Poets & Writers Theater

“I think that the body does not let you forget.” In this PBS NewsHour video, Natasha Trethewey reflects on the trauma of her mother’s murder, the subject of her book Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir (Ecco, 2020), and how the events led her to become a poet and writer. Trethewey is interviewed by Joshunda Sanders in “A Poetics of Resilience” in the July/August 2020 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The deal with Florida is the charlatans and lunatics and Snapchat-famous plastic surgeons. It is the Ponzi schemes, the byzantine corruption, the evangelical fervor and the consenting-adult depravity....” In this Books & Books virtual event, Kent Russell reads from his memoir, In the Land of Good Living (Knopf, 2020), and discusses Florida and his writing experience with author and sibling Karen Russell. In the Land of Good Living is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“On the day we met, she told me she was named after the sexiest country music star alive. And that she knew how to fire a gun. And that she was one hundred percent Cherokee.” In this video, Ashleigh Bryant Phillips reads “Shania” from her debut story collection, Sleepovers (Hub City Press, 2020). Phillips is featured in “First Fiction 2020” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Corinne Manning talks about their debut story collection, We Had No Rules (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), and the journey to write freely and openly while considering “all the ways in which we might erase ourselves by trying to hit mainstream ideals” in this virtual event for the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center’s 2020 Queer Novel miniseries. Manning is featured in “First Fiction 2020” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Don’t be embarrassed by what you like, just be ready to own it.” A Mighty Blaze’s Rachel Barenbaum speaks with Jean Kyoung Frazier about advice for emerging writers and the inspiration for her debut novel, Pizza Girl (Doubleday, 2020). Frazier is featured in “First Fiction 2020” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It follows the band’s ascent up the wobbly ladder of stardom and the Faustian pact with fame, the hidden costs of getting what they want and the way dreams are not quite the same when they come true.” In this Booktopia TV video, David Mitchell talks about the premise of his eighth novel, Utopia Avenue (Random House, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I tried to do it too fast. I rushed it, which is never a good idea with writing.” In this Lighthouse Writers Workshop video, Rachel Weaver speaks with author R. L. Maizes about the publishing process of her books, how she was told there is no market for short story collections, and how her first book of short stories and new novel, Other People’s Pets (Celadon, 2020), came to be. Other People’s Pets is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I acquired a copy of my great-great-grandfather’s diaries in 2013,” says Lauren Russell about the inspiration for her new book, Descent (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2020), at an event with author Megan Milks for Brown University’s Authors in the Archives series in 2019. Descent is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Larry thought it was as if the whole of the world was asking to be fuel.” Leah Hampton, whose debut book, F*ckface (Henry Holt, 2020), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from her short story “Boomer” at Malvern Books in 2018. 

In this video, Marie-Helene Bertino celebrates the launch of her new novel, Parakeet (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), with Alexandra Kleeman and Angel Nafis for a virtual reading hosted by BOMB Magazine and Greenlight Bookstore. Parakeet is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Eight years of active searching had come to this: an abandoned house, an outdoor stove, and a doll, signs of a former life but necessarily his and hers.” In this book trailer, Donna Hemans reads an excerpt from her second novel, Tea by the Sea (Red Hen Press, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“This is how the past interrupts our lives, all of it entering the same doorway…” In this clip from PBS’s Articulate, former poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey reads her poem “Letter to Inmate #271847.” An interview by Joshunda Sanders with Trethewey about her new book, Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir (Ecco, 2020), is featured in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“My essays are about race, place, and belonging, and about growing up Indian in non-Indian places.” In this episode of Literary Hub’s Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sejal Shah talks about her memoir-in-essays, This Is One Way to Dance (University of Georgia Press, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“How does the elegy believe me?” This lyric art video created by Rachel Eliza Griffiths offers a peek into her new book of poems and self-portraits, Seeing the Body (Norton, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.