Poets & Writers Theater

“What are these memoirs? What are these journals? They’re always a list of cool stuff.” In this Saturday Night Live video, actor and writer Aidy Bryant rediscovers journals from her childhood revealing her innermost thoughts and love for such things as turtles and Rosie O’Donnell.

Dickinson is the first web television series from Apple TV Plus, a period piece about Emily Dickinson with a modern and comedic twist starring Hailee Steinfeld. Created by Alena Smith, the cast includes Jane Krakowski as Mrs. Dickinson, Zosia Mamet as Louisa May Alcott, John Mulaney as Henry David Thoreau, and Wiz Khalifa as Death.

“Almost every great novelist has got a comedian in him, in her, somewhere or other.” Man Booker Prize–winning author Howard Jacobson speaks about the necessity of failure and comedy in literature, and what makes a novel funny.

“The whole engine to my writing is always to try and understand what it feels like to be another person…” Elizabeth Strout, author of Anything Is Possible (Random House, 2017), talks to Mary Laura Philpott of A Word on Words about her attempt at stand-up comedy and what inspires her to write.

“Learn how to write jokes...” Gabe Hudson, author of the science fiction novel, Gork, the Teenage Dragon (Knopf, 2017), talks about the craft behind humorous writing, and having to adapt to a new environment during his MFA years at Brown University.