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A curated selection of videos, including book trailers, brief interviews, and other literary curiosities updated daily.
Ali Smith reads from her dual-narrative novel involving a British teenager mourning her mother's death and a fifteenth-century Italian painter. The novel, released tomorrow by Pantheon, was a finalist for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. Last month Smith was awarded the Goldsmiths Prize, an award recognizing fiction that breaks the mold.
"I'm thankful for ATM machines and for the smell of coffee beans." Recorded live at the Fitzgerald Theater in 2008, Garrison Keillor, host of A Prairie Home Companion, offers his list of thanks from instant mashed potatoes to GPS.
"It's not about whether or not the shooter is racist. It's about how poor black boys are treated as problems well before we are treated as people." Award-winning slam poet Javon Johnson performs a personal and impassioned poem at the 2013 National Poetry Slam semifinals in Boston.
"The humor is just an organic part of the way that I see the world." Miriam Toews talks about the humor in the dark moments of her new novel, published this month by McSweeney's. Based on the suicide of her sister, the book was a finalist for Canada's Scotiabank Giller Prize this year.
"I wanted to try to capture the magic of hearing the voice of a stranger on a little device in your home." Anthony Doerr discusses what inspired him to write his new novel, which took him ten years to complete. All the Light We Cannot See, published in May by Scribner, was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award in Fiction.
"Many people aren't even remotely interested in [poetry]. But it's so clear to me that, of course, it's what you want to do." Glück ruminates about her writing process in this short documentary from the Academy of American Poets. Last night she was awarded the National Book Award in poetry for her collection Faithful and Virtuous Night, published by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux in September.
Michel Faber speaks about his new book, which explores the challenges of a marriage when a couple is forced to live in different universes and is limited in the ways they can communicate. The Book of Strange New Things was published in October by Hogarth.
Award-winning slam poet and teacher Joaquin Zihuatanejo performs a moving poem in sign language to thank his student Jon. This performance is from the 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam in Phoenix, Arizona, and shared by Button Poetry.
"In an age of constant movement, nothing is so urgent as sitting still." Essayist and novelist Pico Iyer invites readers to approach stillness as not only a creative catalyist but also as the ultimate adventure. A follow up to his essay "The Joy of Quiet," the book was released by TED Books and Simon & Schuster earlier this month.
"Human beings have such a hard time asking for help." In her debut book, published by Grand Central Publishing this week, Amanda Palmer explores the complicated feelings involved in seeking help from others. Included are personal stories about her marriage to author Neil Gaiman and her struggles as an artist and musician.
