Poets & Writers Theater

Philip Metres, author of Fugitive/Refuge (Copper Canyon Press, 2024), and Jessica Jacobs, author of unalone (Four Way Books, 2024), speak about the coincidence of their shared book-cover imagery and themes of faith and ancestry in their new poetry collections for this episode of “The Sound of Ideas” morning program from Ideastream in Cleveland.

In this 92nd Street Y recording, Kaveh Akbar, author of Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf Press, 2021), is introduced by poet Angel Nafis, and John Murillo, author of Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry (Four Way Books, 2020), is introduced by poet Terrance Hayes before reading from a selection of their poems.

“Maybe memory is all the home / you get,” reads John Murillo from his poem “Mercy, Mercy, Me” included in his collection Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry (Four Way Books, 2020) in this video in which he discusses his experience as a fellow at MacDowell’s artist residency program in New Hampshire.

“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.

“I was born passing / off the problem of the twentieth century: I was born.” In this 2016 video, Gregory Pardlo reads “Written By Himself” from his Pulitzer Prize–winning poetry collection, Digest (Four Way Books, 2014), accompanied by the Finnish jazz combo Hot Heros at the Annikki Poetry Festival in Finland. For a writing prompt inspired by this poem, visit The Time Is Now.

“I’ve never spoken to anyone about this. Until now, until you.” In this installment of the Poets House Presents video series, John Murillo reads two poems from his latest poetry collection, Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry (Four Way Books, 2020). For more Murillo, listen to his Page One author reading of “On Metaphor.”

In this episode of Literary Hub’s Fiction/Non/Fiction show cohosted by V. V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell, author and pulmonary and critical care specialist Daniela Lamas talks about coronavirus patients seeking recovery or end-of-life care, and poet and radiation oncologist C. Dale Young speaks about the variety of American responses to the pandemic and reads from his book The Affliction: A Novel in Stories (Four Way Books, 2018).

“I find myself on my feet with fifteen leaves. / Everything carries its own light on the walls.” In this Poetry Society of America video, poet and translator Ricardo Alberto Maldonado reads his poem “Os doy mi corazón / I Give You My Heart” at Governor’s Island in New York. Maldonado’s debut poetry collection, The Life Assignment, is forthcoming in 2020 from Four Way Books.

In this video, Andrea Cohen reads a selection of her poetry at the 2017 Nantucket Book Festival. Cohen, whose sixth collection, Nightshade, is out now by Four Way Books, is featured in Literary MagNet in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Poet, memoirist, and teacher Reginald Dwayne Betts speaks with PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown about his experience as a teen in prison and how poetry gave him a new identity. Betts is the author of Bastards of the Reagan Era (Four Way Books, 2015) and Felon, forthcoming from Norton in October, and is a recipient of the 2019 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award.

“I am writing to you as an act of / immolation, relief…” Allison Benis White reads from her third poetry collection, Please Bury Me in This (Four Way Books, 2017), which won the 2018 University of North Texas Rilke Prize.

"I love. Wouldn't we all like to start / a poem with 'I love...'? I would." C. Dale Young reads his poems "The Bridge" and "Torn" from his book Torn (Four Way Books, 2011) at the 2014 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Young's fourth collection of poems, The Halo (Four Way Books, 2016), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Watch the book trailer for C. Dale Young's new collection of poems, The Halo (Four Way Books, 2016), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2021 video, Jessica Jacobs reads David Wagoner’s poem “Lost” and talks about why she chose it for “The Poem I Wish I Had Read” series produced by the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College. Jacobs’s new poetry collection, unalone, was published in March by Four Way Books.

“The soft dark rope of prayer and dream, its weight, what I pull, and am pulled by into night...” Aaron Coleman reads “On Surrender” from his chapbook, St. Trigger (Button Poetry, 2016), which won the 2015 Button Poetry Prize. Coleman’s debut poetry collection, Threat Come Close (Four Way Books, 2018), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“When you have left me / the sky drains of color / like the skin / of a tightening fist.” At a Writers With Drinks event in 2011, Monica Youn reads the poem “Ignatz Oasis” and others from her collection Ignatz (Four Way Books, 2010). Youn’s new collection, Blackacre (Graywolf Press, 2016), which is longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award, is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"I was born in minutes in a roadside kitchen a skillet / whispering my name." Gregory Pardlo speaks with PBS NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown about his life and his poetry collection Digest (Four Way Books, 2014), which won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

A selection from Jay Baron Nicorvo's debut collection, Deadbeat (Four Way Books, 2012), is paired with an appearance of the book's central character, Deadbeat. Read Nicorvo's "The Art of Reading John Berryman" in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.