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Back to School with Nathaniel Mackey and Cathy Park Hong

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Video & Multimedia

Over the years, The Paris Review has joined with 92Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center to present an occasional series of live Writers at Work interviews. This April, poet Nathaniel Mackey sat for an onstage conversation with Cathy Park Hong. 

Before the event, Mackey and Hong took part in 92Y’s Christopher Lightfoot Walker Literature Project, which, for nearly thirty years, has brought New York City high school students to 92Y to meet with writers prior to their public appearance. The students are treated to transportation, a pizza dinner, copies of the writers’ books, and the chance to ask anything they want.

The filmmaker Riley Hooper was there to capture the exchange, and we are happy to debut this short, starring the students of Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School, Hillcrest High School, and the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem.

The documentary was commissioned as part of 92Y’s #wordswelivein festival, which this week features new work from Paris Review contributors Elif Batuman and Timothy Donnelly.