Poets & Writers Theater

“Tonight I pray to the god / of small children and broken toys,” reads January Gill O’Neil from her poem “Prayer” in this installment of the P.O.P. series, shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. O’Neil’s fourth collection, Glitter Road (CavanKerry Press, 2024), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Don’t be afraid— / Someone has walked this way before / All the world’s music in her hands.” Patricia Spears Jones reads “Discovering America Again” by Lorenzo Thomas, her own poem “The Birth of Rhythm and Blues,” and talks about what it means to be a literary citizen. This video, part of the P.O.P. series, was shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. Spears Jones is the eleventh winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize.

“Restless, I want to return and stand at the mouth where wild fig trees grow,” reads Anne Marie Macari in this installment of the P.O.P. series, shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. Macari’s poetry collection Heaven Beneath (Persea Books, 2020) is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

John Murillo reads “Trouble Man,” a poem from his first collection, Up Jump the Boogie (Cypher Books, 2010), and a poem by Etheridge Knight for the P.O.P series, shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. Murillo’s second collection, Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry (Four Way Books, 2020), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Nicole Sealey reads William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 6 and her poem “Even the Gods” from her debut collection, Ordinary Beast (Ecco, 2017), for the P.O.P series, which was was shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. Sealey discusses poetry and craft with Dawn Lundy Martin in “Vagrant & Vulnerable” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“In my own writing, I feel safest when I’m farthest from what I know.” Tracy K. Smith reads “Digging” by Seamus Heney, the poem she feels “invited her to start writing poetry,” and from “My God, It’s Full of Stars,” a poem she wrote about her father. This video, part of the P.O.P. series, was shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets.

“I see myself in the shadows of a leaf.” Afaa Michael Weaver reads his poem “Self Portrait” and Lucille Clifton’s poem “My Dream About God” for the P.O.P. series, which was shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. Weaver’s poetry collection Spirit Boxing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017) is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this P.O.P. series video, Douglas Kearney reads and discusses “Sound—Part 3 (Ostinato): All the World's Wars Commence in the Head” by Yona Harvey, and reads from “Tuesday Morning at Work.” The P.O.P. series was shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets.

“I find that I’m looking for violence in the poems that I read.” Camille Rankine reads her poem “Little Children, My Apologies” and speaks about the types of poems she admires as part of the P.O.P. video series, which was shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. Rankine’s debut poetry collection, Incorrect Merciful Impulses (Copper Canyon Press, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Nick Flynn reads a poem by William Blake and “Cathedral of Salt,” a poem from his new collection, My Feelings (Graywolf Press, 2015) for the P.O.P. video series, which was shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets. Flynn’s fourth poetry collection is featured in Page One in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

R. A. Villanueva reads “A Brief for the Defense” by Jack Gilbert and “Mine Will Be a Beautiful Service,” a poem from his collection Reliquaria (University of Nebraska Press, 2014). This video is part of the P.O.P. series, shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets.

In this excerpt from P.O.P. (Poets on Poetry), an ongoing documentary shot and edited by Rachel Eliza Griffiths in partnership with the Academy of American Poets, poet Carl Phillips, whose eleventh collection, Double Shadow, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2011, reads a poem and talks about a song that matches the mood of the poems he’s been writing lately.