Poets & Writers Theater

“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.