Poets & Writers Theater

“I think the books that I wish I’d written are all super personal books where the person manages to metabolize their personal experience into something more universal,” says Elif Batuman in this interview for The Graham Norton Book Club podcast about first books read, books to be jealous of, and books to recommend. A Q&A with Batuman by Porochista Khakpour is featured in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“My mother thought that if she taught me to read, I would become interested to read my books and leave her alone,” says Jamaica Kincaid about her experience reading as a child and how it influenced her as a writer in this interview from the 2021 Louisiana Literature Festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.

“I still believe that we listen more closely to a whisper than to a shout.” In this PBS NewsHour interview with Jeffrey Brown, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Rita Dove speaks about history, rage, the power of poetry, and her latest collection, Playlist for the Apocalypse (Norton, 2021).

“My impression is that there is a much bigger audience for poetry than there was when I was young,” says the late poet John Ashbery in this 2011 interview with Belinda Luscombe for TIME Magazine on fame, poverty, art criticism, obscurity, and why he dislikes poetry readings.

“I read so much, still, because I want to learn how to tell the perfect story.” In this Louisiana Channel interview, Alex Schulman, author most recently of the novel The Survivors (Doubleday, 2021), speaks about the impact reading has had on his life, the power of storytelling, and how he started his writing career as a blogger.

In this 2020 BookTube episode, David Sedaris speaks about his candid and confessional style of writing, his family life, and lessons learned with Joel Kim Booster, Cindy Pham, Jake Roper, and Francine Simone.

“When you can articulate the shape of the monster before you, it all of a sudden becomes a lot less intimidating.” In this video from PBS’s Articulate, author Tochi Onyebuchi talks about how writing helps him process rage and hopelessness, and “organize the universe.”

“The work of most poets whom I admire requires an apprenticeship to the language of that particular poet.” Jorie Graham speaks about reading habits, influence, and accessibility to a wider audience as a poet in this 1999 interview with Michael Silverblatt, host of the long-running KCRW series Bookworm, produced by the Lannan Foundation.

“I remembered something that Raymond Chandler said, ‘When you don’t know what do to next, bring on the man with the gun,’” says Stephen King in this interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, in which he discusses experiencing writer’s block and shares the top five favorites stories he’s written.

“There’s nothing in this book that hasn’t happened already,” says Margaret Atwood in this 1986 interview for the “Worth Quoting” series sponsored by Florida State College at Jacksonville, in which she discusses the release of her award-winning dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, and the historic and current events that influence her writing.

“Writing can be beautiful, witty, and entertaining but it’s a serious commitment.” In this 2019 Louisiana Literature interview, Anne Waldman shares her advice to aspiring writers with emphasis on the importance of reading widely and respecting the act of writing.

“The biggest misconception that people have about the literary life is the romance of it.” In this 2011 Big Think interview, Walter Mosley talks about the influence of comic books and early reading on his writing, and his opinion of great literature.

“Sundays too my father got up early / and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,” reads Robert Hayden from his seminal poem “Those Winter Sundays” in this 1975 interview at the Brockport Writers Forum, in which he also discusses his faith, W. B. Yeats, and Frederick Douglass.

“I look back, just with a little wonder. Wonder that I stuck with this thing.” In this 2004 interview with Jeffrey Brown for PBS NewsHour, Philip Roth reflects on his writing career and the role of a writer. Roth died at the age of eighty-five on May 22, 2018.

“I got something out of being a teacher, I had to make things understood, and that put me in the class of poets who wanted to be understood,” says Robert Frost in this rare 1952 interview for NBC with Bela Kornitzer, in which the renowned poet speaks about his childhood, early publishing career, and the development of his craft, and reads two of his poems: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “The Drumlin Woodchuck.” 

“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.

“I had always been interested in blending reality or elevating the surrealistic elements of real life.” In this episode of the Woolfer Author Series, host Carmen Tanner Slaughter talks with Morgan Jerkins about transitioning between nonfiction and fiction writing, and her debut novel, Caul Baby (Harper, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2018 video, novelist Anne Garréta answers a series of questions at Albertine Books in New York City. Garréta’s new novel, In Concrete (Deep Vellum, 2021), translated from the French by Emma Ramadan, is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I think I lead with sound, in a certain way. There’s a percussive place that I go with my measure,” says Hoa Nguyen in this interview for Project 40’s Traces series, which documents the process and practices of Asian Canadian creatives. Nguyen’s A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure (Wave Books, 2021) is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“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.