Poets & Writers Theater

In this Poets & Writers event, 2024 Jackson Poetry Prize winner Fady Joudah reads a selection of poems, including from his National Book Award–nominated collection, [...] (Milkweed Editions, 2024), and joins Pádraig Ó Tuama for a conversation about his work and life as a poet.

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 inaugural Mary Oliver Memorial Event, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón introduces her signature project which includes site-specific poetry installations in seven national parks and the anthology You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, published by Milkweed Editions in association with the Library of Congress. Limón is joined by poets Molly McCully Brown, Jake Skeets, Analicia Sotelo, and Paul Tran for a reading and conversation.

“The age of portrait is drugged. Beauty / is symmetry so rare it’s a mystery.” In this 2018 event, Fady Joudah reads a selection of poems from his collection Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance (Milkweed Editions, 2018) for the Lunch Poems reading series at UC Berkeley. Joudah is the recipient of the 2024 Jackson Poetry Prize.

In this Books Are Magic event, Simon Shieh reads from his debut poetry collection, Master (Sarabande Books, 2023), and speaks about the themes within his book, the power of language, and truth in poetry with Ama Codjoe, author of Bluest Nude (Milkweed Editions, 2022). Shieh is featured in “Performing the Future: Our Nineteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 92nd Street Y event, Ama Codjoe reads from her debut collection, Bluest Nude (Milkweed Editions, 2022), with an introduction by poet Nkosi Nkululeko, followed by Carl Phillips reading from his latest collection, Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007–2020 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022), with an introduction by poet Shane McCrae. Phillips won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his collection.

In this Poetry of Resilience interview, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón reads from her collection The Hurting Kind (Milkweed Editions, 2022) and speaks about the emotions she writes from and the importance of poetry for healing with hosts and poets Danusha Laméris and James Crews.

“The backend / algorithm will be coded on keyboards / by the actual hands of mothers who, / in another life, called themselves writers,” reads Ryann Stevenson from “Decision Tree,” which appears in her collection, Human Resources (Milkweed Editions, 2022), winner of the 2021 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, in this conversation with Richie Hofmann. Human Resources is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Is it okay to begin with the obvious? I am full of stones,” reads Ada Limón from “The Magnificent Frigatebird,” a poem from her latest collection, The Hurting Kind (Milkweed Editions, 2022), in this reading and conversation with Patricia Smith at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn.

“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.

“For me, the whole book is about questions and having no answers.” In this Charis Circle video, Victoria Chang reads from her book Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief (Milkweed Editions, 2021) and speaks about filling in silence with imagination in a conversation with Anjali Enjeti.

“To think I’ve gone / to all this trouble / just to lose / my looks & mind.” In this Poetry Society of America video, Devon Walker-Figueroa reads her poem “Noise Cancelling,” which was selected by Amit Majmudar as the winner of the 2021 Lucille Medwick Memorial Award. Walker-Figueroa speaks about her debut collection, Philomath (Milkweed Editions, 2021), in “A Freeing Space: Our Seventeenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this episode of Curated Conversation(s): a Latinx Poetry Show, Benjamin Garcia speaks about the writing process for his debut poetry collection, Thrown in the Throat (Milkweed Editions, 2020), with his former teacher and mentor Dana Levin. For more Garcia, read his installment of Writers Recommend.

“The storm funneled through town with destructive intent. / Fractured tree limbs, toppled fences, rippled shingles / like tufts of hair.” In this PBS NewsHour video, Fady Joudah reads “House of Mercury” from his poetry collection Tethered to Stars (Milkweed Editions, 2021), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Milkweed Editions video, Aimee Nezhukumatathil introduces torrin a. greathouse who reads from her debut poetry collection, Wound From the Mouth of a Wound (Milkweed Editions, 2020), winner of the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry. greathouse is featured in “A Life in Poetry: Our Sixteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I wonder if, you know, all of us poets are actually starting from that place—where elegy is the starting point for everything that we do,” says Rick Barot about the inspiration for his latest poetry collection, The Galleons (Milkweed Editions, 2020), in this conversation with Jane Wong, author of Overpour (Action Books, 2016), for Seattle Arts & Lectures. The Galleons was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award in poetry.

Let Him Go is a film adaptation of Larry Watson’s 2013 novel of the same name published by Milkweed Editions, which tells the story of a couple on a dangerous journey to reclaim their young grandson. Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, the film stars Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Lesley Manville. 

“I was writing just about the experience of grief and life amidst dying...then I wanted to tell stories that made my parents alive, that brought them back to life and made it clear why this was such a loss.” In this A Word on Words interview, Margaret Renkl talks about her debut essay collection, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (Milkweed Editions, 2019), which is featured in “5 Over 50” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“To deprivatize is not the same as to make public. A field is only natural or private after so much hurt.” In this short film, Jos Charles offers a preface for her poetry collection feeld (Milkweed Editions, 2018), which was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry.

Ada Limón speaks about her poetry collections Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015) and The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018) with PBS Books at the 2018 AWP Annual Conference & Book Fair. Limón is interviewed by Carrie Fountain in “The Poetry of Perseverance” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.