Poets & Writers Theater

“A book can change your life, and I know because I had that happen to me.” Award-winning author Tobias Wolff talks about his childhood, education, writing life, and his novel Old School (Vintage, 2003) in this short film directed by Lawrence Bridges for the National Endowment for the Arts’ “Big Read” initiative. For more from Wolff, read this profile by Joe Woodward published in the March/April 2008 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I saw a writer who was quite new to the craft, but excited by it, and sort of experimental, and there’s a freshness to these stories that surprised me.” In this 2003 PBS NewsHour interview, renowned author and critic John Updike speaks about looking back on his early career and the stories included in his collection The Early Stories: 1953-1975 (Knopf, 2003) with correspondent Jeffrey Brown.

A Million Little Pieces (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2003), the controversial and fabricated best-selling memoir by James Frey, has been adapted into a feature film directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Odessa Young, the film focuses on the life of a young writer seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

The Wife (Scribner, 2003), Meg Wolitzer’s novel about a devoted wife looking back on life choices and sacrifices as her husband is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Björn Runge, the film stars Glenn Close, Max Irons, Elizabeth McGovern, Jonathan Pryce, and Christian Slater.

What happens when you mix equal parts Don DeLillo and David Cronenberg, add an estimated budget of more than twenty million dollars, and stir vigorously? Cosmopolis, based on the 2003 novel and starring Robert Pattinson, Jay Baruchel, and Paul Giamatti, is an official selection at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.