Poets & Writers Theater

“Trucks cruisin’ down the avenue / carrying nuclear garbage right next to you / and it’s legal.” In this installment of Poetry Spots, a WNYC television show produced by Bob Holman between 1987 and 1993, June Jordan reads her poem “Song of the Law Abiding Citizen.”

“I hadn’t really planned this to be narrated by an AI creature,” says Kazuo Ishiguro answering questions from readers about his latest novel, Klara and the Sun (Knopf, 2021), in this video for the Get Lit virtual book club series with host of WNYC’s All Of It Alison Stewart.

“The Nickel Academy becomes a proving ground for people’s goodness, for their tendency towards evil, and it proves character,” says Colson Whitehead about his latest novel, The Nickel Boys (Doubleday, 2019), in this video for the Get Lit virtual book club series with host of WNYC’s All Of It Alison Stewart.

“—my body lights up for life / like all the wishes being granted in a fountain / at the same instant—” Max Ritvo reads his poem “Afternoon” in a short video animated by Nate Milton for WNYC’s Only Human podcast. Ritvo’s debut collection, Four Reincarnations, is forthcoming in November by Milkweed Editions.

“I hope, Maxes, some good in you is of me.” The late Max Ritvo reads “Poem to My Litter” in a short video animated by Nate Milton for WNYC’s Only Human podcast. Ritvo’s debut poetry collection, Four Reincarnations (Milkweed Editions, 2016), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Rick Moody reads an excerpt from his new novel, Hotels of North America (Little, Brown, 2015), at a recording of WNYC's "Answer Songs" show, accompanied by artist Michael Arthur's real-time illustrations.

Samuel Menashe, the first poet to receive the Neglected Masters Award from the Poetry Foundation in 2004, died Monday night in his sleep on August 22, 2011. He was eighty-five years old. In this clip, from the WNYC series “Know Your Neighbor,” Menashe is seen in his New York City apartment, where he lived for fifty years.