Poets & Writers Theater
Every day we share a new clip of interest to creative writers—author readings, book trailers, publishing panels, craft talks, and more. So grab some popcorn, filter the theater tags by keyword or genre, and explore our sizable archive of literary videos.
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“The loneliest people have the earth to love / And not one friend their own age.” Jericho Brown reads his poem “Labor,” which appears in his second poetry collection, The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, 2014), in this video for the Dear Poet series, the Academy of American Poets’ educational project for National Poetry Month.
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“I was doing nine years in prison, and poems became my way to see the world.” In this Common Read event hosted by the Sims Memorial Library at Southeastern Louisiana University, Reginald Dwayne Betts, author of Felon (Norton, 2020), answers questions from the audience and presents a lecture and reading introduced by Louisiana poet laureate Alison Pelegrin.
Tags: Poetry | Reginald Dwayne Betts | Sims Memorial Library | Southeastern Louisiana University | Common Read | Alison Pelegrin | Felon | lecture | reading | 2025 -
In this Strand Book Store event, Torrey Peters reads from her book Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories (Random House, 2025) and talks about the experience of transitioning and how literature can broaden understandings of self beyond identity in a conversation with essayist and critic Andrea Long Chu. “A lot of these stories are invitations to a reader to identify with these characters who are probably not like the reader,” says Peters.
Tags: Fiction | Torrey Peters | Stag Dance | Random House | Strand Book Store | Andrea Long Chu | reading | conversation | 2025 -
In this Villanova University Literary Festival event, Victoria Chang reads from her poetry collections Obit (Copper Canyon Press, 2020) and With My Back to the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), and speaks about her ekphrastic poems and the power of writing in conversation with other artists and people in her life.
Tags: Poetry | Villanova University | Victoria Chang | Obit | With My Back to the World | Copper Canyon Press | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | reading | lecture | 2025 -
In this event hosted by the Palestine Festival of Literature and Mizna in Minneapolis, poets Mosab Abu Toha, Sarah Aziza, Nick Estes, Dina Omar, Sagirah Shahid, Danez Smith, and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha come together for an evening of performance, music, and conversation about the meaning and power of literature.
Tags: Cross-Genre | Mizna | Palestine Festival of Literature | Mosab Abu Toha | Lena Khalaf Tuffaha | Sarah Aziza | Danez Smith | Nick Estes | Sagirah Shahid | Dina Omar | reading | performance | 2025 -
In this event hosted by the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, Jane Wong reads “To Love a Mosquito,” a chapter from her memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City (Tin House, 2023), and pieces of her mother’s diary, followed by a discussion about her approaches to poetry versus creative nonfiction.
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“I knew I was a god / when you could not / agree on my name // & still, none you spoke / could force me to listen / closer.” In this video, Meg Day reads “Portrait of My Gender as [Inaudible]” as part of Dear Poet, the Academy of American Poets’ educational project for National Poetry Month.
Tags: Poetry | Meg Day | Dear Poet | Academy of American Poets | reading | Deaf | ASL | National Poetry Month | 2025 -
In this Books Are Magic event, Tiana Clark reads from her second poetry collection, Scorched Earth (Washington Square Press, 2025), and discusses the cinematic quality of poems and whether poetry should always tell the truth in a conversation with Terrance Hayes.
Tags: Poetry | Tiana Clark | Scorched Earth | Washington Square Press | Terrance Hayes | Books Are Magic | reading | 2025 -
In this Green Apple Books event, Atlantic senior editor Jeremy Gordon reads from his debut novel, See Friendship (Harper Perennial, 2025), and talks about the decision to write a book of fiction amidst a career in journalism in a conversation with New Yorker staff writer and author Jay Caspian Kang.
Tags: Fiction | Jeremy Gordon | See Friendship | Harper Perennial | novel | Jay Caspian Kang | Green Apple Books | reading | writing process | 2025 -
In this Brookline Booksmith event, Shuba Sunder reads from her first novel, Optional Practical Training (Graywolf Press, 2025), and speaks about the process of writing her “immigrant novel” in a conversation with Neema Avashia. Optional Practical Training is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Fiction | Shuba Sunder | Optional Practical Training | Graywolf Press | novel | Brookline Booksmith | Neema Avashia | reading | Page One | March/April 2025 -
In this Politics and Prose Bookstore event, Caryl Phillips reads from his latest novel, Another Man in the Street (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025), and talks about his immigrant characters and how “the idea of the outsider is very much rooted in British life.”
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In this 2017 Asian American Writers’ Workshop event, Esther Lin reads her poem “I See Her Best,” which appears in her debut collection, Cold Thief Place (Alice James Books, 2025). Lin’s book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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In this Left Bank Books event, Rebe Huntman talks about her journey to Cuba following her mother’s passing, which inspired her debut memoir, My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic & Miracle (Monkfish Book Publishing Company, 2025). For more from Huntman, read her installation of our Ten Questions series.
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In this Politics and Prose Bookstore event, Lauren Francis-Sharma reads from and speaks about her third novel, Casualties of Truth (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025), in a conversation with Kwame Alexander. The novel is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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“Noses of bats, it’s time / To write the first poem in English / Each line the last, small / rain turning glass.” In this Poetry Book Society video, Ben Lerner reads his poem “The Pistil,” which appears in a special U.K. slipcase edition of his collection The Lights released by Granta Books and the Poetry Books Society.
Tags: Poetry | Ben Lerner | The Lights | Granta Books | Poetry Book Society | reading | 2024 -
Lise Goett reads from her third poetry collection, The Radiant (Tupelo Press, 2024), in this Jules’ Poetry Playhouse virtual reading with Mark Wunderlich hosted by Jules Nyquist and John Roche. The Radiant is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Lise Goett | The Radiant | Tupelo Press | reading | Mark Wunderlich | Poetry Playhouse | Jules Nyquist | John Roche | Page One | January/February 2025 -
Poets & Writers Magazine features editor India Lena González hosts this two-part event celebrating the ten debut poets featured in “The Luminous Life: Our Twentieth Annual Look at Debut Poets” from our January/February 2025 issue. The virtual event includes readings from the poets, as well as conversations about their debut books, their influences and inspirations, and their individual paths to publication.
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In this Harvard Radcliffe Institute event, Ilya Kaminsky reads a selection of poems from his collection Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press, 2019), including “We Lived Happily During the War” and “While the Child Sleeps, Sonya Undresses,” and discusses being an immigrant and poet in between languages in a conversation with Stephanie Sandler.
Tags: Poetry | Ilya Kaminsky | Deaf Republic | Graywolf Press | Stephanie Sandler | Harvard Radcliffe Institute | reading | conversation | 2025 -
“Some things, then, cannot be repaired and must go on, into a kind of dusk that seems somehow endless,” reads Matthew Nienow from his poem “Dusk Loop,” which appears in his second poetry collection, If Nothing (Alice James Books, 2025), in this reading and conversation for the Table For Deuce podcast hosted by poets Kate Hanson Foster and Michael Schmeltzer. Nienow’s collection is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Matthew Nienow | If Nothing | Alice James Books | Table For Deuce | podcast | Kate Hanson Foster | Michael Schmeltzer | reading | Page One | January/February 2025 -
In this Green Apple Books event, Karissa Chen reads from her debut novel, Homeseeking (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2025), and speaks about how her late grandfather’s experiences during the Chinese Civil War inspired the book in a conversation with Vanessa Hua.
Tags: Fiction | Karissa Chen | Homeseeking | G. P. Putnam's Sons | Vanessa Hua | Green Apple Books | reading | conversation | debut novel | 2025