Poets & Writers Theater

In this episode of the Fashion Neurosis podcast hosted by Bella Freud, French Moroccan author and journalist Leïla Slimani talks about the dangers of gaining recognition as a writer, discovering the timelessness of literature through Dostoevsky and Tolstoy as a child, and what it means to dress like an intellectual.

In this episode of Literary Hub’s Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast cohosted by Christian Barter, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, and Whitney Terrell, author Claudia Rankine discusses how current political crises inspired her new book, Triage (Graywolf Press, 2026), which is featured in Page One in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this episode of the Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky podcast, Chang-rae Lee talks about his latest novel, A Tender Age (Riverhead Books, 2026), his choice to leave a career in finance in order to become a writer, and his experience writing the screenplay for the film adaptation of C Pam Zhang’s novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold, directed by Ang Lee.

In this On the Serendipitous Side podcast episode, Deesha Philyaw talks about the twenty-year journey of her first novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman (Mariner Books, 2026), and how the story developed with the help of her agent and a satire writing class. A profile of Philyaw by Brian Gresko appears in the September/October 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I’ve always wanted to write a book about growing up and growing older.” In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Jenna Seery, Stacey Yu talks about the many books that shaped the writing of her debut novel, Kitten (Random House, 2026), and why she wanted to write a coming of age story.

In this episode of the Fashion Neurosis podcast hosted by Bella Freud, Colm Tóibín talks about the importance of writing physical character details in stories, how books awards can sometimes feel like “a theater of cruelty,” and shares the backstory to his 2019 London Review of Books essay about his experience of diagnosis and treatment for testicular cancer.

In this video, author and musician Kae Tempest talks about the core themes of forgiveness and atonement in his second novel, Having Spent Life Seeking (Jonathan Cape, 2026), and transmuting his musical background into prose in this conversation with Dua Lipa for the Service95 Book Club series.

In this Cover to Cover podcast interview hosted by Emily Y. Wu, writer and translator Lin King talks about the nuances of Taiwanese and Japanese culture, and the process of translating Yáng Shuāng-zi’s novel Taiwan Travelogue (Graywolf Press, 2024), which won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature and the 2026 International Booker Prize. “I feel like the food was, in some ways, the toughest part for me to translate,” says King.

“Until you have language or history or context, you are in the dark.” In this episode of the Fashion Neurosis podcast hosted by Bella Freud, Hilton Als talks about discovering the power of art and language at an early age, how criticism should come from a place of “critical love,” and writing about Prince in his memoir My Pinup (New Directions, 2022).

In this episode of Literary Hub’s Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast cohosted by V. V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell, Vauhini Vara talks about her New Yorker essay on A.I.-generated fiction and about how technology might change the future of literature with Karan Mahajan, author most recently of The Complex (Viking, 2026).

In this Gays Reading podcast interview with host Jason Blitman, T Kira Madden talks about the events that led to writing her debut novel, Whidbey (Mariner Books, 2026), and how exploring different points of view of a crime offered new insights. A profile of Madden appears in the March/April 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this episode of the Fashion Neurosis podcast hosted by Bella Freud, Abiodun Oyewole talks about the legacy of the spoken word group The Last Poets, the influence of Langston Hughes and Nina Simone, and his thoughts on the poets of today.

In this episode of Cannonball With Wesley Morris, the host speaks with Parul Sehgal, critic at large at the New York Times, and Sasha Weiss, deputy editor at the New York Times Magazine, about the power of Toni Morrison’s writing and they share some of their favorite passages from her novels.

In this Gays Reading podcast interview with host Jason Blitman, Gabriel Tallent speaks about perseverance and what inspired his second novel, Crux (Riverhead Books, 2026), which is featured in Page One in the January/February 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, Rachel Eliza Griffiths talks about grief, poetry, vulnerability, and writing her first memoir, The Flower Bearers (Random House, 2026), for an episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast with host Miwa Messer. For more on Griffiths, read “Marvelous and Dangerous: A Q&A With Rachel Eliza Griffiths” by Renée H. Shea.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Bryan Washington speaks about how his experiences in Tokyo and Osaka informed his latest novel, Palaver (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025), and how third-person narratives reflect the estrangement of being in a different country.

In this Service95 Book Club interview hosted by Dua Lipa, Margaret Atwood talks about the research she conducted in order to imagine the Republic of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale (Houghton Mifflin, 1986) while writing the novel in Berlin during the Cold War and how the current political landscape is reflective of the themes in her book.

In this Service95 Book Club conversation hosted by Dua Lipa, Percival Everett revisits his award-winning 2021 novel, The Trees, and talks about how the murder and image of Emmett Till urged him to write the story, and how important the relationship between author and reader is to art. “People find their truth in art. It’s not complete until the reader comes to it. That’s when meaning gets made,” says Everett.

“She was a short story that kind of got too big and started rolling away from me,” says Katie Yee about her debut novel, Maggie; or a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar (Summit Books, 2025), in this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, in which they discuss writing outside of your own experience and usual style.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers discusses the themes of Blackness, intersectionality, and diaspora in her essay collection, Misbehaving at the Crossroads (Harper, 2025), and how it serves as a companion piece to her novel, The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois (Harper, 2021).