Poets & Writers Theater

“At some level, I’m never quite sure how the poem is going to resolve itself and that I'm always in some way surprised—I make a discovery in the poem as I write it,” says former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove in this 2009 interview for Big Think, in which she answers questions about poetry and her writing process.

“If we could just stop, and listen,” begins Joy Harjo in a conversation about how stillness, gratitude, and kindness can help heal America in this Super Soul Sunday video with Oprah Winfrey.

“Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you. / Remember language comes from this.”​ In this video from the Academy of American Poets, Joy Harjo reads her poem “Remember” from her 1983 collection, She Had Some Horses. Harjo has been appointed to serve a second term as poet laureate of the United States and is the first Native American to hold the post.

“This is how the past interrupts our lives, all of it entering the same doorway…” In this clip from PBS’s Articulate, former poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey reads her poem “Letter to Inmate #271847.” An interview by Joshunda Sanders with Trethewey about her new book, Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir (Ecco, 2020), is featured in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet and translator Robert Hass reads “Okefenokee: A Story,” “Pertinent Divagations Toward an Ode to Inuit Carvers,” and other poems from his book Summer Snow (Ecco, 2020) at the 2019 Sewanee Writers’ Conference in Tennessee. The book, Hass’s seventh poetry collection, is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I’m carrying this for America, but for Indigenous peoples in particular,” says Joy Harjo about what it means to be the first Native American to serve as the poet laureate of the United States in this PBS NewsHour interview with Jeffrey Brown, which takes place in her hometown of Tulsa.

“Is this love the trouble you promised?” Tracy K. Smith, who has been named the twenty-second poet laureate of the United States, reads her poem “Wade in the Water,” which will be published in a poetry collection in 2018.

Allen Ginsberg’s anti-war poem “Hum Bom!” is read by Bono and then discussed by U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and Harvard professor Elisa New. New is the creator of Poetry in America, a multi-platform digital initiative that offers professional development classes for educational practitioners, as well as free online poetry courses.

"Dinky planet on a skateboard of dynamite / Oh, what to do..." Juan Felipe Herrera, who has been appointed a second term as poet laureate of the United States, speaks about meeting young poets and reads from his most recent collection, Notes on the Assemblage (City Lights Publishers, 2015), at the 2016 AWP conference and book fair in Los Angeles. 

“but she / notices distant jagged / zones on fire where the Company battles...” U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera reads his poem “All the Thoughts at a Football Game” as part of Dear Poet, the Academy of American Poets’ educational project for National Poetry Month.

“You’re gonna pierce the page and you’re gonna pierce infinity.” U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera discusses the art of revision at Poets Forum 2014 with Naomi Shihab Nye and C. D. Wright, as part of the Academy of American Poets’ Chancellors Conversations.

"Poetry begins with hearing...begins with hearing the sounds of passion." In this first feature documentary of poet laureate W. S. Merwin, the poet and environmental activist shares his work and life. The film, directed by Stefan Schaefer, is available on VOD or DVD with a portion of the proceeds supporting the Merwin Conservancy.

Former United States poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize–winner Kay Ryan reads a selection of her work during her poetry keynote address in San Francisco at Poets & Writers Live on January 10, 2015.

Juan Felipe Herrera reads "Five Directions to My House" from his poetry collection Half of the World in Light (University of Arizona Press, 2008). Herrera was named the twenty-first poet laureate of the United States yesterday, the first Latino to hold the position.

"If I didn't have poetry, I would not have access to the most interesting part of my mind." Pulitzer Prize–winner and former U.S. poet laureate Kay Ryan speaks with the Aspen Institute and offers advice to young poets. Ryan will deliver the "poetry keynote" on January 10 at the Poets & Writers Live event in San Francisco.

In this TED talk, former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins shares poems from the perspective of two very different dogs and reveals what they really feel about their masters.

The Library of Congress announced today that Charles Wright is the new U.S. poet laureate. In this clip, Wright, the author of nearly two dozen poetry collections, most recently Caribou (FSG, 2014), reads his poem "Together" for PBS NewsHour.

Happy National Poetry Month! Last week U.S. poet laureate Philip Levine read three of his poems at the Rogue Festival in Fresno, California, accompanied by the Benjamin Boone Evolution Quartet. All music was written specifically for each poem.

Natasha Trethewey, poet laureate of the U.S., and Jeffrey Brown explore the impact poetry has on people who suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease in this video clip from the series Where Poetry Lives on PBS Newshour.

This clip of Natasha Trethewey reading on April 12 at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago as part of the Dark Room Collective Reunion Tour, was recorded by Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Read Kevin Nance's profile of the new poet laureate, "This Time, This Voice," in the current issue.