Poets & Writers Theater

“We harness a wildness in the ‘I’ of our poems.” In this 2013 video at the Library of Congress, Dorothea Lasky delivers the Bagley Wright Lecture on Poetry and explores how poetry makes us human. Lasky interviews the late Max Ritvo about his poetry and process in “The World Beyond: A Last Interview With Max Ritvo” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“—my body lights up for life / like all the wishes being granted in a fountain / at the same instant—” Max Ritvo reads his poem “Afternoon” in a short video animated by Nate Milton for WNYC’s Only Human podcast. Ritvo’s debut collection, Four Reincarnations, is forthcoming in November by Milkweed Editions.

Kaveh Akbar reads two poems for “A Tribute to Max Ritvo,” an event presented by the Academy of American Poets, the Writing Program of Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Milkweed Editions, and the Poetry Society of America. Akbar is the author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, 2017) and is featured in “The Whole Self: Our Thirteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I hope, Maxes, some good in you is of me.” The late Max Ritvo reads “Poem to My Litter” in a short video animated by Nate Milton for WNYC’s Only Human podcast. Ritvo’s debut poetry collection, Four Reincarnations (Milkweed Editions, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.