Poets & Writers Theater
Every day we share a new clip of interest to creative writers—author readings, book trailers, publishing panels, craft talks, and more. So grab some popcorn, filter the theater tags by keyword or genre, and explore our sizable archive of literary videos.
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“The correct line has that kind of ring of rightness to it. It’s like it’s always been there.” In this Merriam-Webster video, Celeste Ng talks about the sonic, literal, and emotional levels of words and reviews some choices made in her third novel, Our Missing Hearts (Penguin Press, 2022), with playwright Eboni Booth.
Tags: Fiction | Celeste Ng | Our Missing Hearts | Penguin Press | Merriam-Webster | Eboni Booth | writing process | 2023 -
In this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview, Nicola Yoon talks about the rarity of writing fast, the experience of seeing adaptations of her books, and her new novel, One of Our Kind (Knopf, 2024).
Tags: Fiction | Nicola Yoon | One of Our Kind | Knopf | Late Night With Seth Meyers | interview | writing process | 2024 -
In this Louisiana Channel video, Russian poet and journalist Maria Stepanova offers her advice for young writers to look forward to something unknown and to be able to “look into the future with some degree of hope.”
Tags: Poetry | Fiction | Creative Nonfiction | Translation | Maria Stepanova | writing advice | writing process | Louisiana Channel | interview | 2022 -
In this episode of The Larry Arnn Show, Hillsdale College president Larry P. Arnn interviews author Chigozie Obioma who discusses his life in Nigeria, the inspiration behind his second novel, An Orchestra of Minorities (Little, Brown, 2019), and how the Classics inform his work. Obioma’s third novel, The Road to the Country (Hogarth, 2024), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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“I think the thing that you feel when you get to the right word is that you’ve found the answer to a question.” In this short video, author Gabrielle Zevin walks through parts of her novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Knopf, 2022) and discusses her word choices with John Sabine, social director for Merriam-Webster.
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In this 2013 video, Nobel laureate Alice Munro talks about her fascination with reading and writing at an early age in Canada’s countryside, how she can become “desperately consumed” with writing, and the ways in which her writing life changed throughout her long-standing career. Munro died at the age of ninety-two on May 13, 2024.
Tags: Fiction | Alice Munro | Nobel Prize | Nobel laureate | 2013 | in memoriam | writing process | writing practice -
In this 2014 Louisiana Channel interview from his home in Brooklyn, Paul Auster talks about how a chance meeting with legendary baseball player Willie Mays led him to become a writer and what he has learned about writing. “The essence of being an artist is to confront the things you’re trying to do, to tackle it head on, and if it’s good, it will have its own beauty.” Auster died at the age of seventy-seven on April 30, 2024.
Tags: Poetry | Fiction | Creative Nonfiction | Paul Auster | interview | Louisiana Channel | writing process | writing practice | 2014 | in memoriam -
In this 2014 State of the Arts video, Brenda Shaughnessy speaks about the themes of her first three books, what motivates her to write, and her “Five Basic Rules” for aspiring poets. Shaughnessy’s essay “Air: Speak and Breathe” is featured in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Poetry | Brenda Shaughnessy | Our Andromeda | State of the Arts | 2014 | January/February 2024 | writing advice | writing process -
“When you are comfortable with your own voice, you’re able to create other voices that are authentic as well.” In this short video, Derek Owusu, author most recently of Losing the Plot (Canongate Books, 2022) and one of Granta’s 2023 Best of Young British Novelists, talks about writing immigrant stories and finding your voice.
Tags: Fiction | Derek Owusu | Granta | Losing the Plot | writing advice | writing process | Best of Young British Novelists | 2023 -
“A book can change your life, and I know because I had that happen to me.” Award-winning author Tobias Wolff talks about his childhood, education, writing life, and his novel Old School (Vintage, 2003) in this short film directed by Lawrence Bridges for the National Endowment for the Arts’ “Big Read” initiative. For more from Wolff, read this profile by Joe Woodward published in the March/April 2008 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Tags: Fiction | Tobias Wolff | Old School | Vintage | 2003 | National Endowment for the Arts | short film | Lawrence Bridges | writing process | March/April 2008 -
“Don’t worry about whether you’re writing anything, worry about if you’re sitting there attempting to write something or not.” In this video, Mohsin Hamid speaks to Granta about his award-winning fourth novel, Exit West (Riverhead Books, 2017), the job of being a writer, and what he has learned from Douglas Adams.
Tags: Fiction | Mohsin Hamid | Granta | Exit West | Riverhead Books | 2017 | writing process -
“It doesn’t interest me to know how a book will end, I have to discover that for myself.” In this video from the National Centre for Writing, Eimear McBride, who won the 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction for her debut novel, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, speaks about how character and story and the process of discovery are the keys to her writing process.
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“That’s the thing about writing. It’s about sitting with the problem.” In this Behind the Curtain video, screenwriter and director Greta Gerwig talks about adapting Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel Little Women into a film and the challenges of the writing process.
Tags: Fiction | Greta Gerwig | Little Women | Louisa May Alcott | film adaptation | writing process | Behind the Curtain | screenwriting | 2020 -
In this Books Are Magic event, Shastri Akella reads from his debut novel, The Sea Elephants (Flatiron Books, 2023), and speaks about his journey navigating the writing life with author Rakesh Satyal. Akella is featured in “First Fiction 2023” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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In this 2020 BookTube episode, David Sedaris speaks about his candid and confessional style of writing, his family life, and lessons learned with Joel Kim Booster, Cindy Pham, Jake Roper, and Francine Simone.
Tags: Creative Nonfiction | David Sedaris | BookTube | writing process | interview | 2020 -
“I’m not convinced by myself as a writer,” says Adam Mars-Jones in this London Review Bookshop video about his slightly negative writing process and the origins of his memoir Kid Gloves: A Voyage Round My Father (Particular Books, 2015).
Tags: Creative Nonfiction | Adam Mars-Jones | London Review Bookshop | Kid Gloves | memoir | Particular Books | 2015 | interview | writing process -
“He does the work. I do the cleanup, and we fight.” Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb is a documentary directed by Lizzie Gottlieb exploring the remarkable fifty-year relationship between Pulitzer Prize–winning author Robert Caro and his longtime editor Robert Gottlieb, and the art of editing.
Tags: Creative Nonfiction | Turn Every Page | documentary | movie trailer | 2022 | Robert Caro | Robert Gottlieb | editing | editors | writing process -
In this interview for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, George Saunders speaks about his latest story collection, Liberation Day (Random House, 2022), and the need to be in a “holy state of not knowing anything” when starting a new writing project. Liberation Day is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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“A lot of this book was me figuring out, how do you hold on to hope when it feels like the world is falling apart?” In this Late Night With Seth Meyers interview, Celeste Ng talks about the process of writing her latest novel, Our Missing Hearts (Penguin Press, 2022). A profile of Ng by Renée H. Shea is featured in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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“There’s something in people that is naturally story-like. You’re taking all this unformed, chaotic stuff and making sense of it.” Award-winning novelist and poet Peter Straub speaks about creating characters and his love of writing horror stories in this 2012 Open Road Media interview. Straub, who received the 2008 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award for his generosity to the literary community, died at the age of seventy-nine on September 4, 2022.
Tags: Fiction | Peter Straub | interview | horror fiction | 2012 | Open Road Media | writing process | in memoriam