Poets & Writers Theater

In this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview, Margaret Atwood speaks about grief, unburnable books, and her latest story collection, Old Babes in the Wood (Doubleday, 2023).

“The way in is always through human beings.” Stephen Markley discusses his new novel, The Deluge (Simon & Schuster, 2023), and the importance of emotionally connecting to characters when writing about topics such as climate change in this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview.

“A lot of this book was me figuring out, how do you hold on to hope when it feels like the world is falling apart?” In this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview, Celeste Ng talks about the process of writing her latest novel, Our Missing Hearts (Penguin Press, 2022). A profile of Ng by Renée H. Shea is featured in the November/December 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.

“I knew I wanted to write about climate change and engage with this issue, and it felt like the near future was a way to think ahead, to kind of see where we’re heading,” says Allegra Hyde about the inspiration behind her debut novel, Eleutheria (Vintage, 2022), in this Late Night With Seth Myers interview. 

Watch this interview with Hanya Yanagihara on Late Night With Seth Meyers, in which she speaks about her novels To Paradise (Doubleday, 2022) and A Little Life (Doubleday, 2015), as well as how readers interact with her on social media.

“What does it mean to dream of better places in this book?” Anthony Doerr talks about exploring utopian questions while writing his latest novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land (Scribner, 2021), in this interview for Late Night With Seth Meyers. A Q&A with Doerr by Joshua Mohr appears in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Ann Patchett speaks about commissioning a local artist in Nashville for the cover art of her latest novel, The Dutch House (Harper, 2019), and how her bookstore, Parnassus Books, is doing during the pandemic.

“I think for art you do kind of have to wait for the inspiration to strike. You have to let all these feelings sort of simmer and build up inside you.” C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold (Riverhead Books, 2020), talks about her writing process and how the characters of her novel pushed her to write their stories in this interview for Late Night With Seth Meyers.

“There’s a long history, and many families and stories that just haven’t been told.” Tommy Orange talks about the need for more Native American stories in literature and the origins of his debut novel, There There (Knopf, 2018), in this interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

“I start with a physical feeling. I start with a visual image.” On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Ann Beattie speaks about her writing process, the differences between writing a novel and a short story, and how she came up with the title for her most recent novel, A Wonderful Stroke of Luck (Viking, 2019).

“When I was writing, I was trying hard not to sensationalize it,” Claire Adam says of Trinidad, where she grew up and set her debut novel, Golden Child (SJP for Hogarth, 2019). On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Adam also talks about the important role education played in her life and why she wouldn’t let her siblings read the book until it was completed.

“I was very lucky to have family members who are all very outgoing and love to hear people talk about them.” On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Ingrid Rojas Contreras talks about how her family and childhood in Colombia inspired her first novel, Fruit of the Drunken Tree (Doubleday, 2018).

“In a lot of African storytelling, unlike storytelling in the West, it’s the trickster who is telling the story, so you already know you can’t quite believe it.” On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Marlon James speaks about the influences behind his new novel, Black Leopard, Red Wolf (Riverhead Books, 2019), the first title of his Dark Star Trilogy, ranging from the television series The Affair and George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. A profile of James by Kima Jones appears in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I like to have a story be just the essential.” Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black (Mariner Books, 2018), talks about why he enjoys the short story form, writing Black characters, and his connection with his students in this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview. 

“You’re writing in total isolation. It’s like getting dressed in the dark, the complete dark, and then you have to go out on stage.” On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Rebecca Makkai discusses what it feels like to publish a book, the research behind her new novel, The Great Believers (Viking, 2018), and why she enjoys teaching MFA students. The Great Believers is longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award in fiction.

Jason Reynolds speaks about his new books, Sunny and For Every One, both published last month by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, reading for the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and the importance of daring to dream on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

“Language is tough. Using the right words is so important to me.” Paul Beatty, author of the Man Booker Prize–winning novel, The Sellout (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), speaks about the labor of writing and his advice to students on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

“That’s the beauty of fiction...you can tell a really specific story and it has a way of connecting with people. And they can continue telling that story to other people.” Editor and author Rakesh Satyal speaks about his writing process and new novel, No One Can Pronounce My Name (Picador, 2017), on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

“They’re unwanted where they come from, they’re unwanted when they arrive, but we have a great tradition of welcoming refugees and turning them into Pulitzer Prize winners.” Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen speaks about his experience as a refugee and the significance of refugees in the United States on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Nguyen’s first short story collection, The Refugees (Grove Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.