Poets & Writers Theater

In this interview for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, George Saunders speaks about his latest story collection, Liberation Day (Random House, 2022), and the need to be in a “holy state of not knowing anything” when starting a new writing project. Liberation Day is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“People talk about epigenetic trauma all the time. People don’t talk about epigenetic joy. There can’t be one and not the other.” In this event hosted by the DC Public Library and Loyalty Bookstores, Ross Gay reads from and discusses his new essay collection, Inciting Joy (Algonquin Books, 2022), with Clint Smith. A Q&A with Gay by Aimee Nezhukumatathil is featured in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this virtual Books & Books event, Emma Bolden reads from and speaks about her debut memoir, The Tiger and the Cage: A Memoir of a Body in Crisis (Soft Skull, 2022), with author Chantel Acevedo. Bolden’s memoir is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this Charis Circle virtual event celebrating the essay anthology It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror (Feminist Press, 2022), editor Joe Vallese speaks with contributors Sumiko Saulson, Richard Scott Larson, Addie Tsai, and Jude Ellison S. Doyle about the relationship between horror and queerness. The collection is featured in The Anthologist in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Abigail Chabitnoy reads from her collections How to Dress a Fish (Wesleyan University Press, 2019) and In the Current Where Drowning Is Beautiful (Wesleyan University Press, 2022) after an introduction by poet Peter Gizzi for this event presented in conjunction with University of Massachusetts MFA for Poets & Writers’ Visiting Writers Series. Chabitnoy is featured in Literary MagNet in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this event for the House of SpeakEasy’s “Seriously Entertaining” series, David Santos Donaldson celebrates the launch of his debut novel, Greenland (Amistad, 2022), by sharing the story of his reckoning with what it means to be Black in America from the perspective of a native Bahamian and queer artist. Donaldson is featured in “5 Over 50: 2022” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this CBS Sunday Morning video, Reginald Dwayne Betts speaks about founding Freedom Reads, a nonprofit organization that designs, builds, and places mobile libraries in prison housing units. For more, read “Freedom Reads” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“In 1993, when I boarded my first international flight, I sat at the window seat watching my country slowly dim into a whiff of clouds in the dark.” In this Warwick’s Books video, Madhushree Ghosh reads from her debut book, Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory, and Family (University of Iowa Press, 2022), and speaks with author Adrienne Brodeur. Ghosh is featured in “5 Over 50: 2022” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I think I always accepted revision as what you have to do as a writer,” says Erika T. Wurth on the revision process for her stories and novels in this Lighthouse Writers Workshop interview with Rachel Weaver. Wurth’s third novel, White Horse (Flatiron Books, 2022), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“What the history books neglect / is that the first astronomers / were women gazing up at depths / and wishing for a different planet.” In this video for the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, Maya C. Popa reads her poem “The Art of Stars,” which she dedicates to Maria Mitchell, the first U.S. female astronomer. Popa’s collection Wound Is the Origin of Wonder (Norton, 2022) is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“What better way can I help myself and my community than standing on stage and taking off the mask of character,” says Joshua Whitehead about his first essay collection, Making Love With the Land (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), and his transition from writing fiction to nonfiction in this interview for CHCH Morning Live in Canada. Whitehead’s book is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“A lot of this book was me figuring out, how do you hold on to hope when it feels like the world is falling apart?” In this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview, Celeste Ng talks about the process of writing her latest novel, Our Missing Hearts (Penguin Press, 2022). A profile of Ng by Renée H. Shea is featured in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.