Poets & Writers Theater

“I find that writing into shame and toward shame, and coming out of it at the other end is something really interesting,” says K-Ming Chang about the writing process for her story collection, Gods of Want (One World, 2022), in this interview for Reading the Room, a podcast produced and hosted by Jaylen Lopez. Chang’s story collection is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The backend / algorithm will be coded on keyboards / by the actual hands of mothers who, / in another life, called themselves writers,” reads Ryann Stevenson from “Decision Tree,” which appears in her collection, Human Resources (Milkweed Editions, 2022), winner of the 2021 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, in this conversation with Richie Hofmann. Human Resources is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I realized as I started to write it, that it was going to be a lot more focused on my childhood than I expected it to be,” says Isaac Fitzgerald about the process of writing his first memoir, Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional (Bloomsbury, 2022), in this interview for Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast produced and hosted by Miwa Messer. Fitzgerald’s memoir is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Recalling the terror we experienced long ago, I wonder, is that something they wanted, to be acknowledged?” Belongings is a short film about the loss of a mother and a haunted childhood home directed by Alex Coppola and written by and starring Morgan Talty, author of the debut story collection, Night of the Living Rez (Tin House, 2022). Talty is introduced by Brandon Hobson in “First Fiction 2022” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I had to confront the page, and at times it felt like I was staring directly at the heart and face of the Korean DMZ.” In this Powell’s Books virtual event, Joseph Han reads from his debut novel, Nuclear Family (Counterpoint, 2022), and speaks with author Gene Kwak about the process of writing a magical realist story and the ways in which every Korean American story is a ghost story. Han’s novel is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I come from a family for whom travel was always an unfulfilled longing. But not really in the sense of a lone wolf,” reads Olivia Wenzel from her debut novel, 1,000 Coils of Fear (Catapult, 2022), translated from the German by Priscilla Layne, in this conversation with Jamele Watkins with an introduction by Rosemarie Peña, founder and president of the Black German Heritage and Research Association. Wenzel’s novel is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Fish have always swum me beyond my body, exploded me into some other mythic, imagined space.” Lars Horn talks about their love of research, writing about transmasculinity, and piecing together their first book, Voice of the Fish: A Lyric Essay, which won the 2020 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, in this City Lights Live virtual event with Carolina De Robertis. Horn’s book is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I like to journal from my characters’ perspectives and immerse myself entirely.” In this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview, Leila Mottley speaks about staying up late writing her debut novel, Nightcrawling (Knopf, 2022). Mottley is featured in “First Fiction 2022” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2020 video, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta reads a selection of their poems for the Quarantine Concert series produced by Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. Luboviski-Acosta’s second book, La Movida (Nightboat Books, 2022), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It seems like the ideas kind of find me, and oftentimes it’s an image, just one word or one smell or one setting, and it just won’t leave me alone,” says Erika L. Sánchez about her writing process and how her family’s storytelling influenced her in this 2020 virtual event for the Speak On It series hosted by the Chicago Public Library. Sánchez’s memoir, Crying in the Bathroom (Viking, 2022), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Woman of Light is my heart song to my ancestors,” says Kali Fajardo-Anstine in this video in which she talks about her debut novel, out now from One World, and the research and stories of her Indigenous Chicano family that inspired her writing. A profile of Fajardo-Anstine by Rigoberto González is featured in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Writing is my true, true joy, and that’s what makes me feel alive and nourished.” Erika L. Sánchez talks about her memoir, Crying in the Bathroom (Viking, 2022), and the process of book promotion and being a writer with Sandra Cisneros in this virtual event for Politics and Prose, produced in partnership with Books and Books and Café con Libros. Sánchez’s memoir is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

CJ Hauser speaks about the surprise of their viral essay “The Crane Wife” and their process for writing essays in this 2021 virtual reading and conversation with author and journalist Charlie Gilmour for the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts in England. Hauser’s first nonfiction book, The Crane Wife: A Memoir in Essays (Doubleday, 2022), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.