Poets & Writers Theater

“Sorrowful news sings the telegram / and Lincoln’s body slides from DC / to Springfield, his third son, Willie, / boxed beside him.” In this 2019 City of Asylum event, Paisley Rekdal reads from her multimedia poem “West: A Translation,” a book-length work commissioned by Utah’s Spike 150 organization to commemorate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad. Rekdal’s hybrid collection, published in May by Copper Canyon Press, is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I write, I free write, I type it in a computer, and then I start over from the beginning and then I add to it.” In this 2017 City of Asylum video, Yona Harvey speaks about her revision process, self-censorship, and the difference processes for writing poems, essays, and comic books. Harvey’s second poetry collection, You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love (Four Way Books, 2020), won the 2020 Believer Book Award in poetry.

“In every single book of poems there are, to me, what feel like really explicit autobiographical moments and gestures.” Dawn Lundy Martin speaks about trying to find a language to express trauma, and the use of voice and narrative in her poetry in this interview with City of Asylum. Martin won the 2019 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for her collection Good Stock Strange Blood (Coffee House Press, 2017).

“I do come back to poets from the Caribbean especially, who gave me permission to be a writer.” In this interview with City of Asylum, Kwame Dawes talks about the writers whose work he revisits, his writing routine, and why he doesn’t use the word “inspiration.” Dawes is the editor in chief of Prairie Schooner and is featured in “Telling a Different Story: How to Cultivate Inclusivity at Literary Magazines” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Poetry travels, you don’t need a lot of money to write it, you don’t need a lot of money to print it and distribute it.” Evie Shockley, a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her third collection, semiautomatic (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), talks with City of Asylum about the accessibility of writing poetry and its long and powerful tradition.

In this video, Iranian writer Yaghoub Yadali takes a quick tour of a Sriricha hot sauce factory in Irwindale, California, between stops on his reading tour for Rituals of Restlessness (Phoneme Media, 2016), translated by Sara Khalili from the Farsi. It is the debut book in Phoneme Media's City of Asylum series, in partnership with the Pittsburgh nonprofit City of Asylum, which provides sanctuary for exiled writers.

"I didn't know what I was doing, I wasn't very good at it, but I just couldn't stop doing it. I still can't." Manuel Gonzales talks about the writing life in this episode of City of Asylum Pittsburgh's the Writer's Block. Gonzales's debut novel, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! (Riverhead Books, 2016), will be released in April.

"I don't even really like to call it research.... It's a process of listening." Former PEN Mexico president Jennifer Clement discusses the writing process behind her novel Prayers for the Stolen (Hogarth, 2015) with City of Asylum Pittsburgh.

"In this country, poetry is largely ignored." Tim Seibles speaks with City of Asylum Pittsburgh about poetry in the United States, his fascination with how sexuality is expressed, and how he gets into the minds of characters. Seibles's latest collection, Fast Animal (Etruscan Press, 2012), was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award in poetry.