Chad Harbach's 2011 book "The Art of Fielding" was set in a fictional midwestern college. After 15 years, Harbach returns to the same school for his follow up, "The Brightness."

Author and painter Maira Kalman is out with a new book called Joy, exploring all the things that bring her fleeting happiness and why sorrow is a necessary counterpart to joy.

A North Carolina musician was fascinating by the sound of singing sand dunes. He asked researchers from all over the world for help turning them into an instrument.

A number of rising bands in the U.K. are drawing on Americana to create a genre of British alt-Country music.

Annie Proulx, master of short stories, talks with NPR's Scott Simon about writing and about how she created the characters in her most famous short story, "Brokeback Mountain."

Black Americans have been central to Broadway since the beginning, according to the new book "Broadway in Black and White." NPR's Scott Simon talks to authors John Mauceri and John McWhorter.

From 1960 to 1964, Frank Tiberi, a saxophonist and professor of music at Berklee College of Music, followed John Coltrane around clubs in Philadelphia and New York.

A new generation of artists is reimagining the port city's musical traditions, blending classic styles with contemporary sounds.