Poets & Writers Theater

“I’m trying to tell you that the world is beautiful.” Cynthia Manick reads from her poem “There Are No Unsacred Spaces,” which appears in her second collection, No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad, 2023), in this HarperCollins Studio video. Manick’s collection is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, Nikki Giovanni and Renée Watson speak about their love of libraries, the writers who have influenced them, and Maya’s Song (HarperCollins, 2022), a picture book for young readers about the life and work of Maya Angelou written by Watson and illustrated by Bryan Collier.

“What does it feel like, to love someone so much that you’re willing to publicly bare your heart and soul with a black Sharpie?” In this Harper Stacks at Home video, Lambda Award–winning author Kacen Callender reads from their novel Felix Ever After (Balzer + Bray, 2020), which follows the journey of a Black, queer, and transgender teen grappling with identity while falling in love for the first time.

The Rhythm Section (HarperCollins, 2000), Mark Burnell’s first novel in his series featuring international spy Stephanie Patrick, has been adapted into a film. Directed by Reed Morano, the thriller about a woman who goes undercover as an assassin after her entire family is killed in an orchestrated plane crash stars Blake Lively, Jude Law, and Sterling K. Brown.

“There comes a point where you’ve gotten so deep into the novel that the words don’t really make sense anymore,” says Laura Lippman as she describes the need for a tactile writing process involving visual and colorful outlines. Lippman’s latest novel, Lady in the Lake (William Morrow, 2019), is set in 1960s Baltimore and follows a housewife turned aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman.

The Good Liar (HarperCollins, 2016), the debut novel by Nicholas Searle about a wealthy widow who crosses paths with a seasoned con artist, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Bill Condon, the film stars Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, and Russell Tovey.

“You don’t need a lot of sensitivity or soul to feel moved by a redwood forest,” says Richard Powers about the origins of his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, The Overstory (Norton, 2018). In this 92nd Street Y video, Powers joins Barbara Kingsolver, author of the novel Unsheltered (HarperCollins, 2018), for a reading and conversation with Kevin Larimer, editor in chief of Poets & Writers Magazine. The authors were featured in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I'm a native Tennessean. I know what it is / to be free. I am singing the country blues. I / am whittling a wooden doll. I am / underground mining coal.” Nikki Giovanni reads a selection of her poems and speaks about her book Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (HarperCollins, 2013) for the Salon@615 series at the Nashville Public Library.

Ann Patchett speaks with her publisher Jonathan Burnham about the use of time as a theme in her new novel, Commonwealth (HarperCollins, 2016), which is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. Also in the issue, Patchett speaks about her bookstore Parnassus Books in "Best-Selling Booksellers" by Lynn Rosen.

“Even when I’m writing for young people, I really try to get into the emotional side of who they are...” At the 2016 National Book Festival, Jacqueline Woodson discusses her novel Another Brooklyn (HarperCollins, 2016), which is shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award in fiction. Woodson is featured in “A Great Good” by Rigoberto González in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Michael Chabon discusses screenwriting, fan fiction, and his second novel, Wonder Boys (Villard Books, 1995), with Laurenn McCubbin at Columbus College of Art & Design in 2015. Chabon speaks about his new novel, Moonglow (HarperCollins, 2016), in “Truth and Imagination” by Kevin Nance in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

An updated version of director Mary McDonagh Murphy's documentary Harper Lee: Hey, Boo airs tonight on PBS. Harper Lee's second novel, Go Set a Watchman, will be released by HarperCollins on July 14, fifty-five years after the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird (Lippincott, 1960).

Mark Doty introduces and reads "A Display of Mackerel," from his poetry collection Atlantis (HarperCollins, 1995), on PBS NewsHour in 2011. Read Maya C. Popa's interview with Doty in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine—and listen to a conversation with the poet in the first episode of Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast.

Polly Courtney, the author of six novels who self-published her latest, Feral Youth (2013), after being frustrated by the “chick-lit” covers assigned to her by HarperCollins, offers the third in her series of how-to videos on self-publishing.

Polly Courtney, the author of six novels who self-published her latest, Feral Youth (2013), after being frustrated by the “chick-lit” covers assigned to her by HarperCollins, offers the second in her series of how-to videos on self-publishing.

Polly Courtney, the author of six novels who self-published her latest, Feral Youth (2013), after being frustrated by the “chick-lit” covers assigned to her by HarperCollins, offers the first in her series of how-to videos on self-publishing.