Poets & Writers Theater

“In each of my close relationships, I feel like I get to be a different version of myself.” In this Books Are Magic event, Lilly Dancyger speaks with Leslie Jamison about how she tackled writing about her closest friendships in her first essay collection, First Love: Essays on Friendship (Dial Press, 2024), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“What is it about a woman being ambitious that feels so wayward, that feels so dangerous?” In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast, R. O. Kwon talks about the themes of ambition and desire in her second novel, Exhibit (Riverhead Books, 2024), and what women of color face in the world of art with guest host Jenna Seery. A profile of Kwon by Brian Gresko appears in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Haymarket Books event, Julian Randall reads from his first essay collection, The Dead Don’t Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi, and Black TV Nerd Sh*t (Bold Type Books, 2024), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. The event also includes an introduction by Gabriel Ramirez and readings by poets George Abraham and Itiola Jones.

In this Square Books event in Mississippi, Aimee Nezhukumatathil speaks about her writing and memories of food with Afton Thomas, and reads from her books World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (Milkweed Editions, 2020) and Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees (Ecco, 2024), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Books are Magic event with Isaac Fitzgerald, author Rachel Khong discusses the themes of race, family, and belonging in her second novel, Real Americans (Knopf, 2024), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. “I think it’s both an American feeling and an immigrant feeling, that there’s not enough time and you need to make the most of it,” says Khong.

“This year I turned my back to the world. I let language face // the front. The parting felt like a death.” In this About the Authors TV video, Victoria Chang speaks about her award-winning collection, Obit (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), and reads a poem from her new collection, With My Back to the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), which engages with the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin.

As part of the Fictions & Forms reading series hosted by the University of Chicago’s Program in Creative Writing, Danielle Dutton discusses her intricate relationship to genre and form, and reads from her hybrid collection, Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other (Coffee House Press, 2024), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I sniff the tops of the rose heads / like a newborn’s scalp—fresh skin and hair / only a few days picked.” In this video, Diannely Antigua reads “I Buy My Monster Roses” from her second poetry collection, Good Monster (Copper Canyon Press, 2024), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, South Korean poet Kim Hyesoon reads with her longtime translator Don Mee Choi, both sharing their work and speaking about their writing and collaboration with Susan Bernofsky, director of Literary Translation at Columbia University. Choi’s latest poetry collection, Mirror Nation (Wave Books, 2024), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this episode of Tightwires with host Hiba Tahir, poet Saba Keramati talks about the submission process and publication of her debut collection, Self-Mythology (University of Arkansas Press, 2024), and offers advice on giving and receiving feedback, and a writing prompt. Keramati is featured in Literary MagNet in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

For this event at the Korea Society in New York, Crystal Hana Kim speaks about writing her second novel, The Stone Home (William Morrow, 2024), in a conversation with author Susan Choi. Kim’s essay “Thinning the Line: On Multilingual Literature, Cultural Memory, and Writing as Translation” appears in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.