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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“It is so painful to be loved sometimes. Intolerable even.” In this 2020 virtual event hosted by Salve Regina University, Melissa Febos reads from her new essay collection, Girlhood (Bloomsbury, 2021), and answers questions about her writing process. A profile of Febos by Brian Gresko appears in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Creative Nonfiction | Melissa Febos | Girlhood | Bloomsbury | 2021 | Salve Regina University | Newport MFA | reading | March/April 2021 -
In this installment of ENCLAVE, a virtual reading series curated by Rae Armantrout and Jeanne Heuving, poet Peter Gizzi reads from his collections Archeophonics (Wesleyan University Press, 2016) and Now It’s Dark (Wesleyan University Press, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Peter Gizzi | ENCLAVE series | reading | Archeophonics | 2016 | Now It's Dark | 2020 | Wesleyan University Press | Page One | January/February 2021 -
“I am poling / my way into my life. / It seems / like another life,” reads the late poet Jean Valentine from her poem “La Chalupa, the Boat” in this 2010 video recorded at Boston University. Valentine is the author of fourteen poetry collections including Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003, which won the National Book Award, and Break the Glass, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She died at the age of eighty-six on December 29, 2020.
Tags: Poetry | Jean Valentine | reading | Boston University | 2010 | in memoriam -
“There’s a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill / and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows…” In this 2009 video, pioneering feminist poet Adrienne Rich reads her poem “What Kind of Times Are These?” at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Rich died at the age of eighty-two on March 27, 2012.
Tags: Poetry | reading | Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival | 2009 | Adrienne Rich | in memoriam -
“You will love again the stranger who was your self.” Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson reads Derek Walcott’s poem “Love After Love” from Collected Poems: 1948–1984 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986) for a tribute to the poet and playwright. Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992, passed away on March 17, 2017.
Tags: Poetry | Derek Walcott | Linton Kwesi Johnson | reading | dub poetry | Love After Love | Nobel Prize | Nobel laureate | 1992 | 1986 | Collected Poems: 1948–1984 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux -
“What I love about water is that it spends its whole time falling,” begins Alice Oswald as she introduces her poem “A Short Story of Falling” from her 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize–winning collection, Falling Awake (Jonathan Cape, 2016). “It’s always, apparently, trying to find the lowest place possible and when it finds the lowest place possible, it lies there wide awake.”
Tags: Poetry | Alice Oswald | Falling Awake | Jonathan Cape | 2016 | Griffin Poetry Prize | 2017 | reading -
Looking for a prescription of poetry? In this Intelligence Squared video, William Sieghart, author of The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul (Penguin Books, 2017), and Jeanette Winterson, author of Frankissstein: A Love Story (Grove Press, 2019), introduce poems that have changed their lives as a cast of actors—including Tom Burke, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Isaacs, and Sue Perkins—recite them.
Tags: Poetry | William Sieghart | The Poetry Pharmacy | Jeanette Winterson | Intelligence Squared | reading | 2018 -
“She’s seen by those around her as being too much, but in fact, it’s not that she is too much, it’s that the world around her isn’t enough.” In this video for Perthshire Pride, Douglas Stuart introduces the characters from his debut novel, Shuggie Bain (Grove Press, 2020), for which he won the 2020 Booker Prize, and reads a short excerpt.
Tags: Fiction | Douglas Stuart | Shuggie Bain | Grove Press | 2020 | Perthshire Pride | reading | Booker Prize -
“My poetry, never a quiet moment. You are mine, and you are content with the idea of having nowhere to go.” In this video, Marlon Lizama reads “Poetry” for the Write About Now Poetry series in Houston.
Tags: Poetry | Spoken Word | Marlon Lizama | Write About Now Poetry | reading | Houston -
“for the lingering / eyes of the children, staring...” In this video, the late poet Lucille Clifton reads “report from the angel of eden” and “sorrow song” at the 2008 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
Tags: Poetry | reading | Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival | Lucille Clifton | 2008 -
“I was born passing / off the problem of the twentieth century: I was born.” In this 2016 video, Gregory Pardlo reads “Written By Himself” from his Pulitzer Prize–winning poetry collection, Digest (Four Way Books, 2014), accompanied by the Finnish jazz combo Hot Heros at the Annikki Poetry Festival in Finland. For a writing prompt inspired by this poem, visit The Time Is Now.
Tags: Poetry | 2014 | jazz | reading | Gregory Pardlo | Digest | Four Way Books | Pulitzer Prize | Annikki Poetry Festival -
“Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you. / Remember language comes from this.” In this video from the Academy of American Poets, Joy Harjo reads her poem “Remember” from her 1983 collection, She Had Some Horses. Harjo has been appointed to serve a second term as poet laureate of the United States and is the first Native American to hold the post.
Tags: Poetry | Joy Harjo | reading | Remember | Norton | She Had Some Horses | 1983 | United States Poet Laureate | Academy of American Poets -
“There is the nobleness of the human spirit, despite it all.” In this video, the late Maya Angelou introduces and recites her poem “Still I Rise.”
Tags: Poetry | reading | Maya Angelou | Still I Rise -
“I’ve never spoken to anyone about this. Until now, until you.” In this installment of the Poets House Presents video series, John Murillo reads two poems from his latest poetry collection, Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry (Four Way Books, 2020). For more Murillo, listen to his Page One author reading of “On Metaphor.”
Tags: Poetry | Poets House | John Murillo | Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry | Four Way Books | 2020 | reading -
The Ventura County Poetry Project invited writers from Ventura County and surrounding counties in Southern California to respond to their “Dear America, We Can’t Turn a Blind Eye” initiative and share their work. This short video includes excerpts from W. David Hall, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, Veronica Reyes, Julius Sokenu, Amy Uyematsu, and others.
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In this video, Hafizah Geter reads “Testimony (for Eric Garner)” for the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation’s Words We Share series. Geter is featured in Literary MagNet in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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In this video, the Root Slam, an open mic and poetry slam in Oakland, hosts an all-Black Latinx virtual reading featuring Elizabeth Acevedo, Jennifer Falú, John Murillo, Julian Randall, and Nicole Sealey to celebrate the publication of The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext (Haymarket Books, 2020).
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“Every hand that once reached / for me still haunts me at the most unexpected times.” In this video, Aimee Nezhukumatathil reads a selection of poems covering her time as a high school mascot, bad reviews of the seven wonders of the world, and The Incredible Hulk for Poetry @ Tech in Atlanta. A Q&A with Nezhukumatathil by Ross Gay appears in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Aimee Nezhukumatathil | Poetry @ Tech | reading | 2020 | September/October 2020 -
“the highest promise we could offer / was one to a land or man or idea / greater than we.” In this O, Miami video, Nate Marshall reads a poem from his new collection, Finna, out this month from One World. A Q&A with Marshall by Julian Randall appears in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Nate Marshall | Finna | 2020 | One World | O, Miami Poetry Festival | reading | September/October 2020 -
“We’d cut school like knives through butter, the three / Of us — Peter, Stephen and I — to play / Just about all the music we knew…” In this video, award–winning poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips reads “Boys” from his second collection of poems, Heaven (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), which was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2016.
Tags: Poetry | Rowan Ricardo Phillips | Griffin Poetry Prize | 2016 | Heaven | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2015 | reading | music