Arts

Madwoman in the Attic book cover detail.

Books
Arts

How A 'Madwoman' Upended A Literary Boys Club

1:05pm January 17, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

The National Book Critics Circle has announced that two feminist literary scholars, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, will receive a lifetime achievement award. Critic Maureen Corrigan says their groundbreaking 1979 book, The Madwoman in the Attic, changed the way we read.

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In Rob Ashford's new production of the classic play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Scarlett Johansson plays an earthier version of restless sex kitten Maggie.

Arts

A Cooler Roof For A New 'Cat'

11:11am January 17, 2013

by Jeff Lunden

A Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' iconic Cat on a Hot Tin Roof may feature big names, but it aims for a quiet kind of authenticity. Director Rob Ashford asked his cast to take their characters off the pedestal of dramatic history and put them back in the scene.

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Arts

Triad Arts Weekend: January 11, 2013

4:17pm January 16, 2013

by David Ford

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Poet Richard Blanco is the author of City of a Hundred Fires, Directions to the Beach of the Dead and Looking for the Gulf Motel.

Books
Arts

Richard Blanco Will Be First Latino Inaugural Poet

3:44pm January 16, 2013

by NPR Staff

Blanco, a first-generation Cuban-American, says he identifies with the theme of the inauguration: Our People, Our Future. He is the fifth poet to take part in a U.S. presidential inauguration, and also the youngest. He says being selected was a "great honor."

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George Saunders' previous books include In Persuasion Nation and The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip. He won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006.

Books
Arts

George Saunders Lives Up To The Hype

1:15pm January 15, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

At the beginning of January, the cover story of The New York Times Magazine declared: "George Saunders Has Written The Best Book You'll Read This Year." The stories in the author's latest collection, The Tenth of December, prove that The Times may well be right.

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Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez in Argo. Affleck also directed the film, which is based on events surrounding the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.

Arts

Affleck On 'Argo' And The 1979 Hostage Crisis

1:11pm January 15, 2013

Fresh off Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, where he won for best director and his film won for best motion picture/drama, the actor and director talks about his approach to the story of six diplomats who managed to escape a hostile Iran — and the CIA operative who helped them do so.

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Barbara shows a quiet, restrained normalcy in the former East Germany.

Arts

In 'Barbara,' A New Look At Life Behind The Wall

5:21pm January 14, 2013

by Bilal Qureshi

Already an awards-season staple, German historical dramas are moving beyond the horrors of the Third Reich and delving into the nuanced past of the former East Germany. Films like Christian Petzold's Barbara, a quiet story about a troubled young doctor, tell a different kind of history.

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There are those who say the phrase "the whole nine yards" comes from a joke about a prodigiously well-endowed Scotsman who gets his kilt caught in a door.

Arts

'The Whole Nine Yards' Of What?

2:25pm January 14, 2013

by Geoff Nunberg

There are many theories about where the expression comes from — among them square-riggers with three masts, the amount of cloth in the queen's bridal train, the Shroud of Turin, and a prodigiously well-endowed Scotsman who gets his kilt caught in a door.

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Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, has retired. He'll start working with the Center for American Progress, a progressive research and policy organization, on issues of faith and gay rights.

Retired Bishop Gene Robinson On Being Gay And Loving God

2:25pm January 14, 2013

The first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church will start work with the Center for American Progress, focusing on issues of faith and gay rights. "Gay is not something we do," he says. "It's something we are." His book God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Gay Marriage was published in September.

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A 'Beautiful Vision' In Science Forgotten

1:48pm January 14, 2013

by NPR Staff

Dorothy Wrinch was the first woman to ever receive a doctorate in science from Oxford University, and she was the first person to design a protein structure. But her name is largely unknown. I Died for Beauty, a biography of Wrinch by Marjorie Senechal, tells her story.

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