Poets & Writers Theater
Every day we share a new clip of interest to creative writers—author readings, book trailers, publishing panels, craft talks, and more. So grab some popcorn, filter the theater tags by keyword or genre, and explore our sizable archive of literary videos.
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Sigrid Nunez’s National Book Award Speech
“I became a writer not because I was seeking community but rather because I thought it would be something I could do alone and hidden in the privacy of my own room,” says Sigrid Nunez in her acceptance speech for the 2018 National Book Award in fiction, which she won for her seventh novel, The Friend (Riverhead Books, 2018). “How lucky to have discovered that writing books made the miraculous possible: to be removed from the world and to be a part of the world at the same time.”
Tags: Fiction | Sigrid Nunez | The Friend | Riverhead Books | 2018 | National Book Award | National Book Foundation | speech -
Jenny Xie
“My frugal mouth spends the only foreign words it owns. / At present, on this sleeper train, there’s nowhere to arrive.” Jenny Xie, a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award in poetry, reads “Rootless” and “Ongoing” from her debut poetry collection, Eye Level (Graywolf Press, 2018). Xie is featured in “Wilder Forms: Our Fourteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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Justin Phillip Reed
“We live on the unanswerable, assert / that acknowledgment is inartistic, / history is regressive, and aggression / looks like no one we know…” Justin Phillip Reed reads from his debut poetry collection, Indecency (Coffee House Press, 2018), for which he won the 2018 National Book Award in poetry. Reed is featured in “Wilder Forms: Our Fourteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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Diana Khoi Nguyen
“What may exist between appearance, and disappearance, between sound and silence, as something that is nearly nothing…” Diana Khoi Nguyen, a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award in poetry, reads from her debut poetry collection, Ghost Of (Omnidawn Publishing, 2018). Nguyen is featured in “Wilder Forms: Our Fourteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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National Book Awards Finalists at the Library
In this video from the New York Public Library, 2018 National Book Awards finalists, including Rebecca Makkai, Hanne Ørstavik, and Jeffrey C. Stewart, sit down to answer questions about their favorite books and which fictional character they’d want to hang out with.
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Nafissa Thompson-Spires
“I definitely felt there was a gap in what I wished I could have been reading.” On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Nafissa Thompson-Spires talks about the importance of intersectional characters and the inspiration for her debut story collection, Heads of the Colored People (37 INK, 2018), which was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award in fiction.
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The Poet X
“The Poet X is my third novel, but it’s the first one published.” At the New York State Writers Institute, Elizabeth Acevedo speaks about making the transition from poetry to fiction, facing rejection, and learning to persevere in the process of publishing her first novel, The Poet X (HarperTeen, 2018), which is longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award in young people’s literature.
Tags: Poetry | Fiction | Elizabeth Acevedo | The Poet X | HarperTeen | 2018 | writing process | New York State Writers Institute | National Book Award | young adult -
Rebecca Makkai
“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.
Tags: Fiction | National Book Award | Rebecca Makkai | Late Night With Seth Meyers | The Great Believers | Viking | 2018 | writing process | teaching -
Donald Hall
In this 2009 interview with poet Elizabeth Spires, former U.S. poet laureate Donald Hall reads poems and speaks about the writing life. For more Hall, read “Turning Time Around: A Profile of Donald Hall” by contributor John Freeman from the November/December 2014 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. Hall passed away on June 23, 2018 at the age of eighty-nine.
Tags: Poetry | National Book Award | poet laureate | reading | talk | November/December 2014 | Donald Hall | in memoriam -
Lucie Brock-Broido
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.
Tags: Poetry | Lucie Brock-Broido | Stay, Illusion | Knopf | 2013 | National Book Award | National Book Foundation | in memoriam -
Danez Smith on Surrealism
“We are surreal beings.... We dream, which is the most surreal thing in the world.” Danez Smith speaks with Lauren K. Alleyne about imagination and language in this video for The Fight & The Fiddle, a publication of the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University. Smith is the author of Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award in poetry.
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Daniel Borzutzky
Daniel Borzutzky, who won the 2016 National Book Award in poetry for The Performance of Becoming Human (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2016), reads poems from the collection at a reading for the finalists hosted by the New School. Borzutzky’s forthcoming poetry collection, Lake Michigan (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), is a series of nineteen lyric poems.
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Ursula K. Le Guin
“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.
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Annie Proulx’s National Book Award Speech
“We keep on trying because there’s nothing else to do.” With a timely speech, Annie Proulx accepts the National Book Foundation’s 2017 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, which recognizes individuals who have made an exceptional impact on the country’s literary heritage.
Tags: Fiction | Annie Proulx | National Book Award | 2017 | lifetime achievement award | speech -
Jesmyn Ward
“When you see yourself reflected in literature, it enlarges your ideas of what is possible for you.” MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient Jesmyn Ward takes PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown on a tour of her hometown in Mississippi and shares the parts of her life and community that inspire her writing. Ward is the winner of the 2017 National Book Award in fiction for Sing, Unbured, Sing (Scribner, 2017).
Tags: Fiction | Jesmyn Ward | Sing, Unburied, Sing | National Book Award | 2017 | Scribner | PBS NewsHour | MacArthur Fellowship | Mississippi -
Forty-Three
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.
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Panopticon
“The keeper put me in the cage with the monkeys / Because I asked to be / Put in the cage with the monkeys.” Shane McCrae, whose most recent collection, In the Language of My Captor (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), is longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award in poetry, reads his poem “Panopticon” for the River Styx at the Tavern reading series.
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This Is Not a Fairytale
“In between, your mind is full of trees. / And it’s quite dark despite the moon.” This short film of Laura Kasischke’s poem “This Is Not a Fairytale” was created by Laurent Barthelemy and Shizuka Kusayanagi for Motionpoems. Kasischke’s most recent collection, Where Now (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), is longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award in poetry.
Tags: Poetry | Laura Kasischke | video poem | Motionpoems | This Is Not a Fairytale | Where Now | Copper Canyon Press | 2017 | National Book Award -
Dear White America
“I’ve left Earth in search of darker planets, a solar system that revolves too near a black hole. I have left a patch of dirt in my place and many of you won’t know the difference...” Danez Smith reads his poem “Dear White America” at the 2014 Rustbelt Regional Poetry Festival. Smith’s second collection, Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017), is longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award in poetry.
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Lisa Ko
On Nashville Public Television’s A Word on Words, Lisa Ko speaks about her debut novel, The Leavers (Algonquin Books, 2017), which is longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award in fiction.
Tags: Fiction | Lisa Ko | The Leavers | Algonquin Books | 2017 | A Word on Words | July/August 2017 | First Fiction 2017 | National Book Award