A curated selection of videos, including book trailers, brief interviews, and other literary curiosities updated daily.

Louise Erdrich

In this clip from Prairie Public Broadcasting, author Louise Erdrich, who is profiled by contributing editor Kevin Nance in the current issue, talks about growing up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and the challenges of running an independent bookstore, then reads from her new novel, The Round House.

Sharon Olds

The poet, whose newest poetry collection, Stag's Leap, was published by Knopf in September, recently read "The Worst Thing" on the PBS NewsHour.

The Politics of Being a Chinese Literary Figure

The recent announcement that Chinese writer Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature has sparked conversations, like the one with Jeffrey Brown on PBS NewsHour, about what it means to be a writer living under a Communist government.

The $100,000 Dust Jacket

As explained in this clip from AbeBooks, a first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby sold for $182,000 at auction in 2009, and the reason it fetched such a high price was the presence of its dust jacket. A first edition of the novel without a dust jacket could sell for anywhere between two thousand and eight thousand dollars, depending on its condition.

Miranda July

In this clip the actor, filmmaker, and author of No One Belongs Here More Than You (Scribner, 2007) and It Chooses You (McSweeney's, 2011), among other books, offers a helpful strategy for avoiding procrastination.

Coded Poem: The Ones

In this clip, Los Angeles artist ETMCA paints his coded poem, "The Ones," cuts the canvas into pieces, and hides the fragments in select titles in Los Angeles used-book stores so readers can discover his “message art."

Authors Against Bullying

October is National Bullying Awareness Month, and Open Road Media put together this video of authors Dean Koontz, Peter Lerangis, Bette Greene, Patty MacLachlan, and Logan Levkoff speaking out on the subject.

Sandra Cisneros

The author of The House on Mango Street read earlier this year at the Guadelupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio as part of the Librotraficante Caravan.

The End of Your LIfe Book Club

Will Schwalbe's memoir, the story of a son and his dying mother who form a book club that brings them together in her final days, is published this month by Knopf.

Haiku

Keeping it short and sweet on this first Monday of October, this clip features a haiku by Alan Pizzarelli, from his book The Canary Funeral.

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