Poets & Writers Theater

In this Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast episode hosted by Miwa Messer, author Laila Lalami talks about the quickly evolving nature of surveillance technology and how a conversation with her husband about data privacy led her to write her novel The Dream Hotel (Pantheon, 2025).

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, author Eric Puchner talks about the yearslong process of writing his second novel, Dream State (Doubleday, 2025), and how he felt urged to write about the lives and landscapes of Montana and climate change.
 

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, book critic and editor Sarah Chihaya talks about her debut memoir, Bibliophobia (Random House, 2025), and the concept of “life ruiner” books that “not only make you want to keep reading, but make you read the world around you differently.”

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast with host Miwa Messer, New York Times Book Review critic at large A. O. Scott talks about his journey as a journalist and book critic, reflects on “instant classics” like Percival Everett’s novel James (Doubleday, 2024), and discusses how the experience of discovering books has changed because of the internet.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast with host Jenna Seery, Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard talks about how his novel The Morning Star (Penguin Press, 2021) unexpectedly became a longer series and how he wrote the many characters and perspectives in the third book of the series, The Third Realm (Penguin Press, 2024).

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, author Abraham Chang talks about writing his debut novel, 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers (Flatiron Books, 2024), after working for years in the publishing industry, as well as how Eastern traditions, pop culture, and growing up in the borough of Queens in New York influenced his book.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast with guest host Chris Gillespie, award-winning author Richard Powers discusses how the issues of environmental exploitation and artificial intelligence inspired his new novel, Playground (Norton, 2024), which is set on the island of Makatea in French Polynesia.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, author Juliet Grames speaks about her new novel, The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia (Knopf, 2024), which is set in an isolated Italian village in the 1960s.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Dinaw Mengestu discusses the complex characters with sometimes uncertain motivations in his latest novel, Someone Like Us (Knopf, 2024), the nature of diasporic communities in American cities, and the mainstream expectations placed upon immigrant stories.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, author Julia Phillips talks about the ferocity of sister relationships, themes of isolation and survival, and her second novel, Bear (Hogarth, 2024). A profile of Phillips by Renée H. Shea appears in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, author KB Brookins speaks about gender identity, resiliency and joy in the face of adversity, nonlinear storytelling, and their debut memoir, Pretty (Knopf, 2024).

“What is it about a woman being ambitious that feels so wayward, that feels so dangerous?” In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast, R. O. Kwon talks about the themes of ambition and desire in her second novel, Exhibit (Riverhead Books, 2024), and what women of color face in the world of art with guest host Jenna Seery. A profile of Kwon by Brian Gresko appears in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“It was good to write a book where I’m staring at time directly, in a very literal sense.” In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Hanif Abdurraqib talks about the unique writing process for his latest book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House, 2024), the power of nostalgia, and his life in Ohio. Abdurraqib’s new book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Phillip B. Williams talks about the makings of his debut novel, Ours (Viking, 2024), and how his characters led him to shape the story. For more from Williams, read his installment of our Ten Questions online series.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, author Rachel Heng discusses her latest novel, The Great Reclamation (Riverhead Books, 2023), and talks about writing fiction that is both historical and speculative, and how she uses notecards to organize writing her gargantuan novels.

“I want to trouble the idea that any representation is good representation. I think there’s a lot of frustration in Asian American circles about being told to appreciate the crumbs you’ve been given.” R. F. Kuang speaks about her fifth novel, Yellowface (William Morrow, 2023), issues of cultural appropriation, and her own experiences in the publishing industry as a Chinese American woman writer in this live conversation with Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast host Miwa Messer in New York.

“The greenery of Los Angeles for this wild animal isn’t natural. I certainly felt that all the time.” For this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast produced and hosted by Miwa Messer, Henry Hoke talks about feeling overwhelmed while living in Los Angeles and how the experience inspired the queer mountain lion narrator of his novel Open Throat (MCD, 2023) in a conversation with editor Jackson Howard. Open Throat is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I realized as I started to write it, that it was going to be a lot more focused on my childhood than I expected it to be,” says Isaac Fitzgerald about the process of writing his first memoir, Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional (Bloomsbury, 2022), in this interview for Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast produced and hosted by Miwa Messer. Fitzgerald’s memoir is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Edmund White and Garth Greenwell speak about the reissue of White’s 1978 epistolary novel, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, published by McNally Editions.