Poets & Writers Theater

In this episode of Literary Hub’s Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast cohosted by Christian Barter, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, and Whitney Terrell, author Claudia Rankine discusses how current political crises inspired her new book, Triage (Graywolf Press, 2026), which is featured in Page One in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Politics and Prose event, Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn reads from their second essay collection, I Have This Thing for Flowers: Essays on the Roots of Relationships (Flatiron Books, 2026), and discusses how researching and writing about flowers helped structure their personal experiences in a conversation with Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes. Sawchyn’s book is featured in Page One in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Fine Arts Work Center event in Provincetown, Massachusetts, poet Hieu Minh Nguyen, writer Lydi Conklin, and photographer Ron Amato present their respective works. Nguyen reads a selection of poems from his third collection, Staying Still (Tin House, 2026), which is featured in Page One in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, Joe Wilkins presents “Language, Memory, and Story” for the 2022 Wallace Stegner Lecture hosted by the Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. Wilkins, author of Every Sky at Home: Essays on Landscape and Family (Bison Books, 2026), is featured in “Literary MagNet” in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this PBS NewsHour interview, Fred de Sam Lazaro speaks with Daniel Umemezie, who has been named the tenth National Youth Poet Laureate, about how he aims to use his work to inspire social change. Umemezie is featured in a Q&A by Rigoberto González in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“to speak is not yet to have spoken.” In this video, Carolyn Forché reads her poem “What Comes” for the Dear Poet series, the Academy of American Poets’ educational project for National Poetry Month. Forché’s collection Otherwhere: New and Selected Poems, 1976-2026 (Scribner, 2026) is featured in Page One in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this On the Serendipitous Side podcast episode, Deesha Philyaw talks about the twenty-year journey of her first novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman (Mariner Books, 2026), and how the story developed with the help of her agent and a satire writing class. A profile of Philyaw by Brian Gresko appears in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It’s the most personal novel I’ve ever written.” In this Penguin Random House Spring Book & Author Festival virtual event, Marlon James talks about his desire to present the world he grew up in through an exploration of queer life in Jamaica in the eighties and nineties in his new novel, The Disappearers (Riverhead Books, 2026), which is featured in Page One in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.