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'Vivek Oji' Is Very Much Alive In This Boundary-Breaking New Novel

6:07pm August 03, 2020

by Ari Shapiro

You know what's going to happen in Akwaeke Emezi's new book — it's right there in the title: The Death of Vivek Oji. But this novel about a death is full of gender-bending, boundary crossing life.

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'Ghosting The News' Author Says Local Journalism 'Freefall' Is Accelerating

2:04pm August 03, 2020

by Dave Davies

More than 2,000 newspapers have shut down in recent years, and some regions have become news deserts. Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan says the collapse of local news undermines democracy.

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Giorno Worked 25 Years On His Memoir. It's Being Released Posthumously

7:04am August 03, 2020

by Tom Vitale

Performance poet John Giorno helped make poetry popular by circumventing the regular channels of publishing by using such projects as Dial-A-Poem. He died last fall, and his memoir is out Tuesday.

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I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, by Laura Van Den Berg

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This 'Wolf' Will Bite You — And You'll Like It

7:00am August 03, 2020

by Gabino Iglesias

Laura Van Den Berg's new collection is full of uncanny, exquisite, and painful stories about death, about loss and isolation and falling for the wrong person. Her writing will get under your skin.

Books

In 'Life Of A Klansman,' Edward Ball Traces A Difficult Family History

8:03am August 02, 2020

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with author Edward Ball about his new book, Life of a Klansman, revolving around a man his family called "our Klansman."

Books

Author Morgan Jerkins Reconnects With Her Southern African-American Roots In New Book

8:00am August 01, 2020

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to Morgan Jerkins about her new book. Wandering In Strange Lands, where she travels to the South to understand the roots of her African-American culture.

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Kim Johnson Talks Racism, Mass Incarceration In Debut Novel

8:00am August 01, 2020

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Kim Johnson about her debut novel This Is My America. In it, a teenage girl works to get her father off of death row.

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For Summer, 3 Translated Novels To Transport You

7:00am August 01, 2020

by Lily Meyer

You may not really be able to leave the house right now, but of course fiction can take you all over the world. Here are three novels that will help you escape — to Japan, to Portugal and to Spain.

True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump, by Jeffrey Toobin

In 'True Crimes,' Toobin Presents A Summation For The Jury In The Case Against Trump

10:05am July 31, 2020

by Ron Elving

There is a lot of detail amassed in the CNN analyst's book that even Trump investigation junkies won't have seen, much having to do with behind-the-scenes strategizing and negotiating by lawyers.

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Arts

Yiyun Li Continues Her Conversations With The Dead In 'Must I Go'

7:00am July 31, 2020

by Thúy Đinh

Yiyun Li's new book — about a woman looking back on her life by annotating the diary of her late ex-lover — plays with both Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire and Li's own previous work.