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A curated selection of videos, including book trailers, brief interviews, and other literary curiosities updated daily.
“The journey that I want to take the reader on, always, is the journey that I loved most when I was reading as a child.” In an interview with CBS This Morning cohost Charlie Rose, Donna Tartt, author most recently of The Goldfinch, discusses the inspirations for the novel, her writing process, and why writing at a slow pace works for her.
“Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.” Filmed in 1958 as part of Vancouver’s 7 O’Clock Show, Langston Hughes recites his poem "The Weary Blues," with jazz accompaniment.
“I feel very transparent to myself. I’m more like an observer. I’m interested in what’s going on.” Joyce Carol Oates, whose most recent novel, Carthage, is published this month by Ecco, discusses her writing process, interests, and why she’s not sure she has a personality.
"I imagined that because everyone was telling me I was so very bright, there must be something there for me. But my skin was black," says Guyanese author, teacher, and diplomat E. R. Braithwaite, whose five nonfiction books and two novels, including To Sir, With Love (1959), are available as e-books from Open Road Integrated Media.
“Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.” In this video, poet, teacher, and activist Maya Angelou recites her inspirational and engaging poem “Phenomenal Woman.”
“Magical thinking makes you crazy and renders everything possible.” In this video, author Zadie Smith discusses her writing, literary influences, and the spiritual aspects of the creative process.
Watch this trailer for the film adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s novel Labor Day. The movie, which stars Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, relates the story of a single mother and her lonely son who take in a mysterious stranger with a complicated past.
“It gives people the opportunity to have something to hold on to that is not available in digital form.” Helen Yentus, the art director of Riverhead Books, discusses the experience of designing a 3D printed slipcase for a limited edition of Chang-rae Lee's novel On Such a Full Sea.
Dramatist, novelist, and poet Amiri Baraka passed away on Thursday at age seventy-nine. In this clip, filmed as part of a 2012 interview with Dr. Corinne Fowler, he discusses the purpose of literature and the powerful experience of listening to poetry.
“Here silence stands like heat.” Sir Tom Courtenay reads Philip Larkin's poem “Here” in this poignant video that vividly evokes contemporary life among compelling landscapes.