Arts

T-Bone Burnett, John Mellencamp and Stephen King are the creative team behind Ghosts of Darkland County, a stage show based on a true story of small-town tragedy.

A Rock Star, A Novelist And A Super-Producer Write A Musical

8:04am June 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

No, it's not the setup to a joke. John Mellencamp, Stephen King and T-Bone Burnett are the creative team behind Ghosts of Darkland County, a stage show based on a true story of small-town tragedy.

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Arts

UNCSA's Music Academy of the American South Begins This Friday

12:15am June 10, 2013

by David Ford

The Piedmont has had and continues to have a huge impact on American music in practically every musical style imaginable, so why not celebrate it?

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Books
Arts

The Courage To Cross An Ocean, Explored In 'TransAtlantic'

6:36pm June 09, 2013

by Rosecrans Baldwin

Colum McCann's novel TransAtlantic weaves together disparate historical figures and times. Reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin says that while some sections are uneven, the book rolls over you like a wave, crashing and building upon itself.

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Books
Arts

Three-Minute Fiction: The Round 11 Winner Is ...

6:36pm June 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

After sifting through thousands of submissions for our short-story contest, we have found a winner. This round, guest judge Karen Russell asked you to write a story in which a character finds something he or she has no intention of returning.

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Actors John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in John Ford's The Quiet Man.

Arts

The Movie Nick Offerman Has 'Seen A Million Times'

2:38pm June 09, 2013

by Lily Percy

Actor Nick Offerman could watch the John Wayne film The Quiet Man a million times. "It was my dad's favorite, and it quickly became mine," he says.

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Books
Arts

Time-Traveling Serial Killer Hunts For 'The Shining Girls'

6:03pm June 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

Over the last 15 years, the South African writer Lauren Beukes has been a journalist, a screenwriter, a documentarian — and most recently, a novelist. Her new book is called The Shining Girls, a summer thriller about a time-traveling serial killer and the victim who escapes to hunt him down.

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Judy Blume is the author of many books for kids and teens, including Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Blubber. Her 1981 novel, Tiger Eyes, has just been adapted into a movie.

Books
Arts

Judy Blume Hits The Big Screen With 'Tiger Eyes' Adaptation

8:29pm June 07, 2013

by NPR Staff

With the help of her son Lawrence Blume, Judy Blume has adapted her 1981 novel into a film. The widely beloved coming-of-age author speaks with NPR's Audie Cornish about turning the book into a movie, and how the themes in Tiger Eyes echo her own life.

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A poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health found that African-Americans are unhappy with their local entertainment venues.

Black Americans Give Entertainment Options Failing Grades

8:29pm June 07, 2013

by Shereen Marisol Meraji

People often talk about African-Americans and other minorities being subject to "food deserts" — areas where fresh, healthy, affordable food is hard to come by. The findings of an NPR poll suggest that we should be thinking about "popcorn deserts," too.

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We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves book cover detail

Books
Arts

'Beside Ourselves' Explores Human-Animal Connections

3:47pm June 07, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Karen Joy Fowler's haunting novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, draws on arguments she used to have with her father, a psychology professor, over how closely connected humans and animals really are. Fowler is also the author of the 2004 best-seller The Jane Austen Book Club.

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Brian Castner served as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer in the U.S. Air Force from 1999 to 2007, deploying to Iraq to command bomb disposal units in Balad and Kirkuk in 2005 and 2006.

Books
Arts

'The Life That Follows' Disarming IEDs In Iraq

2:30pm June 07, 2013

Brian Castner commanded two Explosive Ordnance Disposal units in Iraq, where his team disabled roadside IEDs and investigated the aftermath of roadside car bombings. He returned home a completely different man, which he details in his memoir, The Long Walk.

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