Poets & Writers Theater

“If the only thing we can give to each other is ourselves, we better do it. Now.” In this inaugural Speak Now series event hosted by Columbia University School of the Arts, Claudia Rankine reads from her work-in-progress “Triage” and discusses political censorship in higher education and the importance of literature in crises in a conversation with Sarah Cole.

In this NGC Bocas Lit Fest event, Edwidge Danticat speaks about the roots of her work and reads excerpts from her works of fiction and nonfiction, including the preface from her new essay collection, We’re Alone (Graywolf Press, 2024), in a conversation with Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw. A profile of Danticat by Renée H. Shea appears in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The reason why I favor long poems—not just writing them but reading them—is that it just feels like a much truer picture of the self, or selves.” In this Books Are Magic event, Jason Koo reads from his latest poetry collection, No Rest (Diode Editions, 2024), and discusses the narrative opportunities of long poems in a conversation with Bessie Flores Zaldívar.

“I like being an outsider. It allows for that distance to enjoy the carnival for what it is.” In this event hosted by the Library of Congress, bestselling author Kevin Kwan speaks about his experiences as an author and the process of writing his latest novel, Lies and Weddings (Doubleday, 2024), with Library of Congress literary director Clay Smith.

In this video, Nikki Giovanni reads a selection of her poems and speaks about her life and career for the Wright Conversations series hosted by the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit and PBS Books.

In this virtual reading hosted by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation and Furious Flower Poetry Center, Lauren K. Alleyne introduces Ashia Ajani, who reads from their debut collection, Heirloom (Write Bloody Publishing, 2023), and Ariana Benson, who reads from their debut collection, Black Pastoral (University of Georgia Press, 2023), winner of the 2022 Cave Canem Poetry Prize.

In this event hosted by the Townsend Center for the Humanities and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Ocean Vuong talks about his journey through poetry and teaching, how his voice and understanding of genre have changed, and whether or not poetry can change the world in a conversation with Cathy Park Hong. “I’ve always been doubtful of myself, of my work, of my life. But when I’m writing, when I’m inside the poem, I rarely feel true fear,” says Vuong.

In this 2001 Lannan Foundation event, John Barth speaks about the ways in which self-confidence and temperament play a role in his writing in a conversation with literary critic Michael Silverblatt. Barth died at the age of ninety-three on April 2, 2024. For more from Barth, read “All Trees Are Oak Trees: Introductions to Literature” from the January/February 2004 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this New Orleans Book Festival event, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Ladee Hubbard, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin discuss the rich tradition of Black literature, their literary and ancestral influences, and the power of community building and resistance through writing in a conversation with novelist Louis Edwards.

In this Left Bank Books virtual event, Diane Seuss reads from her new collection, Modern Poetry (Graywolf Press, 2024), and joins poet Jane Hilberry in a conversation about their fathers, writing practices, and friendship. Seuss is interviewed by Bianca Stone in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this event for the ALOUD series at the Los Angeles Public Library, Sheila Heti reads from her new book, Alphabetical Diaries (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), in which she arranges ten years of her diaries from A to Z, and discusses her choice to tackle an intimate and long-term project in a conversation with author Michelle Tea.

“To make ancestors whole is to imagine, collectively, publicly, who they were and what their experiences were like.” In this New York Public Library event, former Cullman Center fellow and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Gregory Pardlo discusses the themes within his latest poetry collection, Spectral Evidence (Knopf, 2024), and talks about interrogating the present-day erasure of Black history in a conversation with Imani Perry.

In this Family Action Network event, Ross Gay reads from his latest essay collection, The Book of (More) Delights (Algonquin Books, 2023), and speaks about the practice of writing short essays and playing basketball in a conversation with poet and editor Adrian Matejka.

“The reason I’m so terrified of what’s happening around me is because I’m so in love with the world.” In this 2023 Lost City Books virtual event, Franny Choi reads from their latest poetry collection, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On (Ecco, 2023), and discusses the futurist politics of poetry, the present need for Black and Asian solidarity, and the battle between hope and despair in a conversation with Danez Smith.

In this event celebrating Sandra Cisneros, winner of the 2023 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation’s Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, the author reads from her latest poetry collection, Woman Without Shame (Knopf, 2022), and speaks about her writing career with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

In this 2023 event hosted by the Chicago Humanities Festival, Zadie Smith reads from her latest novel, The Fraud (Penguin Press, 2023), and discusses the definition of historical fiction, the relationship between truth and emotion, and the impact of code-switching on her voice-driven writing with poet and novelist Chris Abani.

In this One Book, One Chicago event, Tommy Orange discusses the importance of Native American voices, the intricate plotlines of his debut novel, There There (Knopf, 2018), and the historical roots of his forthcoming novel, Wandering Stars, in a conversation with Donna Seaman at the Chicago Public Library.

In this event hosted by the Korea Society in New York, prolific and award-winning author Yu Miri talks about her family’s history under Japanese occupation, her struggles writing for Japanese and Korean readers as a Zainichi Korean author, and the themes in her latest translated novel, The End of August (Riverhead Books, 2023), translated from the Japanese by Morgan Giles.

In this 2023 National Book Festival event, Joy Harjo, author of Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years (Norton, 2022), and Camille T. Dungy, author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Simon & Schuster, 2023), read from their work and discuss writing about nature in a conversation moderated by NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe. Dungy’s essay “Manifest Some Magic: Get Out of Your Own Way and Do the Darn Thing” is included in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this virtual reading and conversation, Poets & Writers editor in chief Kevin Larimer introduces the 2023 cohort of “5 Over 50” debut authors, Alma García, author of All That Rises (University of Arizona Press, 2023); Bernardine “Dine” Watson, author of Transplant (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 2023); Tommy Archuleta, author of Susto (Center for Literary Publishing, 2023); Chin-Sun Lee, author of Upcountry (Unnamed Press, 2023); and Donna Spruijt-Metz, author of General Release From the Beginning of the World (Parlor Press, 2023).