Poets & Writers Theater

In this 2023 Segue Reading Series event hosted by Artists Space, Jackie Wang reads from her book Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun: An Almanac of Extreme Girlhood (Semiotext(e), 2023) and Eileen Myles reads from their latest poetry collection, a “Working Life” (Grove Press, 2023).

In this CBS Mornings video, Oprah Winfrey announces her new book club pick The Covenant of Water (Grove Press, 2023) by Abraham Verghese, who speaks about his writing process, how his work as a physician feeds into his writing, and how his family’s history inspired his new novel. For more, read “The Great Lie That Tells the Truth: A Q&A With Abraham Verghese” by Naheed Phiroze Patel.

In this Books Are Magic event, Ada Calhoun reads from her memoir Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me (Grove Press, 2022) and discusses her writing process, New York City, and parenting with Emma Straub.

“A lot of my life has been unconventional, but it has led to this point and I wouldn’t have reached this point if I’d given up.” In this Penguin Books UK video, Booker Prize–winning author Bernardine Evaristo speaks with her longtime editor Simon Prosser about her writing career and books, including her new memoir, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up (Grove Press, 2022).

“We were the unwanted, the unneeded, and the unseen, invisible to all but ourselves,” reads Washington Post’s Robin Givhan from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s latest novel, The Committed (Grove Press, 2021), in this conversation with the Pulitzer Prize–winning author on how history and memory have shaped his life and writing. 

In this virtual book launch hosted by Books & Books in Florida, Dantiel W. Moniz discusses the inspiration behind her debut short story collection, Milk Blood Heat (Grove Press, 2021), with Lauren Groff, author of Florida (Riverhead Books, 2018). Milk Blood Heat is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“She’s seen by those around her as being too much, but in fact, it’s not that she is too much, it’s that the world around her isn’t enough.” In this video for Perthshire Pride, Douglas Stuart introduces the characters from his debut novel, Shuggie Bain (Grove Press, 2020), for which he won the 2020 Booker Prize, and reads a short excerpt.

“It’s really hard to inhabit the mind of another,” says Isabella Hammad, author of The Parisian (Grove Press, 2019), about the difficulties and joys of writing fiction in this Louisiana Channel interview. “You use your emotional experience, you use your literal experience, you use the experience of others you know to access imaginatively another subjectivity.”

“She wasn’t sure if we were real, but nothing about us felt false.” Akwaeke Emezi, a 2018 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree nominated by Carmen Maria Machado, reads from their debut novel, Freshwater (Grove Press, 2018). The novel has been longlisted for the 2019 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.

“This is a great one to give—it’s the sort of thing you can keep in the loo at Christmas when you’ve eaten too much food.” Jeanette Winterson reveals some of her favorite books for the holiday season, including The Trouble With Women (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2016) by cartoonist Jacky Fleming, Tara Westover’s Educated: A Memoir (Random House, 2018), and her own collection of winter tales and festive recipes, Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days (Grove Press, 2016).

“We headed into the forest up a hill to a thicket of tall trees, their tops so lush that I felt like crying.” In this 2016 video, Lisa Locascio reads from her debut novel, Open Me (Grove Press, 2018), for Poetry Center San Jose’s Well-RED series.

“I found this liberation from the limitation…” In this Asia Society video, Xiaolu Guo explains why writing in English, her second language, is so freeing. Guo is the winner of the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in autobiography for her memoir, Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China (Grove Press, 2017).

“As an English language writer, I’m not often asked to stretch culturally...” Eileen Myles talks about writing and nationalism, and the importance of international events like the Festival Neue Literatur. Myles’s debut memoir, Afterglow (a dog memoir) (Grove Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I was thinking what would happen if someone was as much of a recluse as I am, maybe more, but is not a writer?” Rabih Alameddine talks about writer and artist Bruno Schultz, the idea of a necessary person, and the inspiration behind his novel An Unnecessary Woman (Grove Press, 2013). Alameddine won the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction for his novel The Angel of History (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2016).

“I think it’s really important for writers to understand themselves as artists.” At the 92nd Street Y, longtime friends Eileen Myles and Chris Kraus read from their work and have a conversation about their life experiences and writing processes.

“I think that the biggest thing people need to embrace is discomfort.” At the 92nd Street Y, Roxane Gay reads from her short story collection Difficult Women (Grove Press, 2017) and discusses topics from writing and feminism to Channing Tatum with poet Saeed Jones.

“They’re unwanted where they come from, they’re unwanted when they arrive, but we have a great tradition of welcoming refugees and turning them into Pulitzer Prize winners.” Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen speaks about his experience as a refugee and the significance of refugees in the United States on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Nguyen’s first short story collection, The Refugees (Grove Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“You have to believe that however flawed you are, you have a right to narrate this world as you see it and as you move through it.” Roxane Gay shares some of her thoughts on current race issues and her experiences as a feminist writer of color for an interview with Colorlines. Gay’s new story collection, Difficult Women (Grove Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this book trailer for his debut memoir, All Tomorrow’s Parties (Grove Press, 2016), Rob Spillman recounts defining experiences from time spent as a child in Berlin, Aspen, and Baltimore. Spillman, who serves as the editor of Tin House and the executive editor of Tin House Books, is featured in Agents & Editors in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"The beekeeper paused by his hives. A cloud of bees is missing, he said, to no one in particular. I hope the little creatures aren't up to any mischief." In this video, Jesse Ball reads the poem "Lester, Burma" from his first collection, March Book (Grove Press, 2004). Ball's latest novel, How to Set a Fire and Why (Pantheon, 2016), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.