Poets & Writers Theater

In this 2016 New Yorker video, Robert Battle, former artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, reminds all artists, whether dancers, musicians, poets, or writers, that “it’s important for us to, at this time, see beyond our circumstances.” Battle continues: “I think we can do that through the arts.”

“The best writing advice I ever got was, don’t give up and you can be a writer, if you work really hard and don’t stop writing.” In this Audible interview, New Yorker staff writer and author Ariel Levy speaks about finding her voice, writing about women’s lives, her experience with maternal grief, and her memoir, The Rules Do Not Apply (Random House, 2017).

Who doesn’t appreciate a nice notebook to write in? Belgian expat and artist Henry might be taking his love of Moleskine notebooks a step too far in this New Yorker Shorts & Murmurs film written, performed, and directed by Sam Bronowski.

“Bread pudding was the first thing that I baked after I came out to my parents,” says Bryan Washington in this New Yorker video about his personal connection to the dish. For more on Washington, read his installment of Ten Questions, in which he speaks about his debut story collection, Lot (Riverhead Books, 2019).

Planning to play some board games or learn some new words over the holiday weekend? Get some insight from this New Yorker video as professional Scrabble players discuss and reenact their most improbable, most regretful, and most humbling plays and moves.

In this video from NBC's Late Night With Seth Meyers, reenactments of holiday-themed New Yorker cartoons come to life with live actors while editor David Remnick thoroughly explains the humor in each one. (Incidentally, Poets & Writers Magazine subscriptions also make a great holiday gift.)

In this New Yorker video, Teju Cole, author of Known and Strange Things (Random House, 2016), reflects on his American citizenship and Nigerian upbringing from his home in Brooklyn. Cole is featured in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The ampersand is useful and beautiful.” For the New Yorker video series Comma Queen, Mary Norris speaks about the origins of the ampersand and the controversy surrounding this beloved character.

In this video, Jia Tolentino, a contributing writer for the New Yorker, examines the poem “Solstice” from Tracy K. Smith’s poetry collection Life on Mars (Graywolf Press, 2011).

“I think that the idea that you can separate politics out from life is the first fiction.” Claudia Rankine speaks about the confluence of writing and politics with Tony Kushner and Salman Rushdie in “The Stuff of Fiction,” a panel moderated by David Remnick, the first event in the New Yorker’s Public Forum: A Well-Ordered Nation series.

“Real stories never end.” At a celebration for the New Yorker’s ninetieth anniversary, David Remnick recounts an experience of journalist failure and speaks on the importance of reporters and citizens.

Mary Norris, New Yorker copy editor and author of Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen (Norton, 2015), talks about commas in this episode of a new video series from the New Yorker.

"I guess this book is about surviving and what we are born into." New Yorker cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan explains his intentions for his illustrated memoir, I Was a Child, published by Blue Rider Press this month. 

Actor Steve Martin interviews the author and cartoonist about her start as a staff cartoonist at the New Yorker. Chast won the Kirkus Prize in nonfiction for her graphic memoir Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (Bloomsbury, 2014).

The former New Yorker staff writer and director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU delivered this keynote address, "A Typology of Convergences: Towards a Unified Field Theory of Cultural Transmission," at the 2013 Graduate Student Conference at the School of Visual Arts.

“Even after publishing my first book, I felt that the writing of the story came out of a place of deep isolation for me.” Jhumpa Lahiri discusses the creative process that informed her latest novel, The Lowland, which made the 2013 Man Booker shortlist.

New Yorker has been telling the story of our culture for eighty-eight years.” Wyatt Mitchell, the magazine’s creative director, explains the historical context to font updates and design changes that have modernized iconic sections of the revered publication.

Here's a pleasant daydream in the form of an animated New Yorker cartoon by Charles Barsotti.

Next week Simon & Schuster will publish Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean, the long-time staff writer at the New Yorker and author of seven books, including Saturday Night and The Orchid Thief. In her new book Orlean chronicles the life of the dog that was born on a battlefield in France in 1918 and became a movie star and international icon.

This short film, based on the poem "The Straightforward Mermaid" by Matthea Harvey, was filmed and directed by Ani Simon-Kennedy. It was selected for the Short Film Corner at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. You can read the poem, which appeared in the New Yorker last August, here.