Authors

A Poet's 'Hardheaded' Reflection on Life

May 5, 2008 · In his new collection, Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems, poet Cornelius Eady writes of his transition from urban renter to rural homeowner and the encroachment of middle age.

'Chocolat' Author Returns with a Dark Confection

May 2, 2008 · Joanne Harris' new novel, The Girl with No Shadow, revisits the supernaturally sensuous world of Chocolat. But where the first book was about what makes people happy, Harris calls her latest a dark, urban fairy tale.Web Extra: Read an Excerpt

You Must Read This By Marisa de los Santos

Taking Comfort in a 'Four-Story' Escape

May 5, 2008 · Author Marisa de los Santos recalls the worries of her childhood, and the escape she found in The Four-Story Mistake, Elizabeth Enright's tale of four siblings living with their father and a housekeeper in a big, rambling house in the country.

Books

'Plague of Doves,' Multigenerational Murder Mystery

May 4, 2008 · Louise Erdrich, who has written 12 novels and volumes of poetry, is known for her masterful storytelling. The author talks about her new book, The Plague of Doves, which focuses on a senseless, horrific crime and a Native American reservation in North Dakota.

Music Interviews & Profiles

'Playing the Changes' Chronicles Jazz Great Hinton

May 4, 2008 · Host Liane Hansen talks to author David Berger about the photography of the late jazz bassist Milt Hinton. Berger has co-authored the book Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs.

Fiction

Nabokov Novel to Be Published, Against Dying Wish

April 30, 2008 · Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov was racing to finish his last novel Laura before he died. When it became clear he wouldn't finish in time, he instructed his heirs to burn the manuscript. Thirty years later, Nabokov's son Dmitri explains why he has decided to publish the unfinished work.

Books

A 'Final Salute' to Fallen Marines

April 30, 2008 · Never leave a Marine behind. That tradition began in 1775, and continues today via officers like Col. Steve Beck, whose job it is to notify families of the loss of a loved one in Iraq. Beck — and the families he contacted — is the subject of journalist Jim Sheeler's new book, Final Salute.Web Extra: Read an Excerpt

World

Chinese Dissident Honored for Writings

April 30, 2008 · Yang Tongyan is serving a 12-year sentence in a Chinese prison for publishing anti-government articles on the Internet. Larry Siems, director of the PEN American Center, explains why Yang is being honored with the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

Interviews

Dan Gottlieb, 'Learning from the Heart'

April 29, 2008 · He's helped many people through painful passages in their lives. And he's faced his own: Since a near-fatal auto accident in 1979, he's been paralyzed from the chest down. Gottlieb has had nearly three decades to come to terms with the changed circumstances of his body — but now, he fears, that body may be growing tired.

Photographer's Peripatetic Life Is a Family Affair

April 27, 2008 · National Geographic photographer Annie Griffiths Belt didn't let motherhood put her career on hold. In a new book, the award-winning photographer shares how she managed motherhood and global adventure during her 30-year career at the magazine.Web Extra: See Photos

'A Voyage Long and Strange' to America's Past

April 29, 2008 · In his new book, journalist Tony Horwitz chronicles the exploration of America that occurred before Jamestown. Among his discoveries: the fact that early European explorers reached about half of the states in the present-day continental U.S., including, in the 1540s, the plains of what is now Kansas.Web Extra: Read an Excerpt

Poetry

'Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose and Letters'

April 29, 2008 · Music critic Lloyd Schwartz first met poet Elizabeth Bishop when she moved to Cambridge in the early 1970s after living in Brazil for nearly 20 years. Now Schwartz has co-edited a new collection of work by the former U.S. Poet Laureate.Web Extra: Read 'One Art'