Poets & Writers Theater

Watch the trailer for Mickey 17, a science fiction film based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, Mickey7. Written, produced, and directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Robert Pattinson, the film follows a man who is hired to die and be cloned repeatedly while exploring a dangerous planet.

In this video, Samantha Harvey accepts the 2024 Booker Prize for her novel Orbital (Jonathan Cape, 2023), which snapshots one day in the lives of six astronauts traveling through space. “What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves, and what we do to life on Earth, human and otherwise, we do to ourselves,” says Harvey in her speech.

In this installment of the PBS American Masters documentary series Renegades, which highlights the cultural contributions of little-known historical figures with disabilities, the series spotlights the life and career of editor Judy-Lynn del Rey who revolutionized the world of science fiction by editing and publishing books from writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and George Lucas.

This short video previews the Apple TV+ series adaptation of Blake Crouch’s best-selling science fiction novel, Dark Matter (Ballantine Books, 2016). Crouch, who serves as executive producer, showrunner, and writer, explains the premise of this thriller involving parallel universes alongside actors Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly.

“I consider Delany not only one of the most important science fiction writers of the present generation, but a fascinating writer in general who has invented a new style,” writes Umberto Eco. Samuel R. Delany discusses his novel Dhalgren, his childhood in Harlem, and the journey that led him to become the 2013 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master of science fiction in this clip from Open Road Media.

Watch the trailer for the television series adaptation of Liu Cixin’s acclaimed science fiction novel, The Three-Body Problem, translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu and published by Tor Books in 2014. Created by David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo and starring Jovan Adepo, Rosalind Chao, Jess Hong, and Benedict Wong, the Netflix series follows the life of an astrophysicist during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and her encounters with extraterrestrial life.

“Science fiction is a reminder that not everyone had access to their history,” says Norwegian artist Sandra Mujinga who draws on science fiction in her artistic practice, which includes installation and video art, for this Louisiana Channel interview. “It’s so important to keep imagining other realities,” says Mujinga.

“I’m not there to serve the author or serve the text, I’m there to interpret it.” In this video, writer and translator Anton Hur speaks about the role of the translator, Korean literature, and his work on the novel Counterweight (Pantheon, 2023) by the pseudonymous South Korean science fiction author Djuna.

Watch the trailer for Dune: Part Two, the second chapter of the film saga adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic 1965 science fiction novel. The film is directed by Denis Villeneuve and stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Florence Pugh.

Watch the trailer for Kindred, an FX/Hulu television adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s acclaimed novel of the same name. Adapted by showrunner and series creator Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the show stars Mallori Johnson as Dana, an aspiring writer who moves into a new home and is suddenly transported back and forth in time emerging at a nineteenth-century plantation.

“The greatest trailblazer for me, in some ways, was my local library,” says Lucinda Roy, author of Flying the Coop (Tor Books, 2022), in this discussion with Leslye Penelope, author of The Monsters We Defy (Orbit, 2022), and journalist Angie Miles about speculative fiction and creating strong empowered female heroines for this virtual event celebrating the 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival.

Watch the trailer for the HBO series The Time Traveler’s Wife, based on the best-selling 2003 novel by Audrey Niffenegger. The six-episode series stars Rose Leslie and Theo James and premieres in May.

Watch the trailer for the highly anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction novel Dune. Directed by Denis Velleneuve, the film stars Josh Brolin, Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, and Zendaya.

“The story is sprawling, the scope is sprawling. It unfolds over the course of a thousand years.” Executive producer and showrunner David Goyer introduces the trailer for the upcoming Apple TV Plus series Foundation, adapted from the award-winning science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, which stars Laura Birn, Jared Harris, Leah Harvey, Lou Llobell, Terrence Mann, and Lee Pace.

The Invisible Man is a new feature film loosely based on the classic science fiction novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, which has inspired a number of television and film adaptations since it was first published in 1897. Directed by Leigh Whannell, the new thriller stars Aldis Hodge, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Elisabeth Moss, and Storm Reid.

“The book is really about how these people, while they have superpowers on their own, don’t truly become powerful until they’re together as a group.” Bob Proehl talks about his dystopian science fiction novel, The Nobody People (Del Rey, 2019), which follows a group of outcasts with supernatural abilities who band together against violent mobs and a discriminatory government.

Actor and musician Daveed Diggs explains the historical premise of Rivers Solomon’s Afro-futurist science fiction novella, The Deep (Saga Press, 2019), which is inspired by the Hugo Award–winning song of the same name written by Diggs’s rap group Clipping.

“I’d like us not to be resigned but to be rebellious—I want to see science fiction step over the old walls and head right into the next wall and start to break it down too.” Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a crowdfunded documentary directed by Arwen Curry, who was able to collaborate with the late author before her death. The film features interviews with Le Guin, as well as authors including Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, and Theodora Goss.

Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451 (Ballantine Books, 1953), has been adapted into a feature film for HBO. Directed by Ramin Bahrani, the film stars Michael B. Jordan as Guy Montag and Michael Shannon as Captain Beatty.

Ernest Cline’s debut novel, Ready Player One (Crown, 2011), a dystopian science fiction adventure following a teenager’s quest for fortune through a virtual reality game, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Steven Spielberg with a screenplay by Cline and Zak Penn, the film stars Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Tye Sheridan.