Poets & Writers Theater

“If you don’t know where to start, remember that every single thing that happened to you is yours and you get to tell it.” In this TED Talk, Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Anchor Books, 1995), shares twelve truths she’s learned from life and her writing.

Watch this animated poem directed by Diego Maclean and narrated by Billy Collins, from the poet’s 1995 collection, The Art of Drowning (University of Pittsburgh Press).

Nick Hornby’s first novel, High Fidelity (Riverhead Books, 1995), whose 2000 film adaptation starred John Cusack and moved the story from London to Chicago, has been adapted into a Hulu television show. The series stars Zoë Kravitz as the neurotic owner of a local record store in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood who revisits former romantic partners after a recent breakup.

“Sing of disappointments more repeated than the batter of the sea....” At the Lannan Foundation in 1998, William Gass reads from his second novel, The Tunnel (Knopf, 1995), which took twenty-six years to write and earned him the 1996 American Book Award. Gass died on December 6, 2017 at the age of ninety-three.

Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Michael Chabon discusses screenwriting, fan fiction, and his second novel, Wonder Boys (Villard Books, 1995), with Laurenn McCubbin at Columbus College of Art & Design in 2015. Chabon speaks about his new novel, Moonglow (HarperCollins, 2016), in “Truth and Imagination” by Kevin Nance in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Mark Doty introduces and reads "A Display of Mackerel," from his poetry collection Atlantis (HarperCollins, 1995), on PBS NewsHour in 2011. Read Maya C. Popa's interview with Doty in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine—and listen to a conversation with the poet in the first episode of Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast.