Bryan Cranston reads The Power Broker with Robert Caro and Stacy Schiff. Molly Ringwald and Griffin Dunne join bestselling writers Sloane Crosley, Jay McInerney, and John Burnham Schwartz on the legacy of Truman Capote. Alice McDermott discusses her new novel to Amor Towles. In his first season as Executive Director of the Unterberg Poetry Center, Lucas Wittmann is gathering a blend of some of the greatest writers of our moment with leadings actors and critics for a season of literary events like none other. We sat down to talk to him about the new season, what’s in store for the Poetry Center, his conviction that literature must reflect the present, and much more.
For 85 years the Poetry Center has been bringing both world-famous writers and emerging authors to our stage for readings. What makes a literary event at 92NY special?
Because of 92NY’s incredible history and legacy, people trust us to introduce them to new voices and celebrate the past. Looking back at our history, I think we’ve been able to take risks that other places can’t — we hosted Under Milk Wood, an experimental “play for voices” by Dylan Thomas, in addition to introducing readers to the best books in world literature, often for the first time. It’s hard to imagine that happening somewhere other than 92NY. Our current season extends that tradition.
What events this season capture that spirit?
We’re celebrating some of the greatest literary voices alive today — people like Robert Caro and John Edgar Wideman — and we’re also looking back and celebrating some of the greatest writers that America has ever produced. We’re continuing the tradition of bringing great actors to our stage — Bryan Cranston is reading from The Power Broker at our event celebrating Robert Caro, and even though it’s sold out in person, anyone in the world can join us to see it online. We’re celebrating the centenary of Truman Capote with a reading of his work by Molly Ringwald and Griffin Dunne, followed by a conversation about Capote’s legacy — which includes debuting In Cold Blood on our stage — with bestselling writers like Sloane Crosley, Jay McInerney, and John Burnham Schwartz. In addition to readings, we’re bringing a salon-like feel to many of these events — you won’t just hear the work of these great writers, you’ll hear brilliant conversation about how they wrote their books, and what drives their creativity.
New York is a book town — the publishing world is here, and 92NY’s community tends to be a bookish crowd, actively participating in literary culture across the city. What can readers find here that they can’t find anywhere else?
The range of writers who come here is extraordinary, and we take great care in how we pair them for conversation. Coming up, we have Alice McDermott talking with Amor Towles, bestselling thriller writer Joseph Finder with New Yorker editor David Remnick, and pioneering cartoonist Robert Crumb talking to his biographer, Dan Nadel. McDermott and Towles are both magnificent writers — very different writers — with devoted readers. They also happen to be great friends who really know and trust one another, which brings a different dimension to a conversation about writing. Finder and Remnick might seem like an unlikely pairing at first glance, but they are both experts on Putin’s Russia — they bring immense knowledge and expertise to a conversation that is not just about crafting a literary thriller, but one of the biggest issues in global politics. Bringing a pioneering artist like Crumb to talk with his biographer — Nadel knows his life and work inside and out — also brings an unparalleled level of intimacy and candor to the conversation. Each writer who comes here brings something special, but the connection that two writers share in conversation is what makes the work and thought really come alive.
Who are your literary heroes?
A lot of the great writers of the last 50 years continue to resonate with me, including Toni Morrison and Philip Roth. I’ve also been amazed at a new generation of talent that’s emerged in the last 15 years — people like Hisham Matar, Rachel Kushner, and Joshua Cohen. I grew up on a wide reading diet and continue to read widely — I’m steeped in fiction, but I also read history, theory, poetry, critical essays. The Poetry Center has always celebrated great writing in a number of forms and genres, and want to continue that tradition and make sure that we’re representing a wide range of genres and ways of thinking about the world. In December, we’ll have Edwin Frank and James Wood — two of our greatest critics and literary thinkers, in my opinion — to discuss the 20th century novel. What made writers like Virginia Woolf and Gabriel García Márquez so astonishing? What great novelists might we have overlooked? I’d like to have more of those conversations going forward.
You have a background in magazine journalism and criticism, and you have a particular interest in biography. How do you think this has influenced your outlook on literature?
I strongly believe that literature has to connect with what’s happening in the world. We can’t treat literature as something separate from the big questions and conversations of today. How can a new voice speak to questions of identity and meaning in this moment? Even when I’m looking back on writers like Dickens or Hawthorne, I ask myself how they might reflect the political convulsions of our moment. I love literary biographies and biographers — not just literary biography, or biography about writers and literature, but also biographers who are great literary stylists, like Robert Caro and Stacy Schiff, who are two of our greatest writers, full stop. The ability to take Robert Moses’ life, as Caro has done, and making it elegantly come alive for us on the page in a great story helps us make sense of so much — our political culture, how New York City works — or in Stacy Schiff’s case, the truth behind the Salem witch trials. Even learning the banal details of someone’s life can be fascinating in how it refracts through their life and work. And I would like to continue bringing some of the richness of great biography to the stage here at 92NY.
What do you hope Poetry Center audiences take away with them this season?
I want them to be invigorated by new ideas and introduced to some of the best writing that’s being produced right now — even if the writer is someone who they’ve read for years, I want that writer to broaden how our audiences think about the world. And these events shouldn’t just be intellectually stimulating — they should be emotionally and artistically resonant, and lively. Engaging with some of the best writers in the world should be fun.
Discover the Poetry Center’s season and get tickets today.