Poets & Writers Theater

“The most important thing for me when I was writing this book was to invite the reader along with me…it was an adventure for me.” In this episode of Shelf Analysis, host Rick O’Shea interviews Doireann Ní Ghríofa about her debut memoir, A Ghost in the Throat (Biblioasis, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. 

“I cannot say if the emptiness is / a grand celestial body or a vacuum / so complete nothing can escape.” Michael Kleber-Diggs reads from his debut poetry collection, Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions, 2021), winner of the 2020 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, and speaks with Tracy K. Smith in this celebratory virtual event. Worldly Things is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. 

“I write, I free write, I type it in a computer, and then I start over from the beginning and then I add to it.” In this 2017 City of Asylum video, Yona Harvey speaks about her revision process, self-censorship, and the difference processes for writing poems, essays, and comic books. Harvey’s second poetry collection, You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love (Four Way Books, 2020), won the 2020 Believer Book Award in poetry.

In this CBS Sunday Morning video, Washington Post book critic Ron Charles gives his book report on new recommendations for the summer, including Sanjena Sathian’s debut novel, Gold Diggers (Penguin Press, 2021), Great Circle (Knopf, 2021) by Maggie Shipstead, and The Man Who Lived Underground (Library of America, 2021) by the late Richard Wright, which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I had always been interested in blending reality or elevating the surrealistic elements of real life.” In this episode of the Woolfer Author Series, host Carmen Tanner Slaughter talks with Morgan Jerkins about transitioning between nonfiction and fiction writing, and her debut novel, Caul Baby (Harper, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2018 video, novelist Anne Garréta answers a series of questions at Albertine Books in New York City. Garréta’s new novel, In Concrete (Deep Vellum, 2021), translated from the French by Emma Ramadan, is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Discipline is a massive component of creating a body of work, and the further I get, the more I see that that really is true,” says Rachel Cusk in this 2019 interview with Tonny Vorm at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Cusk’s novel Second Place (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021) is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this virtual reading hosted by Magers & Quinn Booksellers, authors Lilly Dancyger, Gina Frangello, and Jeannine Ouellette read from their memoirs and discuss the similarities between their writing processes. Dancyger’s Negative Space (Santa Fe Writers Project, 2021) and Frangello’s Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason (Counterpoint Press, 2021) are featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Revelation never comes as a fern uncoiling / a frond in mist; it comes when I trip on a root, / slap a mosquito on my arm,” reads Arthur Sze from his poem "Earthshine" in this 2008 video for the Lunch Poems reading series at the University of California, Berkeley. Sze’s latest collection, The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2021), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It was sodden daylight. The rain had stopped, but she could hear water dripping off things.” In this Stony Brook University virtual event, Elizabeth McCracken reads from her new story collection, The Souvenir Museum (Ecco, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I think I lead with sound, in a certain way. There’s a percussive place that I go with my measure,” says Hoa Nguyen in this interview for Project 40’s Traces series, which documents the process and practices of Asian Canadian creatives. Nguyen’s A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure (Wave Books, 2021) is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The storm funneled through town with destructive intent. / Fractured tree limbs, toppled fences, rippled shingles / like tufts of hair.” In this PBS NewsHour video, Fady Joudah reads “House of Mercury” from his poetry collection Tethered to Stars (Milkweed Editions, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The story of this family is a common one. It’s the reality of so many people I know and love, yet it’s one I never saw depicted in any novel,” says Patricia Engel in this video about the inspiration behind her new novel, Infinite Country (Avid Reader Press, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I just wanted to show you what is to me, home, and always will be,” says Andrew J. Graff in this video offering a view of the Michigan landscape that inspired his debut novel, Raft of Stars (Ecco, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this virtual launch of Land of Big Numbers (Mariner Books, 2021) hosted by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, author Te-Ping Chen reads from her debut story collection and speaks with Charles Yu about releasing a book during a pandemic. Land of Big Numbers is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this virtual book launch hosted by Books & Books in Florida, Dantiel W. Moniz discusses the inspiration behind her debut short story collection, Milk Blood Heat (Grove Press, 2021), with Lauren Groff, author of Florida (Riverhead Books, 2018). Milk Blood Heat is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I’m not sorry for my one-way streets, my way or the highway, manly waters incompatible with my sex,” reads Arisa White from her poetry collection Who’s Your Daddy (Augury Books, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, for this Foglifter virtual event.

“Hannah dreams the family buries her mother, a woman they haven’t seen in more than forty years.” Eman Quotah celebrates the book launch for her debut novel, Bride of the Sea (Tin House, 2021), with author Susan Muaddi Darraj in this Politics and Prose virtual event. The novel is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Everyone can do a paragraph.” Emily Rapp Black speaks about working with a writing partner during the pandemic in this video for the Throw Us a Line series hosted by Lighthouse Writers Workshop program director Andrea Dupree. Black’s new memoir, Sanctuary (Random House, 2021), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this installment of ENCLAVE, a virtual reading series curated by Rae Armantrout and Jeanne Heuving, poet Peter Gizzi reads from his collections Archeophonics (Wesleyan University Press, 2016) and Now It’s Dark (Wesleyan University Press, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.