Poets & Writers Theater

In this Green Apple Books event, Diana Khoi Nguyen, author of Root Fractures (Scribner, 2024), and Cindy Juyoung Ok, author of Ward Toward (Yale University Press, 2024), read from their poetry collections and join Aracelis Girmay for a conversation. Ok is featured in an installation of our Ten Questions series and Nguyen’s Root Fractures is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this PBS NewsHour video, Kaveh Akbar speaks about writing his first novel, Martyr! (Knopf, 2024), and how pop culture as well as Persian and contemporary literature mix into the narrative in an interview with Jeffrey Brown. The novel is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this event hosted by the Free Library of Philadelphia, Kiley Reid reads from her second novel, Come and Get It (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2024), and discusses what it means to have an artistic responsibility to truth in a conversation with Niela Orr. Come and Get It is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this interview for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Kwame Alexander talks about winning an Emmy Award for the television adaptation of his novel The Crossover, and reads one of his poems which appears in This Is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets (Little, Brown, 2024). For more on the anthology, read “The Anthologist: A Compendium of Uncommon Collections” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Joshua Burton reads from his debut poetry collection, Grace Engine (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023), for this Splice Poetry Series reading at the Saturn Bar in New Orleans with poet Nikki Ummel. Burton is featured in “Performing the Future: Our Nineteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this virtual reading celebrating Carolina Hotchandani’s debut collection, The Book Eaters (Perugia Press, 2023), special guest poets Jennifer K. Sweeney, Lynne Thompson, and Catherine Barnett read a selection of poems and join in on a conversation about craft and writing. Hotchandani is featured in “Performing the Future: Our Nineteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Amanda Gunn speaks about her debut poetry collection, Things I Didn’t Do With This Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2023), in this installment of the Line / Break series hosted by Copper Canyon Press publicist Ryo Yamaguchi. Gunn is featured in “Performing the Future: Our Nineteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2019 Lambda Literary Retreat video, the late Anthony Veasna So reads from his novel-in-progress, Straight Thru Cambotown. This excerpt appears in his posthumously published book, Songs on Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes (Ecco, 2023), which is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Leslie Sainz reads her poem “Malecón/Miami,” which appears in her debut collection, Have You Been Long Enough at Table (Tin House, 2023), in this short film produced by the O, Miami Poetry Festival. Sainz is featured in “Performing the Future: Our Nineteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2014 State of the Arts video, Brenda Shaughnessy speaks about the themes of her first three books, what motivates her to write, and her “Five Basic Rules” for aspiring poets. Shaughnessy’s essay “Air: Speak and Breathe” is featured in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Books Are Magic event, Simon Shieh reads from his debut poetry collection, Master (Sarabande Books, 2023), and speaks about the themes within his book, the power of language, and truth in poetry with Ama Codjoe, author of Bluest Nude (Milkweed Editions, 2022). Shieh is featured in “Performing the Future: Our Nineteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2023 National Book Festival event, Joy Harjo, author of Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years (Norton, 2022), and Camille T. Dungy, author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Simon & Schuster, 2023), read from their work and discuss writing about nature in a conversation moderated by NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe. Dungy’s essay “Manifest Some Magic: Get Out of Your Own Way and Do the Darn Thing” is included in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.