Poets & Writers Theater

In this Library of Congress National Book Festival event, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), and Tiya Miles, author of Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People (Penguin Press, 2024), discuss their books in a conversation moderated by Martha S. Jones.

In this PBS Books virtual event celebrating the release of the fortieth anniversary edition of The House on Mango Street, published by Everyman’s Library, author Sandra Cisneros discusses the novel and how it has touched many lives and affected the literary landscape in a conversation with Heather-Marie Montilla.

In this 2023 National Book Festival event, Joy Harjo, author of Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years (Norton, 2022), and Camille T. Dungy, author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Simon & Schuster, 2023), read from their work and discuss writing about nature in a conversation moderated by NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe. Dungy’s essay “Manifest Some Magic: Get Out of Your Own Way and Do the Darn Thing” is included in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this National Book Festival event, George Saunders accepts the 2023 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction and speaks about his writing process, how problems in a work-in-progress contain opportunities, and the place of empathy in storytelling in a conversation moderated by Library of Congress literary director Clay Smith.

“I write toward what hurts. I write toward the truth, and I tell it again. I scribe the whole.” In this National Book Festival event, Jesmyn Ward, recipient of the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, speaks about how her grandmother influenced her work as a writer and joins Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in a conversation about her award-winning novels, grief writing, and cultural authenticity.

In this video, Kim Fu, author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century (Tin House, 2022), and Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Thrust (Riverhead Books, 2022), speak about writing within off-kilter realities for this 2022 National Book Festival event moderated by Poets & Writers editor-in-chief Kevin Larimer.

“I love the deep attribute of poetry to pause, to look, to listen, to respect, to pay attention to variety and learn something new.” Naomi Shihab Nye, Juan Felipe Herrera, and Jane Hirschfield discuss poetry and the poet’s role in America at the 2015 National Book Festival in this video from the Academy of American Poets.

“The greatest trailblazer for me, in some ways, was my local library,” says Lucinda Roy, author of Flying the Coop (Tor Books, 2022), in this discussion with Leslye Penelope, author of The Monsters We Defy (Orbit, 2022), and journalist Angie Miles about speculative fiction and creating strong empowered female heroines for this virtual event celebrating the 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival.

Geraldine Brooks speaks about her “ridiculous optimism” for new writing projects, the connection she has with her characters, and her new novel, Horse (Viking, 2022), with librarian Rebekah Scarborough in this virtual event, hosted by PBS Books in collaboration with Georgia Public Broadcasting celebrating the 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival.

In this 2021 National Book Festival virtual event, Patricia Engel, author of Infinite Country (Avid Reader Press, 2021), and Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021), speak about their books with Kevin Larimer, editor in chief of Poets & Writers.

“He always wanted to stay as close and as pure with the work as possible.” In this video for PBS Book View Now, editor Samuel Nicholson and agent Nicole Aragi speak about working with Denis Johnson, who posthumously won the 2017 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.

Allegra Goodman introduces and reads from her novel The Cookbook Collector (Dial Press, 2010) at the 2010 National Book Festival. Goodman’s sixth novel, The Chalk Artist (Dial Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It took me a very long time to learn how to write about Colombia.” At the 2015 National Book Festival, Juan Gabriel Vásquez speaks with PBS NewHour’s Jeffrey Brown about his literary influences and journey to write stories about Colombia, where he was born. Vásquez’s fourth novel, Reputations (Riverhead Books, 2016), is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"A novel is a historic reenactment and a short story is a diorama." Elizabeth McCracken discusses the different challenges of writing a novel and a short story, and reads from her latest collection of short stories, Thunderstuck (Dial Press, 2014), at the 2014 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. McCracken will deliver the keynote on January 9 at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas.

At the 2018 National Book Festival, Lorrie Moore, author of See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary (Knopf, 2018), and Richard Russo, author of The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life (Knopf, 2018), speak about humor and storytelling with Kevin Larimer, editor in chief of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Albert Goldbarth is introduced by Amy Stolls, literature director of the National Endowment for the Arts, before reading selections of his poetry at the 2013 National Book Festival. Goldbarth’s new essay collection, The Adventures of Form and Content (Graywolf Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Even when I’m writing for young people, I really try to get into the emotional side of who they are...” At the 2016 National Book Festival, Jacqueline Woodson discusses her novel Another Brooklyn (HarperCollins, 2016), which is shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award in fiction. Woodson is featured in “A Great Good” by Rigoberto González in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.