Poets & Writers Theater

“The moment kids start to lie is the moment storytelling begins.” Young-Ha Kim delivers a TEDx Talk about all children beginning as artists, novel writing as a process of composing one sentence after another, and the value of a world in which everyone creates art, whether in public or in private. Kim’s story collection Diary of a Murderer (Mariner Books, 2019), translated from the Korean by Krys Lee, is featured in Page One in the May/June 2019 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Believe it or not, lyric is all about time management.” Educator and former poet laureate of Utah Katharine Coles discusses how time is related to lyric, rhyme, and metaphor in the writing of poetry in this virtual 2021 TEDxParkCityWomen lecture.

“We are all connected. We are not separate from the waters of the world.” In this TEDx Talk, artist and water advocate Basia Irland speaks about her ongoing project Ice Receding/Books Reseeding, which is featured in “The Written Image” in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Brenda Shaughnessy reads her poem “I Have a Time Machine” and discusses the role that poetry can play in recovering from traumatic experiences for a TEDx event at Harvard University. Shaughnessy is the author of Our Andromeda (Copper Canyon Press, 2012) and So Much Synth (Copper Canyon Press, 2016).

In this TEDx Talk, Sharon Olds speaks about the moments “in between” that have inspired her life and poetry, and reads from her collection Stag's Leap (Knopf, 2012), as well as her poem “Ode to the Hymen.” Olds's latest collection, Odes (Knopf, 2016), is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"You get to the end of a line in a poem, and you have no idea what's going to happen." In this TEDx Talk, Jericho Brown reads a selection of his poems, and speaks about his childhood, his ideas on faith, and what being a poet means to him. Brown is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.

“I come here to talk about metaphor, language, and reality—not too ambitious.” In this 2013 TEDx Talk, the late Daniel Menaker speaks about his mother, who was an editor at Fortune magazine, his love of language, the significance of metaphor, and how phrases become clichés. The venerable writer and editor died at the age of seventy-nine on October 26, 2020.

“I tell my students that if you want to be a writer you need to learn how to look.” In this TEDxNavesink video, Melissa Febos shares her lifetime habit of secrecy and explains how telling your secrets can set you free. Her debut essay collection, Abandon Me (Bloomsbury, 2017), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Lauren Redniss gives a TEDx Talk about the process of trial, error, and transforming mistakes that went into the creation of her second book, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout (It Books, 2010). Redniss was awarded the 2016 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award for her latest book, Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future (Random House, 2015).

The founding editor of the literary magazine Huizache, which is featured in Literary MagNet in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads an essay about identity at a TEDx Talk in El Paso, Texas.

"If this is storytelling, I'm in. More please!" In this TEDx Talk, Susan Conley discusses how exposure to powerful stories can captivate our imagination and inspire us to transform our lives. Conley cofounded the Telling Room, a creative writing lab in Portland, Maine, which is featured in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"Even in a few lines, a poem outlines a perceptual world. A reader or listener fills in the gaps, adding another dimension." In this TEDx event, poet Christine Stewart discusses the ways in which poetry can be experienced, as both a reader and a writer.

"When you are sad, be secretly happy because you know it will make a great poem." In this TEDx event, spoken word poet Dean Atta performs personal poems about identity, family, and mental health, along with live illustrations by artist Ben Connors.

"Every success I've ever had has come wrapped in a gift box of failure." In this Tedx Talk, best-selling author Markus Zusak shares personal stories of disappointment, including his insecurities in writing The Book Thief, and how failing has given him the courage to follow his own vision.

"I have come from farming to poetry." Amit Dahiyabadshah is the founder of the poetry movement Delhi Poetree. In this video for TEDx Tughlaq Rd, he performs and speaks with humor and gravity about his experiences in the fast-growing city of Delhi. "I gave you the green revolution from just two acres of land, you have left me with a wallpaper village of posters, and just two acres of sand."

In this TEDx Talk, slam poet Alex Dang performs and speaks about the challenges of growing up multilingual and how he found his voice. "Because poetry is an art form in which the writer often talks about their own narrative and their own life, it becomes the ideal way to explore cultural, racial, political, and social identities."

The author of the debut poetry collection Everything We Call Ordinary, forthcoming later this year from Tourane Poetry Press, presents "Family, Culture, and How a Poet Makes His Bread" at a recent TEDx event at San Jose State University.

The author of ten books, including the novel Between Heaven and Here (McSweeney's, 2012), delivered this talk on telling stories at an independently organized TED event in Redondo Beach, California, back in October.

The poet and author, most recently, of Beamish Boy: A Memoir, delivered this talk on the theme of "Open" at TEDxSantaCruz back in September. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a "TED-like experience."