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A curated selection of videos, including book trailers, brief interviews, and other literary curiosities updated daily.
“When you’ve done the best you can do, you let it go. And go write another poem.” In this 2009 video, poet Nikki Giovanni discusses traditions in storytelling, generating ideas, and hip-hop music as classical poetry.
“But the real question, or the real point is that, if you’re not lost then you’re at a place someone has already found.” In this 2008 video, Junot Díaz discusses the writing process and the challenges inherent to creating something new.
In this 2009 video Colum McCann discusses his novel Let the Great World Spin; he also answers the question, "Do you believe you're a writer yet?" McCann's latest novel, TransAtlantic, was recently nominated for the 2013 Man Booker Prize.
This video, from 2008, features British novelist Martin Amis discussing the "war on clichés" and the importance of staying faithful to a writer's literary perceptions.
The author of nine books, including the 2003 New York Times bestselling memoir Running With Scissors, opens up to Dr. Phil about his struggles with addiction and what caused him to relapse.
"To the young writers I would merely say, 'Try to develp actual work habits, and even though you have a busy life try to reserve an hour, say—or more—a day to write.' Some very good things have been written on an hour a day," says Updike in this June 2004 interview, less than five years before his death.
"Hubert Selby was the underdog and the voice for the...downtrodden, and was marginalized because he spoke up for the little guy," says Henry Rollins. "But you see the great humanity and the warmth and richness that he brought to things." The author of nine novels who died in 2004 is celebrated by two of his greatest champions, Rollins and Amiri Baraka, in this video from Open Road Media.
This highlight reel from the 2013 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, which was held on March 20 to March 24, features appearances by Niyi Osundare, Michael Cunningham, Thomas Beller, Dwight Garner, Elena Passarello, John Jeremiah Sullivan, and many others. For information about upcoming conferences and festivals, search our Conferences and Residencies database.
In this Single Sentence Animation from Electric Literature, Donna K. animates the following sentence, from "Valentine" by Alexander Yates: "From that perspective, the heart must look enormous, she thinks—it must loom."
This video poem by Daniel Broadhurst, inspired by Italian artist Daniele D'Orazi, makes interesting use of Post-It Notes, with music by Wax Tailor.