Poets & Writers Theater

Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers (Riverhead Books, 2016), speaks about her first memorable piece of writing and her experiences as a young reader and writer.

“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.

“Upon moments like these, time never stops gnawing its little beaver teeth and the dialogue never stops even after we stop listening.” In this 2012 video, Peter Orner reads from his novel Love and Shame and Love (Little, Brown, 2011). His first essay collection, Am I Alone Here? Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live (Catapult, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Never in my mind did I think I was writing about love. Now I look at it and there’s no question, it’s all about the intimacies of love...” Chloe Caldwell reads from and talks about her first collection of essays, Legs Get Led Astray (Future Tense Books, 2012). Caldwell’s second essay collection, I’ll Tell You in Person (Emily Books, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this book trailer for his debut memoir, All Tomorrow’s Parties (Grove Press, 2016), Rob Spillman recounts defining experiences from time spent as a child in Berlin, Aspen, and Baltimore. Spillman, who serves as the editor of Tin House and the executive editor of Tin House Books, is featured in Agents & Editors in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this short film for the Sonnet Project, Michelle Beck performs Shakespeare's Sonnet 8 at Central Park's Naumburg Bandshell in New York City. The Sonnet Project, which aims to film all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets, is featured in News and Trends in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“You do not believe you are sexy. You do not believe you are beautiful. You believe you are intelligent, but sometimes the effort to convince others isn’t worth it.” Jennifer Bartlett, whose essay "A Call to Action: Working Toward Inclusiveness for Poets With Disabilities" is in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from “The Hindrances of a Householder” at the 2016 Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington, D.C. 

“I ask them to take a poem / and hold it up to the light...” This animated video by Milos features Billy Collins narrating his poem “Introduction to Poetry” fromThe Apple That Astonished Paris (University of Arkansas Press, 1996). Collins’s new poetry collection, The Rain in Portugal (Random House, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this book trailer for her debut story collection, Know the Mother (Wayne State University Press, 2016), Desiree Cooper reads from "In the Ginza." Cooper is featured in "5 Over 50 Reads" in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The will to keep moving, an instrument’s heat, bald mountains and a spider that was a leaf.” In this video from 2013, Fanny Howe reads for the Reva Logan Poetry Series. Her collection of essays The Needle's Eye (Graywolf Press, 2016) is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

For the launch of the poetry and essay anthology Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin (Norton, 2016) edited by Phil Cushway and Michael Warr, devorah major reads Angela Jackson's contributions, as well as from her own work. major's new poetry collection, and then we became (City Lights Publishers, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Often my subjects are the simplest things in the world: joy, family, the weather, houses, streets—nothing fancy. And when I sit down with these subjects, my aim is clarity...” In her acceptance speech for the 2014 Moth Award, Zadie Smith shares her perspective on storytelling and how it has changed over the years. Smith’s fifth novel, Swing Time (Penguin Press, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The serious part of it is having a great capacity to be alone—that really is the key...” Zadie Smith talks about the writing life and inspiration, her identity as a writer, and how her routines have changed in a video for Denver Post's Pen & Podium series. Smith's new novel, Swing Time (Penguin Press, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“‘Sometimes on American Idol, Nicki Minaj says I’m obsessed with you,’ she says. ‘I’m obsessed with you right now,’ I say.” Chloe Caldwell, whose second essay collection, I’ll Tell You in Person (Emily Books, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads from her novella, Women (Short Flight/Long Drive Books, 2014).

In this short film starring Brian Cheng, Shakespeare's Sonnet 82 is played out at the Strand Book Store in New York City as part of the Sonnet Project.

In this video from 2011, Jason Diamond reads from “When I Was Good” and “What Ever Happened to the Palmer Mansion” for the Franklin Park Reading Series. His first book, Searching for John Hughes: Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know About Life I Learned From Watching '80s Movies (William Morrow, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

This video from a Revolutionary Poets Brigade event features devorah major reading selections from poems such as “emergency room visitation,” “outcry,” “neighborhood boy,” and “a poet learns sarajevo.” major’s fifth poetry collection, and then we became (City Lights Publishers, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Michael Chabon discusses screenwriting, fan fiction, and his second novel, Wonder Boys (Villard Books, 1995), with Laurenn McCubbin at Columbus College of Art & Design in 2015. Chabon speaks about his new novel, Moonglow (HarperCollins, 2016), in “Truth and Imagination” by Kevin Nance in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Fiction, literature, is probably the greatest tool that has ever been invented to try to help people understand what it's like to be somebody else…” Gene Yang, host of the Reading Without Walls video podcast, speaks with Michael Chabon about his books for young readers and his lifelong love of fantasy books. Chabon is profiled in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

The Sonnet Project combines cinematic art with the poetry of William Shakespeare, set against the backdrop of New York City. The goal of the project is to film all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, each performed by a different actor in a carefully chosen New York City location. This is their sixty-seventh film.