Poets & Writers Theater
Every day we share a new clip of interest to creative writers—author readings, book trailers, publishing panels, craft talks, and more. So grab some popcorn, filter the theater tags by keyword or genre, and explore our sizable archive of literary videos.
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In this installment of the PBS American Masters documentary series Renegades, which highlights the cultural contributions of little-known historical figures with disabilities, the series spotlights the life and career of editor Judy-Lynn del Rey who revolutionized the world of science fiction by editing and publishing books from writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and George Lucas.
Tags: Fiction | Judy-Lynn del Rey | science fiction | editing | publishing | Ballantine Books | Del Rey | PBS | Renegades | disabled community | editors | 2024 -
In this virtual event hosted by the Strand Book Store, Sue Shapiro, author of The Forgiveness Tour: How to Find the Perfect Apology (Skyhorse, 2021), leads a conversation about best practices for pitching, submitting, and querying with agents and editors including Miya Lee, Rakesh Satyal, and Howard Yoon.
Tags: Fiction | Creative Nonfiction | Strand Book Store | Sue Shapiro | publishing | panel | literary agent | editors | discussion | Rakesh Satyal | Howard Yoon | Miya Lee | 2024 -
Writers and editors Victor Dwyer and Charlotte Gill discuss how they determine good writing from bad writing, what they look for in a first read, and the changing landscape of writing in this 2014 conversation moderated by journalist Ian Brown at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. “There’s the sense that the writer is being completely frank with their audience and yet at the same time, they’re completely in control and utterly trustworthy,” says Gill.
Tags: Fiction | Creative Nonfiction | Charlotte Gill | Victor Dwyer | Ian Brown | Banff Centre | journalism | editors | writing advice | 2014 -
“He does the work. I do the cleanup, and we fight.” Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb is a documentary directed by Lizzie Gottlieb exploring the remarkable fifty-year relationship between Pulitzer Prize–winning author Robert Caro and his longtime editor Robert Gottlieb, and the art of editing.
Tags: Creative Nonfiction | Turn Every Page | documentary | movie trailer | 2022 | Robert Caro | Robert Gottlieb | editing | editors | writing process -
“This whole thing has been a great big fat lesson in just be yourself.” In this Center for Fiction event, Dawn Winter talks about writing her debut novel, Sedating Elaine (Knopf, 2022), with her editor Jenny Jackson, vice president and executive editor at Knopf.
Tags: Fiction | Dawn Winter | Sedating Elaine | Knopf | 2022 | novel | Jenny Jackson | editors | editing | Center for Fiction -
“A lot of my life has been unconventional, but it has led to this point and I wouldn’t have reached this point if I’d given up.” In this Penguin Books UK video, Booker Prize–winning author Bernardine Evaristo speaks with her longtime editor Simon Prosser about her writing career and books, including her new memoir, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up (Grove Press, 2022).
Tags: Poetry | Fiction | Creative Nonfiction | Bernardine Evaristo | Simon Prosser | Manifesto: On Never Giving Up | Grove Press | 2022 | memoir | Penguin Books UK | editors | Page One | January/February 2022 -
In this National Centre for Writing video, Hannah Chukwu, assistant editor at Penguin Random House’s imprint Hamish Hamilton, speaks about receiving submissions from agents, pitching, and the editing process for the literary fiction and nonfiction authors she has worked with, including Bernardine Evaristo, Arundhati Roy, and Zadie Smith.
Tags: Fiction | Creative Nonfiction | Hannah Chukwu | Hamish Hamilton | Penguin Random House | editors | editing | National Centre for Writing | 2021 -
“I come here to talk about metaphor, language, and reality—not too ambitious.” In this 2013 TEDx Talk, the late Daniel Menaker speaks about his mother, who was an editor at Fortune magazine, his love of language, the significance of metaphor, and how phrases become clichés. The venerable writer and editor died at the age of seventy-nine on October 26, 2020.
Tags: Not Genre-Specific | Daniel Menaker | TEDx Talk | editors | language | in memoriam -
Author, editor, and agent Betsy Lerner talks to her mother, the inspiration behind Lerner's latest memoir, The Bridge Ladies, published in May by Harper Wave.
Tags: memoir | editors | agents | 2016 | July/August 2016 | authors | family | Betsy Lerner | The Bridge Ladies | Harper Wave | Creative Nonfiction -
It was truly inevitable that publishing folks would get a hold of this particular meme. And so, here we have it: "(The Inevitable) Sh*t Agents and Editors Say," starring agents Michelle Brower and Brandi Bowles and editor Katie McHugh.
Tags: editors | agents | Poetry | Fiction | Creative Nonfiction