Poets & Writers Theater

“Wouldn’t care how they dressed me as long as I was cleaned and touched with love before I was put away to rot.” Douglas Manuel reads “Knee Deep” and “Bad Son” from his debut poetry collection, Testify (Red Hen Press, 2017), and discusses his work with Poetry.LA host Lisa Grove.

“Eight years of active searching had come to this: an abandoned house, an outdoor stove, and a doll, signs of a former life but necessarily his and hers.” In this book trailer, Donna Hemans reads an excerpt from her second novel, Tea by the Sea (Red Hen Press, 2020), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Let us bridge the generations and remind all who will listen that it only takes one woman sitting on a bus to inspire hundreds…” Amy Uyematsu, the author most recently of Basic Vocabulary (Red Hen Press, 2016), reads her poem “As American As” at the third annual Writers Resist Los Angeles reading at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, California.

Ramón García, author of the poetry collections The Chronicles (Red Hen Press, 2015) and Other Countries (What Books Press, 2010), reads his poems and speaks with Mariano Zaro for the Poetry.LA series about how his suburban childhood in Modesto, California has influenced his writing.

“The best kind of fire that we can hope to be able to spark is one that creates light and also creates heat.” In this interview with Mariano Zaro for the Poetry.LA series, Douglas Kearney discusses performative typography, his play with language and sound, and how he came to poetry.

"The way that I use syntax in my work, I think it is a direct relation from my childhood and my parents being immigrants." Poet and writer Ching-In Chen speaks about the influences that continue to inspire her to create a distinct writing style. Chen is author of the poetry collection The Heart's Traffic (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press, 2009).

William Archila speaks with author Mariano Zaro about his early influences and how growing up as an immigrant in the United States has made an impact on his writing. Archila’s new poetry collection, The Gravedigger’s Archaeology (Red Hen Press, 2015), is featured in Page One of the new issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"Still I miss those frightening times, those ugly moods, that mix of irrational up and devastating low. I miss them because they were mine." Elissa Washuta's memoir, My Body Is a Book of Rules, will be published by Red Hen Press in August.