Poets & Writers Theater

In this 2015 video, Jess Row reads from his debut novel, Your Face in Mine (Riverhead Books, 2014), for the Story Hour in the Library series at the University of California in Berkeley. Row is a recipient of the 2018 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant for White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination, forthcoming from Graywolf Press.

“I love the intimacy of a novel and how it lets you get to know people.” Meg Wolitzer speaks about her writing process, the recognition of women writers, and her latest novel, The Female Persuasion (Riverhead Books, 2018), with PBS Newshour’s Jeffrey Brown. The rights for the novel were recently acquired by Amazon Studios and Nicole Kidman’s production company.

Lesley Nneka Arimah speaks about investigating “the ways in which our past traumas inform our present selves” through her writing, and answers questions from readers about her debut story collection, What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Riverhead Books, 2017), for PBS NewsHour’s Now Read This book club, a partnership with the New York Times.

In this TED Talk, Casey Gerald speaks about a poignant day in his childhood and how those events altered his thoughts on belief, faith, and doubt. Gerald is the author of the debut memoir, There Will Be No Miracles Here (Riverhead Books, 2018), and is featured in “The Genre of Resistance” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked (Riverhead Books, 2009), a novel about a couple whose relationship is altered by a reclusive singer-songwriter’s album, has been adapted into a film. Directed by Jesse Peretz, the film stars Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, and Chris O’Dowd.

Boy Erased is a film based on Garrard Conley’s 2016 coming-of-age memoir of the same name. Lucas Hedges stars as a young man who is forced by his fundamental Baptist parents, played by Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, to attend a gay conversion therapy program. The film is written and directed by Joel Edgerton, who also costars as the program’s head therapist.

R. O. Kwon talks about her debut novel, The Incendiaries (Riverhead Books, 2018), with Rich Fahle of PBS Books at the 2018 AWP Annual Conference & Book Fair. Kwon is featured in “First Fiction 2018” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“This book is very much about climate change…the collision between the human in nature, between internal and external, between domesticity and the wild.” Lauren Groff speaks about her short story collection Florida (Riverhead Books, 2018) with Rich Fahle of PBS Books at the 2018 AWP Annual Conference & Book Fair in Tampa. “Severe Weather in the Sunshine State,” a profile of Groff by Bethane Patrick, is in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Don’t worry about whether you’re writing anything, worry about if you’re sitting there attempting to write something or not.” Mohsin Hamid speaks to Granta about his most recent novel, Exit West (Riverhead Books, 2017), the job of being a writer, and what he has learned from Douglas Adams.

Argentinian author Samanta Schweblin talks about living in Berlin and reads from her debut novel, Fever Dream (Riverhead Books, 2017), translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Fever Dream, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, was the winner of the 2018 Tournament of Books beating out George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo (Random House, 2017) in the final round.

“I narrate in such a free manner that, I hope, inspires the reader.” In this interview for Louisiana Channel, Olga Tokarczuk talks about air travel and how it influenced the story structure for her most recent novel, Flights (Riverhead Books, 2018), translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft, which is longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize.

“I didn’t begin with the dog—I wrote that book the way I’ve written all my books which is I start at the beginning and I move on and create the story as I go along.” Sigrid Nunez talks with Rich Fahle of PBS Books about her latest novel, The Friend (Riverhead Books, 2018), at the 2018 AWP Annual Conference & Book Fair in Tampa.

“For me personally, it’s about recovering and celebrating a language.” Daniel Alarcón talks about his work as the executive producer of NPR’s Radio Ambulante, the Spanish-language podcast that presents long-form Latin American narratives. Alarcón’s second story collection, The King Is Always Above the People (Riverhead Books, 2017), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I wanted to write a book that would help you take a little bit more care.” Gabriel Tallent talks about the main character in his debut novel, My Absolute Darling (Riverhead Books, 2017), and how he hopes the book will resonate with readers. The novel is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“What makes life and fiction important and interesting and meaningful is for it to be examined...” Dina Nayeri talks to Bill Kenower of Author Magazine about researching her first book, A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea (Riverhead Books, 2013), and her beliefs about imagination and the writing process. Nayeri’s second novel, Refuge (Riverhead Books, 2017), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers (Riverhead Books, 2016), speaks about her first memorable piece of writing and her experiences as a young reader and writer.

Lesley Nneka Arimah reads “War Stories” from her debut story collection, What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Riverhead, 2017), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The idea was to use a kind of fragmented approach to talking about colonialism...because I think that’s increasingly the way we think about and access historical narratives.” In this video, Katie Kitamura talks about the structural choices behind her second novel, Gone to the Forest (Free Press, 2012). Kitamura’s most recent novel, A Separation (Riverhead Books, 2017), tells the story of the end of a marriage and a husband gone missing in Greece.

In this video, Book Riot offers six recommendations for books that feature refugees including Girl at War (Random House, 2015) by Sara Novi­ć, Inside Out and Back Again (Harper, 2011) by Thanhha Lai, and Exit West (Riverhead Books, 2017) by Mohsin Hamid.

“For me, books are the things that tell you what you need to do in life and they’re also the things that help you make sense of your life.” Will Schwalbe, author of Books for Living (Knopf, 2016), speaks with PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown about the importance of reading and the books that have taught him life lessons such as Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train (Riverhead Books, 2015), James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (Dial Press, 1956), and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (Knopf, 1977).