Poets & Writers Theater

Watch Alexander MacLeod read from and discuss his latest short story collection, Animal Person (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022), with Richard Ford in this virtual conversation hosted by Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. MacLeod’s story collection is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Here is another reason to write a memoir: to utter what must not be erased.” In this 2017 PBS NewsHour video, Richard Ford speaks about his reasons for writing, Between Them: Remembering My Parents (Ecco, 2017), a memoir about his parents. “I wrote about my parents because, decades after their deaths and when I was no longer young, I realized that I plainly missed them.”

“If you’ve got a better plan for me, tell me. I’ll try it.” Paul Dano makes his directorial debut with this film adaptation of Richard Ford’s novel Wildlife (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990) about a teenager in 1960 witnessing his parents and their marriage falling apart. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan, and Ed Oxenbould, the screenplay was cowritten by Dano and Zoe Kazan.

“Be very patient, even patient with chaos,” Lydia Davis advises writers in this compilation of interviews by Louisiana Channel. Seasoned writers from around the world, including Alaa Al Aswany, Umberto Eco, Richard Ford, Patti Smith, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, also offer their thoughts on how to keep writing.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land speaks about his new novel, Canada, to be published by Ecco next month.