Poets & Writers Theater

“I look back, just with a little wonder. Wonder that I stuck with this thing.” In this 2004 interview with Jeffrey Brown for PBS NewsHour, Philip Roth reflects on his writing career and the role of a writer. Roth died at the age of eighty-five on May 22, 2018.

“My mouth / had been a helmet forever / greased with secrets…” Tim Seibles narrates his poem “First Kiss” from his collection Buffalo Head Solos (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2004) for this TED-Ed animated short film directed by Hannah Jacobs, part of the “There’s a Poem for That” series.

“A blue against the easy clarities of sky, / a blue that eats the light, a bruise // ascended from forgetfulness.” In this Ours Poetica video, Eduardo C. Corral reads “Kinds of Blue #76 (Evening Snow)” by Don McKay from his collection Camber (McClelland and Stewart, 2004).

The Plot Against America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004), Philip Roth’s alternative history novel in which Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 presidential election and fascist anti-Semitism is on the rise, has been adapted into an HBO television miniseries. The series, directed by Minkie Spiro and adapted by David Simon, stars Ben Cole, Winona Ryder, Morgan Spector, John Turturro, and Zoe Kazan.

“At some point I feel that the characters do exist...they become independent.” In this video from Louisiana Channel, Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswany speaks about how the characters in his novel The Yacoubian Building (American University in Cairo Press, 2004), translated from the Arabic by Humphrey Davies, began to take on a life of their own as he wrote them.

"The beekeeper paused by his hives. A cloud of bees is missing, he said, to no one in particular. I hope the little creatures aren't up to any mischief." In this video, Jesse Ball reads the poem "Lester, Burma" from his first collection, March Book (Grove Press, 2004). Ball's latest novel, How to Set a Fire and Why (Pantheon, 2016), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"I kind of always assume that you don't write the poem you want to write...that's actually quite freeing because it means you discover something in the act of composition that you didn't know in advance." Ben Lerner talks about his first poetry collection, The Lichtenberg Figures (Copper Canyon Press, 2004), for the Paris Review's "My First Time" video series. Lerner's first nonfiction book, The Hatred of Poetry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Kathleen Jamie reads "The Whale-watcher" from her poetry collection The Tree House (Picador, 2004). Jamie's poetry was published in Issue 131 of Granta, which is featured in Literary MagNet in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"When I read Dostoevsky, I understand better the psychology of the human being." Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic memoir Persepolis (Pantheon, 2004), speaks with Paul Holdengräber at the New York Public Library about how reading Fyodor Dostoevsky's work changed her life.

“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.

The author of the novels The Time Traveler’s Wife (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004) and Her Fearful Symmetry (Scribner, 2009) reads from her new graphic novel Raven Girl, featured in this issue's The Written Image, at the Royal Opera House in London.

See what all the buzz is about with this extended trailer of Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski's adaptation of David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas (Sceptre, 2004). Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Hugh Grant, the movie will open in theaters on October 26.

In this clip from Fresno State University, the poet laureate reads "Gospel," from his collection Breath (Knopf, 2004). For more Philip Levine, read Michael Bourne's interview in the current issue and listen to the poet read "The Mercy."

To anyone who has read Nick Flynn's 2004 memoir, the new movie starring Robert DeNiro, Paul Dano, and Julianne Moore will be known as Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. To Hollywood, it is known as Being Flynn, forthcoming next spring from director Paul Weitz.

Samuel Menashe, the first poet to receive the Neglected Masters Award from the Poetry Foundation in 2004, died Monday night in his sleep on August 22, 2011. He was eighty-five years old. In this clip, from the WNYC series “Know Your Neighbor,” Menashe is seen in his New York City apartment, where he lived for fifty years.