The New Yorker: Poetry Folgen

Toi Derricotte joins Kevin Young to read “We Feel Now a Largeness Coming On,” by Tracy K. Smith, and her own poem “I give in to an old desire.” Derricotte is a poet, memoirist, and co-founder, with Cornelius Eady, of the literary organization Cave Canem. Her honors include the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry and the Paterson Poetry Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement; in 2020, she received the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal, for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry.

Margaret Atwood joins Kevin Young to read “A Stranger,” by Saeed Jones, and her own poem “Flatline.” Atwood, a prolific poet and novelist, is known for brilliant books such as “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Blind Assassin.” Her many distinctions include the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, the pen Center U.S.A.’s lifetime-achievement award, and not one but two Booker Prizes, most recently for “The Testaments.” “Dearly,” her first collection of poetry in more than a decade, came out in November.

Arthur Sze joins Kevin Young to read “The Problem of Describing Trees,” by Robert Hass, and his own poem “Vectors.” Sze has received the Landon Literary Award, the Jackson Poetry Prize and, in 2019, the National Book Award in Poetry.