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Natasha Trethewey served as U.S. poet laureate in 2012 and 2013. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her 2006 collection Native Guard.

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After Years Of 'Willed Amnesia,' Trethewey Opens Up About Her Murdered Mother

12:23pm July 28, 2020

by Terry Gross

When Natasha Trethewey was 19, her stepfather killed her mother. Tretheway says she aimed to "forge a new life for myself that didn't include that past." Her new memoir is Memorial Drive.

Juanita Giles and her mother, Mary Morton Giles.

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What I Read To My Mother On Her Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Last Day

10:40am July 28, 2020

by Juanita Giles

Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles recently lost her mother to COVID-19; she says that when she was picking books to read at her mother's bedside, Judith Viorst's bad-day classic was just right.

Majority counsel Norm Eisen attends a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Dec. 4, 2019

Norm Eisen Says He Drafted 10 Articles Of Impeachment A Month Before Inquiry

5:56pm July 27, 2020

by Ari Shapiro

In a new book, A Case for the American People, the Judiciary Committee special counsel during impeachment traces the process. Of Trump, he tells NPR: "He understands what he's doing. It is a pattern."

Mike Birbiglia was initially reluctant to become a father, but his wife, Jen Stein, saw things things differently. "I felt like [parenthood] was the kind of challenge that we were ready for," she says.

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'Reluctant Dad' Mike Birbiglia And Poet Jen Stein Share 'Painful' Parenting Truths

1:40pm July 27, 2020

by Terry Gross

In the memoir, The New One, comic Birbiglia and his wife, Jen Stein, open up about his ambivalence about fatherhood and the strain it had on their marriage.

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Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir, by Natasha Trethewey

A Daughter Unearths And Remembers Trauma In 'Memorial Drive'

1:11pm July 27, 2020

by Hope Wabuke

Pulitzer Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey explores the relationship between trauma, agency, and voice as she excavates the lingering effects of her mother's murder upon her life.

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Trethewey's 'Memorial Drive' Tells The Story Of Her Mother's Murder

8:16am July 26, 2020

Natasha Trethewey is a two-time U.S. Poet Laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner. Now she's written a memoir about her mother. She talks to NPR's Sarah McCammon about Memorial Drive.

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'Crooked Hallelujah' Sings Of Beauty And Trouble Between Mothers And Daughters

8:16am July 26, 2020

by Sarah McCammon

Kelli Jo Ford's novel follows three generations of Cherokee women trying to forge a future in the harsh environment of the 1980s oil boom in Texas — and learning just how difficult that can be.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan arrives for a coronavirus briefing in front of the Maryland State House on April 17. Hogan's book Still Standing is out Tuesday.

Larry Hogan On The Parallels Of Fighting Cancer And Maryland's Coronavirus Outbreak

7:02pm July 25, 2020

by Christianna Silva

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan about his new book Still Standing: Surviving Cancer, Riots, a Global Pandemic, and the Toxic Politics That Divide America.

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Arts

Adrian Tomine's New Memoir: 'The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Cartoonist'

5:38pm July 25, 2020

by Andrew Limbong

Cartoonist Adrian Tomine's new memoir highlights the many sad and lonely moments he's had on book tour.

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Books

Barbara Demick's 'Eat The Buddha' Profiles A Little-Known Tibetan Town

7:57am July 25, 2020

The Chinese have been trying to quash Tibetan independence for decades. NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to Barbara Demick about her new book, Eat the Buddha, which examines repression in one small town.