Poets & Writers Theater

“What isn’t twisted and dark? Look around! Twisted and dark means new and interesting.” Ottessa Moshfegh speaks with Vintage Books about dark comedy in writing, the difference between art and entertainment, and why she writes about the female body. Moshfegh is the author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation (Penguin Press, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Anne Waldman reads from the “Endtime” section of her longer poetic text at the 2017 Alternative New Year’s Day Spoken Word Performance Extravaganza at Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City. Waldman’s poetry collection Trickster Feminism (Penguin Books, 2018) is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In a craft talk at the Center for Fiction in New York City, A. M. Homes discusses the value of having a writing routine, how she approaches novels and short stories differently, and her fascination with Barbie. Homes is the author of Days of Awe (Viking, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I wanted writing to be something that involved relationships with other people.” Rachel Cusk talks about her experience teaching creative writing at Kingston University in London. Cusk’s novel Kudos (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, is the third volume in the trilogy that began with Outline (Picador, 2016).

“Justin used to think the trees were God. But today, right here, he thinks the ocean might be God. All that power and weakness, spread out for us to see.” Silas House reads from his fifth novel, Southernmost (Algonquin Books, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“There’s something in the lyric moment that really ruptures the taken for granted-ness of the world.” Meena Alexander discusses her writing process, artistic collaborations, and the sensory experience of being a poet in this interview for CUNY TV. Alexander is the author of Atmospheric Embroidery (TriQuarterly Books, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I’m very fascinated by people on thresholds....” Dorthe Nors talks about her writing interests, short stories versus novels, and the differences between the Danish and English languages with Rosie Goldsmith at the 2016 European Literature Festival in London. Nors’s fourth novel, Mirror, Shoulder, Signal (Graywolf Press, 2018), translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra, is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Porochista Khakpour reads from her essay “How to Write Iranian-America, or The Last Essay” and talks to Northwestern University professor Brian Edwards about her writing interests and the publishing industry. Khakpour’s debut memoir, Sick (Harper Perennial, 2018), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Luljeta Lleshanaku reads from her collection Haywire: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2011) in English translation and in the original Albanian, and talks about how history, politics, and religion have informed her writing. Lleshanaku’s new collection, Negative Space (New Directions, 2018), translated from the Albanian by Ani Gjika, is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Glenn Close reads “Old Wives’ Tales on Which I Was Fed” from Jenny Xie’s debut collection, Eye Level (Graywolf Press, 2018), which won the Academy of American Poets’ 2017 Walt Whitman Award. Eye Level is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Tommy Pico speaks with Kasie Griffitts for Duende District’s Duende Conversations series about life as a poet, tribal storytelling, and the shifty definition of literary success. Pico is the author of Junk (Tin House Books, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Gregory Pardlo talks about the difference between writing poetry and creative nonfiction, and the universality of storytelling in this interview with Rich Fahle at the 2018 AWP Annual Conference & Book Fair in Tampa. Pardlo’s debut memoir, Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America (Knopf, 2018), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. 

On New Day Northwest, Jonathan Evison discusses how he approaches writing about class, what it’s like to have his novels adapted into films, and what inspired his new novel, Lawn Boy (Algonquin Books, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“My life is kind of like a novel in interconnected stories.” Sloane Crosley recounts the different jobs she’s had that have shaped her storytelling for Xerox’s Set the Page Free series. Her third essay collection, Look Alive Out There (MCD, 2018), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Reading is an opportunity to see little aspects of the world and different periods that you can never access yourself...” Tom Rachman talks about how his literary inspirations, such as Dickens, Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, and George Orwell, have evolved over the years. Rachman’s third novel, The Italian Teacher (Viking, 2018), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Bianca Stone talks to Vermont poet laureate Chard deNiord for Poets Speak about her poetry, life with her family in Vermont, and her work restoring the house of her late grandmother, poet Ruth Stone. Bianca Stone’s third poetry collection, The Möbius Strip Club of Grief (Tin House Books, 2018), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

David Tomas Martinez reads his poem “Hoodies” accompanied by musicians David Cieri and Mike Brown for the Gavagai music and reading series at Cornelia Street Café in New York City. Martinez is the author of Hustle (Sarabande Books, 2014) and Post Traumatic Hood Disorder (Sarabande Books, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, Tarfia Faizullah reads her poem “Self-Portrait as Slinky” for the Brooklyn Poets Reading Series. Faizullah is the author of Seam (Southern Illinois University Press, 2014) and Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf Press, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Everything you live through changes you, inevitably, and I think as you change, your writing changes.” Maggie O’Farrell speaks about receiving Specsavers Bestseller Awards for four of her novels, including The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007), and how she has evolved as a writer. O’Farrell’s debut memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death (Knopf, 2018), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“‘Yes, it’s true, there’s something thrilling, addictive even, about the idea that you’re living every moment only half a step ahead of death.’” Lisa Halliday reads from her debut novel, Asymmetry (Simon & Schuster, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.