplay.

"Nothing can ever happen twice." Listen to a selection of poems by Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska, read by her translator Clare Cavanagh, as well as poets Charles Simic and Krystyna Dabrowska, at a celebration of her life and work hosted by the 92nd Street Y. The event also celebrated the publication of Szymborska's posthumous collection, Map: Collected and Last Poems (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015).

Umberto Eco speaks with Paul Holdengräber at Kensington Town Hall in November 2011 about his novel The Prague Cemetary (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), and the future of books.

In an interview with Tonny Vorm, Umberto Eco speaks from his home in Milan about the "pleasure of spending six, seven, eight years to prepare a story" and shares other words of wisdom and advice to offer to aspiring young writers. Eco's latest novel, Numero Zero, translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon, was published in November by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

"The days pass very slowly leading up to our departure for the autumn palace." Alexander Chee reads from his new novel, The Queen of the Night (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), at the Franklin Park Reading Series in Brooklyn.

In an interview with Web of Stories, poet and memoirist Donald Hall recounts his first meeting with T. S. Eliot. Hall is the author of the memoir A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“‘There’s a war,’ she told them. ‘People are fighting, bad things are happening.’” Hala Alyan, who is featured in “First Fiction 2017” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from her debut novel, Salt Houses (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), at Politics and Prose Bookstore.

Angela Flournoy reads from her debut novel, The Turner House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), and speaks about family, food, and her writing process for Well-Read Black Girl. Flournoy is one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 for 2015.