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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“You will love again the stranger who was your self.” Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson reads Derek Walcott’s poem “Love After Love” from Collected Poems: 1948–1984 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986) for a tribute to the poet and playwright. Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992, passed away on March 17, 2017.
Tags: Poetry | Derek Walcott | Linton Kwesi Johnson | reading | dub poetry | Love After Love | Nobel Prize | Nobel laureate | 1992 | 1986 | Collected Poems: 1948–1984 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux -
“Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names.” The life of Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Toni Morrison is remembered through this 2004 interview for CBS Sunday Morning highlighting what was most important to her: being a mother and a writer. Morrison died at the age of eighty-eight on August 5, 2019.
Tags: Fiction | Creative Nonfiction | Toni Morrison | interview | CBS | in memoriam | Nobel laureate -
“Like literature, my own field, the Nobel Prize is an idea that, in times like these, helps us to think beyond our dividing walls...” In this video, Kazuo Ishiguro delivers a heartfelt speech to accept the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm.
Tags: Fiction | Kazuo Ishiguro | Nobel Prize | Nobel laureate | speech | Stockholm | 2017 -
In this video, Kazuo Ishiguro, who was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, speaks about what he calls, “double-cross metaphors,” and “tilting the reality of the world just a little bit” in his stories.
Tags: Fiction | Kazuo Ishiguro | Nobel Prize | Nobel laureate | Knopf | 2017 -
In this video, MacDowell Colony chairman Michael Chabon presents Toni Morrison with the Edward MacDowell Medal for outstanding contribution to the arts and American culture. Morrison, who received a lifetime achievement award from the PEN American Center, tells a packed audience about how she became a writer and the inspiration for her first novel, The Bluest Eye.
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"I play Haydn after a black day / and feel a simple warmth in my hands." In this video featuring Tomas Tranströmer's poem "Allegro," the Swedish poet and Nobel laureate plays piano in his home in Stockholm. Tranströmer passed away on March 26 at the age of eighty-three.
Tags: reading | music | Tomas Tranströmer | Nobel laureate | Poetry -
"Late August, given heavy rain and sun / For a full week, the blackberries would ripen." The late Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney reads his poem "Blackberry-Picking."
Tags: reading | Nobel laureate | Seamus Heaney | Poetry