Poets & Writers Theater

In this video, Ian McEwan visits the Adel Rootstein Display Mannequins workshop where the staff works on the mannequin featured on the book cover for his novel Machines Like Me (Nan A. Talese, 2019). The cover depicts the robot character, Adam, who is involved in a love triangle with a human couple in an alternate 1980s London.

“I’m always too busy, the law can take over your life.” Emma Thompson plays eminent High Court judge Fiona Maye in the film adaptation of The Children Act (Nan A. Talese, 2014) by Ian McEwan, who also wrote the screenplay. Directed by Richard Eyre, the film also stars Stanley Tucci and Fionn Whitehead.

On Chesil Beach is a film adaptation of a 2007 novel by Ian McEwan, who also wrote the screenplay. Directed by Dominic Cooke, the movie explores the relationship of a young couple, played by Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle, on the day they are wed.

“A sentence just came out of nowhere and it said: ‘So here I am, upside down in a woman.’” In a conversation with Christopher Beha at the 92nd Street Y, Ian McEwan discusses the origins of his new novel, Nutshell (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2016), which is narrated by a fetus.

"There's a great difference between that public world with the prizes, interviews, and public readings, and the private world of the closed door and the hiss of silence." Award-winning novelist Ian McEwan discusses his struggles with confidence and the bliss of writing.

"There is a distinct difference between reading a novel and reading a novel by someone you know." The author of acclaimed novels such as Atonement, Amsterdam, Saturday, and On Chesil Beach discusses his latest novel, Sweet Tooth, at last year's Louisiana Literature Festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

The award-winning author most recently of Solar (Nan A. Talese, 2010) describes how he develops ideas and finds inspiration for his writing. "I do a lot of hiking," he says, "and the rhythm of walking is very amenable...to the rhythm of thinking."