Poets & Writers Theater

In this Poets & Writers event, Karen Russell reads from her new novel, The Antidote (Knopf, 2025), and joins frequent Poets & Writers Magazine contributor Brian Gresko for a discussion on the Dust Bowl research that went into the book and the competing histories of the so-called American Dream of westward expansion. A profile of Russell by Gresko appears in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Poets & Writers Magazine features editor India Lena González hosts this two-part event celebrating the ten debut poets featured in “The Luminous Life: Our Twentieth Annual Look at Debut Poets” from our January/February 2025 issue. The virtual event includes readings from the poets, as well as conversations about their debut books, their influences and inspirations, and their individual paths to publication.

In this virtual reading and conversation, Poets & Writers features editor India Lena González introduces the 2024 cohort of “5 Over 50” debut authors: Suzette Mullen, author of The Only Way Through Is Out (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024); Dorsía Smith Silva, author of In Inheritance of Drowning (CavanKerry Press, 2024); Uchenna Awoke, author of The Liquid Eye of a Moon (Catapult, 2024); Parul Kapur, author of Inside the Mirror (University of Nebraska Press, 2024); and Deborah Jackson Taffa, author of Whiskey Tender (Harper, 2024).

In this virtual reading and conversation, Poets & Writers Magazine features editor India Lena González introduces the five debut authors featured in “The New Nonfiction 2024” in the September/October issue: David Martinez, author of Bones Worth Breaking (MCD, 2024); Wei Tchou, author of Little Seed (A Strange Object, 2024); Zara Chowdhary, author of The Lucky Ones (Crown, 2024); Lydia Paar, author of The Exit Is the Entrance: Essays on Escape (University of Georgia Press, 2024); and Neesha Powell-Ingabire, author of Come by Here: A Memoir in Essays From Georgia’s Geechee Coast (Hub City Press, 2024).

In this Poets & Writers event, novelist Garth Greenwell reads from his new book of fiction, Small Rain (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), and joins frequent Poets & Writers Magazine contributor Brian Gresko for a discussion on the book’s themes of mortality and meaning-making, and what it takes to live a full life oriented toward art. A profile of Greenwell by Gresko appears in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this virtual reading and conversation, Poets & Writers Magazine features editor India Lena González introduces the five debut authors featured in “First Fiction 2024”: ’Pemi Aguda, author of Ghostroots (Norton, 2024); Jiaming Tang, author of Cinema Love (Dutton, 2024); Michael Deagler, author of Early Sobrieties (Astra House, 2024); Yasmin Zaher, author of The Coin (Catapult, 2024); and Gina María Balibrera, author of The Volcano Lovers (Pantheon, 2024).

Poets & Writers Magazine features editor India Lena González hosts this virtual event celebrating the ten debut poets featured in “Performing the Future: Our Nineteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” from our January/February 2024 issue. The event includes readings by the poets as well as a conversation about their debut books, their influences and inspirations, and their individual paths to publication.

In this virtual reading and conversation, Poets & Writers editor in chief Kevin Larimer introduces the 2023 cohort of “5 Over 50” debut authors, Alma García, author of All That Rises (University of Arizona Press, 2023); Bernardine “Dine” Watson, author of Transplant (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 2023); Tommy Archuleta, author of Susto (Center for Literary Publishing, 2023); Chin-Sun Lee, author of Upcountry (Unnamed Press, 2023); and Donna Spruijt-Metz, author of General Release From the Beginning of the World (Parlor Press, 2023).

Poets & Writers Magazine associate editor India Lena González hosts this virtual reading celebrating the ten debut poets featured in “The Beauty of Being: Our Eighteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue. The two-part event includes readings from the poets and conversation about their debut books, their influences and inspirations, and their individual paths to publication.

In this virtual reading, Poets & Writers editor in chief Kevin Larimer introduces the 2022 cohort of “5 Over 50” debut authors, Sari Botton, author of And You May Find Yourself: Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo (Heliotrope Books, 2022); Shareen K. Murayama, author of Housebreak (Bad Betty Press, 2022); Madhushree Ghosh, author of Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory, and Family (University of Iowa Press, 2022); David Santos Donaldson, author of Greenland (Amistad, 2022); and Jane Campbell, author of Cat Brushing (Grove Atlantic, 2022).

In this Poets & Writers Live virtual event, Kristen Arnett walks through the revision process of select scenes from her latest novel, With Teeth (Riverhead Books, 2021), with Spencer Quong, the assistant editor of Poets & Writers Magazine. For more Arnett, read her contributions to our Craft Capsules series on writing humor in fiction.

In this Poets & Writers Live virtual event, poet and scholar Clint Smith speaks about his new book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America (Little, Brown, 2021), with poet and novelist Destiny O. Birdsong. Smith is featured in a profile written by Birdsong in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"A novel is a historic reenactment and a short story is a diorama." Elizabeth McCracken discusses the different challenges of writing a novel and a short story, and reads from her latest collection of short stories, Thunderstuck (Dial Press, 2014), at the 2014 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. McCracken will deliver the keynote on January 9 at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas.

"Can we reclaim a word? Can we take a word and drop it and crack it open, or are we always a prisoner to it?" Poets Terrance Hayes and Saeed Jones talk about craft, the evolution of language, and why America needs poetry for HEArt, a journal of contemporary literature and art that challenges discrimination and promotes social justice. Jones will join the Why We Write panel on January 9 at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas.

In this video, Benjamin Percy, author of Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction (Graywolf Press, 2016), is challenged to tell a five-minute true story from a randomly selected prompt for the Back Fence PDX storytelling series. Percy joins the two-day Poets & Writers Live conference in San Francisco on January 14 and 15, 2017.

"I fell in love with any number of literary writers... but I never fell out of love with genre." Benjamin Percy talks about genre fiction, favorite authors, and his novel Red Moon (Grand Central Publishing, 2013). Percy will lead the seminar, Staging the Iconic Moment: Set-Pieces, on January 9 at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas.

Matthew Gavin Frank talks about one of his favorite characters from Pot Farm (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), a nonfiction account of his experience living on a marijuana farm in Northern California. Frank, whose most recent book, The Mad Feast: An Ecstatic Tour Through America's Food, was published by Liveright in November, will be a panelist at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas on January 9.

With an introduction by poet Naomi Shihab Nye, Carrie Fountain reads from her books Burn Lake (Penguin, 2010) and Instant Winner (Penguin, 2014) as part of the Lannan Foundation's Poetry Sundays in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fountain and Nye will be panelists at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas on January 9.

Ben Fountain reads from his novel Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Ecco, 2012), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, at the 2012 National Book Award finalists reading in New York City. Fountain will join the Why We Write panel on January 9 at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas.

"Write Around Portland just ignited that fire in me: to write, to get back to writing, and to really find my voice." Reuben Alvarez-Paris speaks about his experiences with the nonprofit organization dedicated to community and writing. Jenny Chu, program coordinator at Write Around Portland, will lead a panel at Poets & Writers Live on October 17 in Portland, Oregon.