Poets & Writers Theater

“One of the women greeted me. / I love you, she said. She didn’t / Know me, but I believed her, / And a terrible new ache / Rolled over in my chest,” reads Tracy K. Smith from her poem “Wade in the Water” in this 2018 Library of Congress event with Ron Charles, book critic of the Washington Post. Smith is featured in a profile by Renée H. Shea in the March/April 2015 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"My interest in science fiction was really based in what now seems like a very kitschy futuristic aesthetic—an image of the future from about forty years ago." Poet Tracy K. Smith discusses how she conducted research for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Life on Mars (Graywolf Press, 2011). Smith, whose new book, the memoir Ordinary Light, is forthcoming from Knopf, is featured in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Nigerian author Chris Abani gives a TED Talk on the concept of ubuntu, sharing stories of remarkable people, and concludes with Lucille Clifton's poem "Libation." Abani has taught at the VONA/Voices workshop, which was featured in "The Moment of Truth: Eleven Authors Share Stories of Life-Changing Retreats" in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Kelly Link discusses the reasons and options for the title of her new story collection, published by Random House last month, with author and book critic Lev Grossman. Get in Trouble is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“What light comes / between / your nightgown and you?” Joshua Marie Wilkinson reads a poem from his collection Selenography (Sidebrow Books, 2010). Wilkinson is featured in "Writing the Road: Advice for Touring Poets" by Travis Mossotti in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"That little sliver of territory between truth and fiction is kind of where I want to put all my stories." Reif Larsen introduces his new novel, I Am Radar (Penguin Press, 2015), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"I like movies a lot and I like novels a lot, and I like the sort of space that they inhabit when they overlap." Eleanor Henderson, an assistant professor of writing at Ithaca College, speaks about the film adaptation of her novel Ten Thousand Saints (Ecco, 2011). Henderson is featured in "Going Hollywood: The Business of Film Adaptations" by Michael Bourne in the new issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"What are the terms of understanding that we come to?" Ruth Ellen Kocher reads a poem about the loss of her mother in this short film. Kocher, the author of six poetry collections, including Ending in Planes (Noemi Press, 2014), is featured in "The Moment of Truth: Eleven Authors Share Stories of Life-Changing Retreats" in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

William Archila speaks with author Mariano Zaro about his early influences and how growing up as an immigrant in the United States has made an impact on his writing. Archila’s new poetry collection, The Gravedigger’s Archaeology (Red Hen Press, 2015), is featured in Page One of the new issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"What [the students] find ultimately is that the idealism that they’ve developed at the university doesn’t necessarily apply in the real world." T. Geronimo Johnson, who is featured in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, discusses his new novel published earlier this week by William Morrow.

"If this is storytelling, I'm in. More please!" In this TEDx Talk, Susan Conley discusses how exposure to powerful stories can captivate our imagination and inspire us to transform our lives. Conley cofounded the Telling Room, a creative writing lab in Portland, Maine, which is featured in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

The late poet reads his poem "Something in the Way of Things (in Town)" in a 2009 performance with saxophonist Rob Brown. S O S: Poems 1961–2013, a new collection of Baraka's poetry published by Grove Press this month, is featured in Page One in the new issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this forthcoming novel from the Booker Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, a couple set off on a journey to find a son they have not seen in years. The Buried Giant (Knopf, 2015) is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.