Poets & Writers Theater

“The greenery of Los Angeles for this wild animal isn’t natural. I certainly felt that all the time.” For this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast produced and hosted by Miwa Messer, Henry Hoke talks about feeling overwhelmed while living in Los Angeles and how the experience inspired the queer mountain lion narrator of his novel Open Throat (MCD, 2023) in a conversation with editor Jackson Howard. Open Throat is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“My whole task in writing a book is to get closer; to hear what I’m hearing more clearly and to see what I’m seeing more clearly.” In this conversation for the Reading the Room podcast, Amina Cain speaks about her book A Horse at Night: On Writing (Dorothy, a Publishing Project, 2022) and her creative process with host Jaylen Lopez. 

Poet and producer of The Slowdown podcast Myka Kielbon introduces a special episode featuring a conversation with host Major Jackson and poet Aria Aber, author of the Whiting Award–winning collection, Hard Damage (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Jackson answers questions about The Slowdown in a Q&A by Julia Mallory in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It would be a beautiful world if young people were encouraged to chart their histories in really deep and meaningful ways.” Prince Shakur talks about his debut memoir, When They Tell You to Be Good (Tin House, 2022), and the significance of writing in this genre for the Black Writer’s Studio podcast with host Khadijah Ali-Coleman, executive director of the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Shakur is featured in “The New Nonfiction 2022” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I realized as I started to write it, that it was going to be a lot more focused on my childhood than I expected it to be,” says Isaac Fitzgerald about the process of writing his first memoir, Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional (Bloomsbury, 2022), in this interview for Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast produced and hosted by Miwa Messer. Fitzgerald’s memoir is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“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.

“I’ve learned to be a lot more flexible and I can write basically anywhere.” Crystal Hana Kim talks about writing after having a baby during the pandemic in this episode of the Writing F(r)iction podcast hosted by author Michael Johnston. Kim’s essay “How to Keep Going” is featured in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“For some reason, the poems are much closer to the reality in my life,” says Ananda Lima about her writing process for poetry versus fiction in this episode of The Story Talks Back podcast with Dave Stanton. Lima’s first poetry collection, Mother/land (Black Lawrence Press, 2021), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I was raised with the expectation that I would excel in a career and have time left over for kids, rather than the reverse, because the people who raised me didn’t know I was a girl.” In this episode of the Writer Mother Monster podcast, Stephanie Burt discusses gender, motherhood, and writing with host Lara Ehrlich. Ehrlich, author of Animal Wife (Red Hen Press, 2020), speaks about the origins of her podcast in a Q&A in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Books come when they come,” says Bret Easton Ellis about The Shards (Knopf, 2023), his first novel in thirteen years, in this Waterstones podcast interview discussing metafiction and teenage angst.