Poets & Writers Theater

“What persuades in poetry, what moves, what transforms—and what is memorable—starts with music.” Jorie Graham talks about the importance of musicality and the influences of American modernist and English romantic poetry on her writing in this Big Think video. Graham’s collection Fast (Ecco, 2017) is featured in Page One in the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“With all writers, with all artists, with all humans, we all carry ancestors. We carry stories. We carry their songs.” In this video, Joy Harjo, Esther Allen, and Michael Cunningham speak on the impact of receiving creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). For more on the NEA’s positive impact on writers, read “Vote of Confidence: The Life-Changing Support of an NEA Fellowship” in the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It is strikingly like they have removed their eyes.” Matthew Rohrer, whose poetry collection The Others (Wave Books, 2017) is featured in Page One in the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads “Poem” for the Brooklyn Poets Reading Series.

“The novel is the lab that has studied jealousy in every possible configuration.” In this TED Talk, literary critic Parul Sehgal discusses how jealousy has influenced fiction throughout history. Sehgal is featured in Reviewers & Critics in the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Lesley Nneka Arimah reads “War Stories” from her debut story collection, What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Riverhead, 2017), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I looked down and saw the man stop against the wall, like he was trying to get the strength to breathe.” Mary Gaitskill reads from her novel The Mare (Pantheon Books, 2015) at the 2015 New York State Summer Writers Institute. Her first essay collection, Somebody With a Little Hammer (Pantheon Books, 2017), is featured in Page One in the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Min Kym talks about the life experiences that inspired her debut memoir, Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung (Crown Publishing Group, 2017), and plays “Méditation” from the opera Thaïs composed by Jules Massenet on her violin. Kym’s book is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“A single book can be a community.” In this video, Craig Morgan Teicher responds to the question, “What is your ideal reading experience?” His third poetry collection, The Trembling Answers (BOA Editions, 2017), is featured in Page One in the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, Challis Popkey speaks with author Sarah Gerard about her novel, Binary Star (Two Dollar Radio, 2015), and her first essay collection, Sunshine State (Harper Perennial, 2017). Gerard’s debut essay collection is featured in Page One of the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The way her voice sounded in the morning air made her turn around.” Edan Lepucki reads from her debut novel, California (Back Bay Books, 2015). Her second novel, Woman No. 17 (Hogarth, 2017), is featured in Page One in the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, a young fan enthusiastically—and repeatedly—presents Jay Baron Nicorvo’s debut novel, The Standard Grand (St. Martin’s Press, 2017), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I am a wooly mammoth stuffed into a cab. I bear / the long silence of my extinction through the rearview.” Samiya Bashir, whose poetry collection Field Theories (Nightboat Books, 2017) is featured in Page One in the May/June 2017 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads her poem “Paleontology.”

“Stories are pretty much just confined not really to objective truth, but to points of view.” Joshua Ferris discusses his views on storytelling, narrative, and characterization at a party thrown by Sheepscot Creative. Ferris’s debut story collection, The Dinner Party (Little, Brown, 2017), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, Kaiama L. Glover, associate professor at Barnard College, discusses Caribbean Feminisms on the Page, an event series featuring conversations with writers from the Caribbean. Glover’s translation from the French of René Depestre’s novel Hadriana in All My Dreams (Akashic Books, 2017) is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.