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'Sleeping Giants' Kicks Off A New Series In Style

4:01pm April 26, 2016

by Jason Heller

Sylvain Neuvel's debut begins with a young girl who falls into a hole in the ground and is found soon after, sitting on a 20-foot-long mechanical hand. And that's just the (finger) tip of the iceberg.

In high school, Meryl Streep was one of the "cheeries."

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Meryl Streep's First Acting Gig: Becoming Pretty And Popular In High School

10:52am April 26, 2016

by Susan Stamberg

In a new biography called Her Again, author Michael Schulman says that at 14, Streep decided to reinvent herself — and before she was an Oscar winner, she was homecoming queen.

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'Alter Egos' Dissects Hillary Clinton's Tenure As Obama's Secretary Of State

1:51pm April 25, 2016

Mark Landler of The New York Times discusses Clinton and Obama's contrasting views on America's role in the world. Clinton, Landler says, was often the hawk, more willing to intervene with force.

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Viet Cong soldiers going into battle near Hue during the Vietnam War, circa 1968. Years later, the war shaped how Ocean Vuong grew up.

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In The Lines Of Ocean Vuong, Echoes Of His Family's Past In Vietnam

9:01am April 25, 2016

by NPR Staff

Award-winning poet Ocean Vuong speaks about his new book Night Sky with Exit Wounds, which weaves growing up in America with his family's memories of a war-torn Vietnam.

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Warhead Constriction, a group of high-schoolers from Lagos, is one of many rock bands of the 1960s and '70s featured in the new book series Wake Up You! The Rise and Fall of Nigerian Rock, 1972-1977.

'Wake Up You!' Explores The Transitional, Post-War Rock 'N' Roll Of Nigeria

7:07pm April 24, 2016

by NPR Staff

In the 1970s, a crop of young rock bands with "a new sense of fury and fuzz" arose in the aftermath of the country's civil war, says historian Uchenna Ikonne.

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Wendell Berry, America's foremost farmer-philosopher, with horses on his farm.

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The Gospel According To Wendell Berry, On Screen

10:07am April 24, 2016

by Dan Charles

America's foremost farmer-philosopher, Wendell Berry, is the subject of a new documentary. It celebrates the writer's work, and the rural community in Kentucky in which he's rooted.

This portrait, painted in 1610, is believed to be the only surviving picture of William Shakespeare painted in his lifetime.

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Why 'Will From Warwickshire' Never Lost His Touch

7:00am April 24, 2016

by Liza Graham

William Shakespeare may have died 400 years ago, but he'll always be there when we need him. The Bard is still a personal friend to actors and casual readers alike, uncannily able to understand us.

Handout picture dated 1997 and released in 2012 by the UN shows ancient manuscripts displayed at the library in the city of Timbuktu. Al-Qaeda has destroyed ancient texts it considers idolatrous.

Timbuktu's 'Badass Librarians': Checking Out Books Under Al-Qaida's Nose

5:30pm April 23, 2016

by NPR Staff

Librarian Abdel Kader Haidara organized a smuggling operation to keep centuries-old manuscripts out of the hands of al-Qaida. Joshua Hammer wrote about it in The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu.

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In Henry IV, Sir John Falstaff, played by Antony Sher (left), is a rogue and a liar, but he also serves as a mentor to King Henry IV's son, played by Alex Hassell.

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Shakespeare Saw '360 Degrees Of Humanity,' And That's Why He Endures

9:39am April 23, 2016

by Jeff Lunden

From actor David Tennant to artistic director Gregory Doran, Royal Shakespeare Company thespians reflect on the Bard's legacy. Shakespeare is said to have died 400 years ago on April 23.

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Activist, Professor, Historian — Now A Poetry Pulitzer Prize Winner

9:36am April 23, 2016

Peter Balakian is the author of "Ozone Journal," winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Scott Simon talks with Balakian about how the collection has changed since he began writing decades ago.