Poets & Writers Theater

In this video, filmed by Lowe Campbell Ewald for the 2014 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Airea D. Matthews discusses her love for Detroit and reads from her poem “Wisdom.” Matthews is the author of Simulacra (Yale University Press, 2017) and is featured in “The Whole Self: Our Thirteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this short film, Eve L. Ewing talks about her writing process and reads one of her poems for AIR Serenbe, the nonprofit artist residency program of the Serenbe Institute in Georgia. Ewing is the author of Electric Arches (Haymarket Books, 2017) and is featured in “The Whole Self: Our Thirteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Kaveh Akbar reads two poems for “A Tribute to Max Ritvo,” an event presented by the Academy of American Poets, the Writing Program of Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Milkweed Editions, and the Poetry Society of America. Akbar is the author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, 2017) and is featured in “The Whole Self: Our Thirteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Still winter. Snowing, still. Can it even be called action, this / patience…” Chen Chen reads from his debut poetry collection, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), and discusses his writing with Lisa Grove for the Poetry.LA series. Chen is featured in “The Whole Self: Our Thirteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I gave my body to the mountain whole. / For my body, the clinic gave out petals inked with curses. / Refill, refill, refill, until they stopped.” William Brewer reads poems from his debut poetry collection, I Know Your Kind (Milkweed Editions, 2017), and takes PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown on a tour of his hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia to speak about the opioid crisis.

“During the spring and summer all the grasses come up, and that’s always the first thing I smell when I go up there [to South Dakota], and the first thing I miss when I come back...” Layli Long Soldier talks about the inspiration for her “Grass Poems” series and reads a selection of poems from her debut collection, WHEREAS, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2017. Long Soldier is a 2016 Whiting Award winner in poetry.

Layli Long Soldier, one of the 2016 Whiting Award winners in poetry, reads a selection of poems for Real Pants.