Poets & Writers Theater

In this 2013 video, Nobel laureate Alice Munro talks about her fascination with reading and writing at an early age in Canada’s countryside, how she can become “desperately consumed” with writing, and the ways in which her writing life changed throughout her long-standing career. Munro died at the age of ninety-two on May 13, 2024.

“I consider Delany not only one of the most important science fiction writers of the present generation, but a fascinating writer in general who has invented a new style,” writes Umberto Eco. Samuel R. Delany discusses his novel Dhalgren, his childhood in Harlem, and the journey that led him to become the 2013 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master of science fiction in this clip from Open Road Media.

In this 2013 video, Lyn Hejinian reads from her book The Book of a Thousand Eyes (Omnidawn, 2012) for the Lunch Poem reading series at the University of California in Berkeley, where she was Professor and John F. Hotchkis Chair Emerita. Hejinian died at the age of eighty-two on February 24, 2024.

“When you think you’re getting good, be humble. There’s no end to the learning.” In this video, Arthur Sze visits his high school, the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, and offers advice from his years of experience as a poet. Sze is the recipient of the 2013 Jackson Poetry Prize and won the 2019 National Book Award in poetry for his collection Sight Lines (Copper Canyon Press, 2019).

“Out of the acids of rage, the candor of tar, / Out of creosote, gasoline, drive shafts, wooden dollies, / They Lion grow.” Watch this 2013 LIVE From NYPL recording of an event featuring the late Philip Levine reading his rousing poem “They Feed They Lion” in tribute to Federico García Lorca.

“I pulled down a book by Gayl Jones, Eva’s Man, and I sat down and didn’t get back up until I finished it—and I felt so haunted,” says Rachel Eliza Griffiths about what inspired her third poetry collection, Mule & Pear (New Issues Press, 2011), in this conversation at the 2013 Poets Forum for the Academy of American Poets.

“I consider myself essentially a storyteller who’s chosen the genre of poetry.” Lynne Thompson, author of Start With a Small Guitar (What Books Press, 2013) and Beg No Pardon (Perugia Press, 2007), speaks about family stories and how she came to poetry after a career in law with Mariano Zaro for the Poetry.LA interview series. Thompson is the 2021 poet laureate of Los Angeles.

“My father was raised in Calcutta, in the neighborhood where all of these Bengali films were shot,” says Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jhumpa Lahiri about growing up surrounded by Bengali cinema and how it influenced her second novel, The Lowland (Knopf, 2013), in this 2017 interview for Criterion Collection.

Let Him Go is a film adaptation of Larry Watson’s 2013 novel of the same name published by Milkweed Editions, which tells the story of a couple on a dangerous journey to reclaim their young grandson. Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, the film stars Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Lesley Manville. 

“When people say nothing has changed, we’re trying to say through March, come and walk in my shoes.” In this 2013 Politics and Prose Bookstore video, the late congressman and author John Lewis speaks about the personal experiences that led to the creation of his award–winning graphic memoir trilogy March, cowritten by Andrew Aydin and illustrated and lettered by Nate Powell. Lewis died at the age of eighty on July 17, 2020.

“It was almost effortless. It was an amazing experience because it was as though the poems were writing me.” In this Poetry.LA interview from 2013, the late Wanda Coleman speaks about the moment she felt like a poet, her career as a soap opera writer, and how she finds enjoyment in writing. Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems (Black Sparrow Press, 2020), a new collection of Coleman’s poetry edited by Joshua Bodwell and Terrance Hayes, is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Instead of scanning newspaper headlines, / I spend the morning reading names / of flowers and trees in the botanical garden.” Harryette Mullen reads a selection of poems from her collection Urban Tumbleweed: Notes From a Tanka Diary (Graywolf Press, 2013) at Beyond Baroque in this Poetry.LA video.

Stephen King’s novel Doctor Sleep (Scribner, 2013), the sequel to his 1977 classic The Shining, has been adapted into a feature film directed by Mike Flanagan. The movie picks up the story several decades later as a grown-up Danny Torrance, played by Ewan McGregor, meets a young girl with psychic powers similar to his own that he tries to protect from a supernatural cult of murderous nomads.

Jillian Weise reads her poems “Semi Semi Dash,” “Café Loop,” and “Poem for His Girl,” from her second collection, The Book of Goodbyes (BOA Editions, 2013), at the Academy of American Poets’ 2013 Poets Forum Awards Ceremony. Weise’s third collection, Cyborg Detective (BOA Editions, 2019), is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

The Goldfinch, adapted from the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Donna Tartt, follows a young man who turns to the world of art forgery after the loss of his mother. Directed by John Crowley, with a screenplay by Peter Straughan, the film stars Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, and Jeffrey Wright.

In this interview, Susan Choi talks to Paul Peppis at the University of Oregon about her fifth novel, Trust Exercise (Henry Holt, 2019), her previous four novels, which include A Person of Interest (Viking, 2008) and My Education (Viking, 2013), writing Asian American characters, and her nonfiction work.

Crazy Rich Asians (Doubleday, 2013), Kevin Kwan’s debut novel about a Chinese American woman’s introduction to her boyfriend’s wealthy family in Singapore, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by John M. Chu, the romantic comedy stars Awkwafina, Henry Golding, Ken Jeong, Constance Wu, and Michelle Yeoh.

“Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.” In this SuperSoul Sunday video from 2013, poet, teacher, and activist Maya Angelou recites her inspirational and engaging poem “Phenomenal Woman.”

In this 2013 video, Lucie Brock-Broido reads her poem “You Have Harnessed Yourself Ridiculously to This World” from her collection Stay, Illusion (Knopf, 2013), which was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award in poetry. Brock-Broido died on March 6, 2018 at the age of sixty-one.

Adrian Matejka reads “Battle Royale,” “Prize Fighter,” and other poems from his third collection, The Big Smoke (Penguin Books, 2013), which focus on the life of Jack Johnson, the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion. Matejka is the new poet laureate of Indiana, succeeding Shari Wagner.