Poets & Writers Theater

In this Book Passage event, Téa Obreht reads from her fourth novel, Sunrise (Random House, 2026), and talks about her decision to write scene by scene without an outline, and her fascination with the American West after growing up in the former Yugoslavia in a conversation with Parini Shroff. “I think for me, the West has always occupied a really mythical space.”

In this live episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Ed Park reads from his hybrid memoir, Three Tenses: A Transmission From the Nineties (Random House, 2026), and reminisces about his time working as a literary editor at the Village Voice.

“I’ve always wanted to write a book about growing up and growing older.” In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Jenna Seery, Stacey Yu talks about the many books that shaped the writing of her debut novel, Kitten (Random House, 2026), and why she wanted to write a coming of age story.

In this Spotlight PA video, Sara Nović discusses how writing letters to her sons inspired her new memoir, Mother Tongue (Random House, 2026), in a conversation with Alex Schneider, co-owner of the community bookstore A Novel Idea on Passyunk in Philadelphia.

In this video, Rachel Eliza Griffiths talks about grief, poetry, vulnerability, and writing her first memoir, The Flower Bearers (Random House, 2026), for an episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast with host Miwa Messer. For more on Griffiths, read “Marvelous and Dangerous: A Q&A With Rachel Eliza Griffiths” by Renée H. Shea.

In this CBS Sunday Morning interview, Salman Rushdie speaks about encountering mortality and the pivotal moments that have shaped his life and upbringing, and about the stories and themes in The Eleventh Hour (Random House, 2025), his first book of fiction since the 2022 attack that nearly took his life.

In this interview for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Patti Smith offers advice to young artists and talks about her award-winning memoir, Just Kids, and her new memoir, Bread of Angels (Random House, 2025).

In this Politics and Prose event with novelist Angie Kim, Ed Park discusses the twenty-five-year process of writing his first story collection, An Oral History of Atlantis (Random House, 2025), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. For more from Park, read his installation of our Ten Questions series.

In this Strand Book Store event, Torrey Peters reads from her book Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories (Random House, 2025) and talks about the experience of transitioning and how literature can broaden understandings of self beyond identity in a conversation with essayist and critic Andrea Long Chu. “A lot of these stories are invitations to a reader to identify with these characters who are probably not like the reader,” says Peters.

In this episode of NPR’s Wild Card podcast hosted by Rachel Martin, author Zadie Smith reflects on the twenty-fifth anniversary of her debut novel, White Teeth (Random House, 2000), and talks about her forthcoming book of essays and her generation’s struggle with the notion of time. “I’ve always felt there wasn’t enough time. I would like to accept time and also love it,” she says.

In this Georgetown University Qatar event, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Hisham Matar discusses the origins of his latest novel, My Friends (Random House, 2024), which follows three Libyan friends living in London as exiles, in a conversation with Kamila Shamsie.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, book critic and editor Sarah Chihaya talks about her debut memoir, Bibliophobia (Random House, 2025), and the concept of “life ruiner” books that “not only make you want to keep reading, but make you read the world around you differently.”

“I wanted to write something that dealt with Brexit and our relation to Europe, but in a very oblique way.” In this Waterstones interview, English author Alan Hollinghurst talks about the challenges in developing the gay, biracial protagonist in his latest novel, Our Evenings (Random House, 2024), and reflects on Britain’s changing nature across the book’s half century of time.

In this 60 Minutes interview, Salman Rushdie speaks with Anderson Cooper about surviving an attempt on his life in 2022 and detailing the experience in his new memoir, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (Random House, 2024).

“It was good to write a book where I’m staring at time directly, in a very literal sense.” In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Hanif Abdurraqib talks about the unique writing process for his latest book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House, 2024), the power of nostalgia, and his life in Ohio. Abdurraqib’s new book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

At this Booksmith event in San Francisco, Ed Park reads from his latest novel, Same Bed Different Dreams (Random House, 2023), and discusses the complexities of twentieth-century Korean history, the research that goes into historical fiction, and the role of Korean poet Yi Sang in his book in a conversation with Natalie So.

In this 2020 McSweeney’s Instagram Live reading, Mai Nardone reads an excerpt from his short story “The Tum-Boon Brigade,” which appears in his debut story collection, Welcome Me to the Kingdom (Random House, 2023). Nardone’s book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I try my hand at remembering. An origin story is what you make of it. It can be a culture, a treasured heirloom, or a history, reduced.” In this Center for Fiction event, Hafizah Augustus Geter reads from her book The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin (Random House, 2022) and speaks with New York Times Magazine staff writer and author J Wortham. For more from Geter, read “Twelve Ways to Create Space to Write No Matter Where You Are” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this interview for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, George Saunders speaks about his latest story collection, Liberation Day (Random House, 2022), and the need to be in a “holy state of not knowing anything” when starting a new writing project. Liberation Day is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The best writing advice I ever got was, don’t give up and you can be a writer, if you work really hard and don’t stop writing.” In this Audible interview, New Yorker staff writer and author Ariel Levy speaks about finding her voice, writing about women’s lives, her experience with maternal grief, and her memoir, The Rules Do Not Apply (Random House, 2017).