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.
-
“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.
Tags: Fiction | Andrew J. Graff | Raft of Stars | Ecco | 2021 | Page One | March/April 2021 | inspiration | Michigan | landscape -
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.
Tags: Fiction | Land of Big Numbers | Te-Ping Chen | Charles Yu | Asian American Writers' Workshop | AAWW | Mariner Books | 2021 | Page One | March/April 2021 -
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.
Tags: Fiction | Dantiel W. Moniz | Milk Blood Heat | Grove Press | 2021 | Lauren Groff | Florida | Books & Books | Page One | March/April 2021 -
“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.
Tags: Poetry | Arisa White | Who's Your Daddy | Augury Books | 2021 | Foglifter | Page One | March/April 2021 -
“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.
Tags: Poetry | Peter Gizzi | ENCLAVE series | reading | Archeophonics | 2016 | Now It's Dark | 2020 | Wesleyan University Press | Page One | January/February 2021 -
“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.
Tags: Poetry | Anne Marie Macari | Heaven Beneath | Persea Books | 2020 | Page One | January/February 2021 | P.O.P. series | Academy of American Poets -
“Not the wealth of the thousand / Not the segregated place / Not the segregated classroom, the segregated desk,” reads Rodney Gomez from his poem “Rio Grande Valley Litany” at this 2017 reading for the Poets Against Border Walls Collective in Hidalgo, Texas. Gomez’s poetry collection Arsenal With Praise Song (Orison Books, 2021) is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
-
“What is lost is already behind the locked doors.” This mini-documentary by Made to Measure about the life of Joan Didion, outlines her early career as a research assistant at Vogue leading to her cult following in the sixties, and her literary impact as she was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2012. Didion’s essay collection Let Me Tell You What I Mean (Knopf, 2021) is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
-
“Librarians and libraries have such a special place in my heart because growing up, like a lot of people, they were a safe place to go to after school.” In this video for Baker & Taylor, a provider of books for public libraries, Mateo Askaripour talks about the importance of libraries and his debut novel, Black Buck (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Fiction | Mateo Askaripour | Black Buck | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 2021 | Baker & Taylor | Page One | January/February 2021 -
In this 2018 video, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor reads a collaborative poem about her son Malik Taylor with South Carolina’s first poet laureate Marcus Amaker at the Free Verse poetry festival in Charleston. Boyce-Taylor’s fifth poetry collection, Mama Phife Represents (Haymarket Books, 2021), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Cheryl Boyce-Taylor | Free Verse | 2018 | Marcus Amaker | Mama Phife Represents | Haymarket Books | 2021 | Page One | January/February 2021 -
“Maybe meeting a new flavor is alchemy. Today you can’t stand it, tomorrow it’s all you can stand.” In this New Yorker video essay, Bryan Washington talks about frequenting Korean restaurants in Houston and learning how to cook soondubu, a Korean tofu stew, as a way to reconnect with his mother. Washington’s new book, Memorial (Riverhead Books, 2020), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Fiction | Creative Nonfiction | Bryan Washington | Memorial | Riverhead Books | 2020 | Houston | Korean | New Yorker | Page One | November/December 2020 -
“In Kenya, we have many peoples who make up the Kenyan nation. Please note: I am not using the word tribe. I do not use the word tribe to describe anybody.” In this African Literature Festival video, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o speaks with hosts Samuel Ndogo and Mingqing Yuan about writing his first novel in verse, The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi (New Press, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
-
“I have written somewhere that there is only one story, but there are many stories in the one, and I like that idea.” In this video from PBS’s American Masters series, N. Scott Momaday speaks with Robert Redford about the oral tradition, hearing stories from his father, and the importance of language and story. Momaday’s second memoir, Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land (Harper, 2020), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Creative Nonfiction | N. Scott Momaday | Robert Redford | PBS | American Masters | Earth Keeper | Harper | 2020 | Page One | November/December 2020 -
“Great stones of whitewater / hammer down.” In this 2017 reading at the Bookworm, an independent bookstore in Beijing, Tracy K. Smith reads a translation of Yi Lei’s poem “Huangguoshu Waterfall,” included in My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree (Graywolf Press, 2020), translated from the Chinese by Changtai Bi and Smith, which is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Tracy K. Smith | Yi Lei | My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree | Graywolf Press | 2020 | The Bookworm | Beijing | 2017 | Page One | November/December 2020 -
“If I had been comfortable with the world in which I was living, I would never have written a word.” In this video, 2020 MacArthur fellow Cristina Rivera Garza speaks about how she came to be a writer and the ways in which she explores the tension between English and Spanish from a transnational perspective. Rivera Garza’s Grieving: Dispatches From a Wounded Country (Feminist Press, 2020) is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
-
“Cardinal is conjuring the question: Where can Black people go to be safe?” Tyree Daye introduces his second poetry collection, Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), and reads “Miss Mary Mack Introduces Her Wings” and other poems. Cardinal is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Tyree Daye | Cardinal | Copper Canyon Press | 2020 | Page One | November/December 2020 -
“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 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), is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
-
“The instructor is fairly intelligent and enthusiastic about the material but is unreceptive, even intolerant, of anything that is not a poem or a poem in prose form.” At the 2016 Creative Capital Retreat, Srikanth Reddy reads from his book-length poem Underworld Lit (Wave Books, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Srikanth Reddy | Underworld Lit | Wave Books | 2020 | Page One | September/October 2020