Poets & Writers Theater

“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.

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble is an FX limited series adaptation starring Claire Danes and Jesse Eisenberg as a couple going through a bitter divorce.

Watch the trailer for Lady Chatterley’s Lover, a new film adaptation of the 1928 novel of the same name by D. H. Lawrence. Directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre with a screenplay by David Magee, the movie stars Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell and premieres in December on Netflix.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a Netflix film adaptation of the acclaimed 1929 novel of the same name by German author Erich Maria Remarque. Directed by Edward Berger, the German-language film stars Felix Kammerer, Daniel Brühl, Aaron Hilmer, and Albrecht Schuch.

“It’s the nature of the segregation [in Bristol] that makes it so interesting to write,” says Moses McKenzie in this video about bringing the city of Bristol, England to life as a character in his debut novel, An Olive Grove in Ends (Little, Brown, 2022).

Watch the book trailer for Jane Pek’s debut novel, The Verifiers (Vintage, 2022), a modern murder mystery about online dating algorithms, family dynamics, and identity.

In this Politics and Prose Bookstore video, Eric Nguyen speaks about his debut novel, Things We Lost to the Water (Knopf, 2021). Nguyen is featured in “First Fiction 2021” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“What do you see when you look at me?” Monster is a film adaptation of the 1999 YA novel of the same name by the late Walter Dean Myers, which tells the story of seventeen-year-old film student Steve Harmon and how his life is altered when he is charged with felony murder. With a screenplay written by Radha Blank, Cole Wiley, and Janece Shaffer, the film stars Kelvin Harrison, Jr.; Jennifer Hudson; John David Washington; and Jeffrey Wright.

“Is this a voice that I can sustain throughout this novel? Will it continue to be, and also most importantly, can it sustain my curiosity?” In this AAWW virtual event, Chang-rae Lee reads from his novel My Year Abroad (Riverhead Books, 2021) and speaks with Bryan Washington about developing characters and publishing a book during a pandemic.

A new trailer for the limited Amazon series The Underground Railroad, a television adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning historical fiction novel of the same name, has been released by director Barry Jenkins. The reverse-motion trailer features music composed by Nicholas Britell.

News of the World is a film adaptation of Paulette Jiles’s 2016 novel of the same name, which was a National Book Award finalist. Tom Hanks plays Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a war veteran, widower, and newsreader in the 1870s who travels from town to town reading the news to locals and comes across a young orphaned girl played by Helena Zengel. 

Rebecca Dinerstein Knight’s debut novel, The Sunlit Night (Bloomsbury, 2015), has been adapted into a feature film directed by David Wnendt and starring Gillian Anderson, Zach Galifianakis, Alex Sharp, and Jenny Slate.

This book trailer reveals the cover for Kazuo Ishiguro’s anticipated novel Klara and the Sun, forthcoming in March from Knopf. The novel explores the world of an “Artificial Friend” named Klara who observes potential customers in the hopes that one day she will be taken home by someone.

“It’s full of bold writing, fresh writing, accomplished writing, from points of view that aren’t always expected.” Judges Margaret Busby, Lee Child, Sameer Rahim, Lemn Sissay, and Emily Wilson talk about the thirteen novels longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, which includes This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga, The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel, The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, Real Life by Brandon Taylor, and How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang.

“Something that has survived damage can be considered more valuable, more beautiful.” In this book trailer, Andrés Neuman narrates a selection from his latest novel, Fracture (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garcia, a cross-cultural story set against the backdrop of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

“What does it feel like, to love someone so much that you’re willing to publicly bare your heart and soul with a black Sharpie?” In this Harper Stacks at Home video, Lambda Award–winning author Kacen Callender reads from their novel Felix Ever After (Balzer + Bray, 2020), which follows the journey of a Black, queer, and transgender teen grappling with identity while falling in love for the first time.

“You don’t write a book for a market, a publisher, or an agent; you write it because your heart calls you to write it.” Tayari Jones speaks about her “most personal” novel Silver Sparrow (Algonquin Books, 2011) and about what keeps her going as a writer in this Waterstones video.

“Tan speaks to anxieties that plague many immigrants, who often feel both alienated from their homeland and disconnected from their adopted country.” In this TED-Ed animated film, Sheila Marie Orfano breaks down the themes of Amy Tan’s first novel, The Joy Luck Club, and the lessons learned from the intergenerational relationships of the characters.

In this Waterstones video, André Aciman introduces his latest novel, Find Me (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019), the sequel to his 2007 novel Call Me By Your Name, and shares three books from the shelves of the bookstore that have influenced his writing.

“There comes a point where you’ve gotten so deep into the novel that the words don’t really make sense anymore,” says Laura Lippman as she describes the need for a tactile writing process involving visual and colorful outlines. Lippman’s latest novel, Lady in the Lake (William Morrow, 2019), is set in 1960s Baltimore and follows a housewife turned aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman.