Poets & Writers Theater

“When you see injustice, you have to bite back.” In this Books Are Magic event, Julia Lee reads from her memoir, Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America (Henry Holt, 2023), and joins author Hua Hsu for a conversation about healing from family trauma, Asian American rage and shame, and lessons learned from teaching literature to college students.

In this live event at Green Apple Books in San Francisco, Curtis Chin reads from his debut memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant (Little, Brown, 2023), and speaks about growing up as a Chinese American son of restaurateurs in Detroit with author Dominic Lim. For more from Chin, read his installment of our Ten Questions series.

“I had to pretend I was someone else writing about me to gain some distance from myself because part of the subject of this book is how difficult it is for us to know ourselves.” Viet Thanh Nguyen talks about his family’s struggles and traumas, and the challenges of writing his new book, A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, a Memorial (Grove Atlantic, 2023), in this PBS NewsHour interview with Jeffrey Brown. Nguyen’s memoir is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Safiya Sinclair reads from her debut memoir, How to Say Babylon (37 Ink, 2023), and speaks with poet Airea D. Matthews for this event recorded at the Free Library of Philadelphia. A profile of Sinclair by Renée H. Shea is featured in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Eirinie Carson talks about her debut memoir, The Dead Are Gods (Melville House, 2023), which was inspired by the sudden loss of a close friend, in this conversation with author Savala Nolan at the Booksmith bookstore in San Francisco. Carson is featured in “The New Nonfiction 2023” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this short video, Andrew Leland walks through the streets of Northampton, Massachusetts, and introduces his debut book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight (Penguin Press, 2023), in which he writes about his experience with vision loss. Leland is featured in “The New Nonfiction 2023” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I was born to tell my story and the story of my people, to make everyone aware that we exist still, that we breathe still.” In this virtual Charis Circle event, Leah Myers reads from her debut memoir, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity (Norton, 2023), and discusses how Native folklore informed the structure of her book in a conversation with author Kung Li Sun. Myers is featured in “The New Nonfiction 2023” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I was in Los Angeles for less than a month before I got scouted for a cult.” In this Zibby’s Bookstore event, Kate Flannery speaks with Amanda Montell and reads from her debut memoir, Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles (Henry Holt, 2023), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 92NY virtual reading, Lynn Melnick speaks about how Dolly Parton’s songs helped shape the structure of her memoir, I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive: On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton (University of Texas Press, 2022), in a conversation with poet Deborah Paredez.

In this Books Are Magic event, Greg Marshall reads from his debut memoir, Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew From It (Abrams Press, 2023), and discusses what inspires his writing with author Chloé Cooper Jones. Marshall is featured in Literary MagNet in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this PBS NewsHour report, Jeffrey Brown speaks to the teams behind memoir publishing platforms LifeTime Memoirs and StoryTerrace, which help anyone looking to publish a memoir about their lives or those of loved ones.

“All the books I’ve written in the past were books that I decided to write suddenly while I was writing something else.” In this London Review Bookshop conversation, French writer Édouard Louis speaks about his writing process and discovering the parts of his mother’s life he did not know for his new memoir, A Woman’s Battles and Transformations (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022), with translator and novelist Tash Aw.

In this New York Public Library event, Cullman Center fellow Hua Hsu reads from his debut memoir, Stay True (Doubleday, 2022), and speaks about writing through grief with Ken Chen. Hsu is the winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in memoir or autobiography.

“Before we go any further together, me with my lanterns, you following close behind, light flickering on both of our faces, I want to be clear about something: This isn’t a tell-all.” Maggie Smith reads from her debut memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful (Atria/One Signal, 2023), and speaks to Leslie Jamison about the writing process in this Books Are Magic event held at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn, New York.

“We tend to write about things that surprise us.” In this 2011 clip from a 92Y event in New York City, Joyce Carol Oates reads from and discusses the experience of writing her memoir A Widow’s Story (Ecco, 2011) with poet and essayist Henri Cole.

“I’m not convinced by myself as a writer,” says Adam Mars-Jones in this London Review Bookshop video about his slightly negative writing process and the origins of his memoir Kid Gloves: A Voyage Round My Father (Particular Books, 2015).

In this Free Library of Philadelphia event, Joseph Earl Thomas reads from his debut memoir, Sink (Grand Central, 2023), and speaks with author Elias Rodriques about writing in third person and on the subjects of violence, care, and family. Sink is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I try my hand at remembering. An origin story is what you make of it. It can be a culture, a treasured heirloom, or a history, reduced.” In this Center for Fiction event, Hafizah Augustus Geter reads from her book The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin (Random House, 2022) and speaks with New York Times Magazine staff writer and author J Wortham. For more from Geter, read “Twelve Ways to Create Space to Write No Matter Where You Are” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Watch the trailer for the film adaptation of Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Other Four-Letter Words (Atria Books, 2017) by Michael Ausiello, starring Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, and Sally Field with a screenplay by David Marshall Grant and Dan Savage.

In this Books Are Magic event, Ada Calhoun reads from her memoir Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me (Grove Press, 2022) and discusses her writing process, New York City, and parenting with Emma Straub.