Poets & Writers Theater

“One of the nice things about conferences like this one is you meet these other human dream incubators. They’ve got their lightning rods up. They’re also receiving these dreams.” Karen Russell speaks to Rich Fahle of PBS Books at the 2019 AWP Conference & Book Fair about the writers who have inspired her, motherhood, and her third story collection, Orange World (Knopf, 2019). Orange World is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“What are the ethics around documenting political crises? How much do you become a parasite of people’s suffering? What good do you do to a situation by documenting it or fictionalizing it? These are all questions that are in the novel.” Valeria Luiselli discusses the unique challenges of writing about the ongoing migrant crisis at the U.S. southern border in her most recent novel, Lost Children Archive (Knopf, 2019), with PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown. An interview with Luiselli by Lauren LeBlanc appears in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It is a map of how this writer had to break many barriers to find not a room of her own, but a house of her own.” Sandra Cisneros speaks with PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown about her essay collection, A House of My Own: Stories From My Life (Knopf, 2015), her path to writing, and what home means to her. Cisneros was recently named the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.

Yaa Gyasi and Zadie Smith speak with Courtney Martin about representation and risks in writing, the power of fiction to invoke curiosity and transform behavior, issues of history and identity, and their current projects at the 2018 Obama Foundation Summit.

“If you’re on Twitter and Facebook and sharing there, there’s no pressure of concealment, and I think good memoir comes out of that place.” Dani Shapiro, whose fifth memoir, Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love (Knopf, 2019), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, talks with Literary Hub’s Emily Temple about how social media could have an adverse effect on writing and storytelling.

The Little Drummer Girl (Knopf, 1983), John le Carré’s spy thriller novel about a young English actress who works as a double agent for an Israeli intelligence agency in the 1970s, has been adapted into a television miniseries. The six-part series is directed by Park Chan-wook, and stars Florence Pugh, Michael Shannon, and Alexander Skarsgård.

“I think poetry should be part of popular culture, in the sense that poetry should be something we reach to.” Kevin Young, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, speaks about how his childhood in Topeka, Kansas influenced his new poetry collection, Brown (Knopf, 2018), with PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown.

“I just hope that people get an updated version of what Native people are, and what we can be.” Tommy Orange discusses his debut novel, There There (Knopf, 2018), prologues, and tackling misperceptions of Native people in his writing on CTV’S Your Morning. Orange is featured in “First Fiction 2018” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Gregory Pardlo talks about the difference between writing poetry and creative nonfiction, and the universality of storytelling in this interview with Rich Fahle at the 2018 AWP Annual Conference & Book Fair in Tampa. Pardlo’s debut memoir, Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America (Knopf, 2018), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. 

Weike Wang speaks with Mary Laura Philpott of A Word on Words about her debut novel, Chemistry (Knopf, 2017), and why her main character doesn’t have a name. Wang is a 2017 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and a recipient of a 2018 Whiting Award in fiction.

Sweetbitter (Knopf, 2016), Stephanie Danler’s debut novel about a young woman’s coming-of-age experience working at an exclusive restaurant in New York City, has been adapted into a television series. The series stars Daniyar, Eden Epstein, Caitlin FitzGerald, Evan Jonigkeit, and Ella Purnell.

In this 2013 video, Lucie Brock-Broido reads her poem “You Have Harnessed Yourself Ridiculously to This World” from her collection Stay, Illusion (Knopf, 2013), which was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award in poetry. Brock-Broido died on March 6, 2018 at the age of sixty-one.

“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.

Erika L. Sánchez reads her poem “Forty-Three,” which reflects on the 2014 abduction of forty-three students in Guerrero, Mexico, as Ashley Rockwood interprets the poem through dance for this video produced in partnership with Chicago magazine. The poem is from Sánchez’s debut collection, Lessons on Expulsion (Graywolf Press, 2017), and her debut novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2017), is a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award in young people’s literature.

“If you read it, I hope you enjoy it.” In this short video, Tom Hanks sits in front of his collection of vintage typewriters to announce the publication of his debut short story collection, Uncommon Type: Some Stories (Knopf, 2017).

In this video, Kazuo Ishiguro, who was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, speaks about what he calls, “double-cross metaphors,” and “tilting the reality of the world just a little bit” in his stories.

The Snowman (Knopf, 2011), the crime novel written by Jo Nesbø and translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Tomas Alfredson, the film stars Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Val Kilmer, and Chloë Sevigny.

“It’s a story that I’ve carried with me for quite a long time, almost a decade now.” Ayobami Adebayo talks about her debut novel, Stay With Me (Knopf, 2017), which is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Jo Nesbø describes how awkward Tinder dates and vampirism inspired his new novel, The Thirst (Knopf, 2017), the latest in his Harry Hole thriller series.

The Circle (Knopf/McSweeney’s Books, 2013), Dave Eggers’s dystopian novel about a young woman who rises through the ranks of a powerful tech and social media company, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by James Ponsoldt, the film stars John Boyega, Tom Hanks, and Emma Watson.