Poets & Writers Theater

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, director of the organization Women Who Submit, reads from her collection Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications, 2016) and speaks about writing family stories as a first-generation Chicana in this interview with Mariano Zaro for the Poetry.LA series.

“Instead begin with the body—itself a kind / of ending.” In this Poetry.LA video, torrin a. greathouse reads from their debut collection, Wound From the Mouth of a Wound (Milkweed Editions, 2020), and speaks to Mariano Zaro about writing through multiple identities and connecting trauma, disability, and transness.

“Poetry gave me a way to express myself in a language that was very difficult for me initially.” In this Poetry.LA interview with Mariano Zaro, poet Teresa Mei Chuc, author of Red Thread (Fithian Press, 2012) and Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014), speaks about her family’s experience as Vietnamese refugees and how encountering poetry offered a freedom to express herself through the English language.

“I consider myself essentially a storyteller who’s chosen the genre of poetry.” Lynne Thompson, author of Start With a Small Guitar (What Books Press, 2013) and Beg No Pardon (Perugia Press, 2007), speaks about family stories and how she came to poetry after a career in law with Mariano Zaro for the Poetry.LA interview series. Thompson is the 2021 poet laureate of Los Angeles.

“Living in this world where everything is social media, we’ve lost the art of being completely vulnerable and honest with our thoughts and our feelings. It’s exactly what poetry is, it’s about vulnerability.” In this Poetry.LA interview, Eric Morago, author of the collection Feasting on Sky (Paper Plane Pilot Publishing, 2016), reads from his work and talks about what brought him to poetry.

Ramón García, author of the poetry collections The Chronicles (Red Hen Press, 2015) and Other Countries (What Books Press, 2010), reads his poems and speaks with Mariano Zaro for the Poetry.LA series about how his suburban childhood in Modesto, California has influenced his writing.

“The best kind of fire that we can hope to be able to spark is one that creates light and also creates heat.” In this interview with Mariano Zaro for the Poetry.LA series, Douglas Kearney discusses performative typography, his play with language and sound, and how he came to poetry.

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.