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A curated selection of videos, including book trailers, brief interviews, and other literary curiosities updated daily.
“No book is written. Every book is rewritten.” Various authors offer inspiring writing advice and extoll the virtues of perseverance, self-expression, overcoming writers block, and the importance of writing every day.
“I grew up in the sea and poverty was sumptuous, then I lost the sea and found all luxuries grey and poverty unbearable.” In this super-16 film clip, director Tom Beard and actress Clara Paget interpret passages from Albert Camus’ “The Sea Close By.”
Author Michael Lennon discusses his biography, Norman Mailer: A Double Life, in which he explores Mailer’s writing techniques, literary influences, and legendary grudges.
This PBS video explores the very complex and compelling phenomenon of creativity—a component of writing that all poets and writers must learn to understand for themselves. “Whatever we can do to expand our capacity for uncertainty, that is wonderful preparation for creativity.”
Melvin Alvarez interprets a performance of “When Love Arrives” by Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye—co-directors of Project VOICE—in this typographic video that adds another level to a poem already full of art and meaning.
In this book trailer—which begins with silent, still images and includes commentary from poet and filmmaker Colin Browne—Vancouver poet George Stanley discusses "After Desire" and themes inspired by busses, death, and modernism. “It’s almost as though desire was an obstacle to seeing beauty.”
“I’ve never met anyone whose name starts with the letter Q so I know I’ll never have to mourn it.” Poet Jared Singer performs "How I learned my ABC's" at the 2012 NYC Urbana Poetry Slam.
“Even after publishing my first book, I felt that the writing of the story came out of a place of deep isolation for me.” Jhumpa Lahiri discusses the creative process that informed her latest novel, The Lowland, which recently made the 2013 Man Booker shortlist.
"Censorship is the enemy of truth." Bill Moyers discusses what books and libraries have meant to his life, and expresses his dismay and frustration over the prejudices that motivate others to ban books.
“When you name your daughter it is a prayer for everything you want her to be.” Poet Rachel Rostad explores the power of a name, and what is lost when a person is renamed for cultural reasons.