Author Interviews

Sinead O'Connor performs at August Hall in San Francisco, Calif., in February 2020.

Sinéad O'Connor Has A New Memoir ... And No Regrets

6:13am June 01, 2021

by Allyson McCabe

Fiery singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor became a star in the MTV era, rewriting the rules while courting controversy. Now, she reclaims an influential legacy with a new memoir, Rememberings.

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The Star-Touched Queen, by Roshani Chokshi

Books
Arts

What's In A Genre Name? The Trouble With 'Asian Fantasy'

4:54pm May 30, 2021

by Kalyani Saxena

Asian fantasy has been increasingly popular over the past few years, but some authors shelved in that category are wondering whether it's really a useful way of describing a vast and varied subgenre.

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Books

In 'Instructions for Dancing', A Cynical Former Romantic Gets A Magical Surprise

8:56am May 30, 2021

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Nicola Yoon about her new romance novel, Instructions for Dancing, in which a disenchanted teenager fed up with love gets a strange superpower.

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The original cover of Jewell Parker Rhodes' novel, Magic City.

Books
Arts

In Both Fact And Fiction, The Truth Of Tulsa Is Hard To Stomach

12:25pm May 29, 2021

by Karen Grigsby Bates

When author Jewell Parker Rhodes tried to publish a novel retelling the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre, she found that not everyone was ready to reckon with the city's painful, traumatic history.

Books

Alice Waters Gets To The Heart Of America's Health And Food Problem In New Book

7:43am May 29, 2021

NPR's Scott Simon talks to chef and restaurateur Alice Waters about her slow food manifesto, We Are What We Eat.

The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Books
Arts

'The Other Black Girl' In This New Thriller May Not Be Your Friend

7:43am May 29, 2021

by Scott Simon

Zakiya Dalila Harris drew on her book-world background for her new novel, about a Black woman in publishing who thinks, at first, that she has a new ally when her company hires another Black woman.

Haunted By Boarding School, Phoebe Wynne Twists The Classics In Debut Novel 'Madam'

5:33pm May 27, 2021

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Phoebe Wynne about how her experience attending and teaching in boarding schools and the grim fates for women in the classics shaped her debut novel Madam.

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Yusef Salaam, shown above in 2019, reflects on his wrongful conviction in the memoir, Better, Not Bitter.

Central Park 'Exonerated 5' Member Reflects On Freedom And Forgiveness

2:06pm May 26, 2021

by Terry Gross

In 1990, Yusef Salaam was one of the five boys wrongly convicted in the so-called Central Park jogger case. They weren't exonerated until 2002. Salaam tells his story in Better, Not Bitter.

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Books
Arts

'On Juneteenth' Historian Examines The 'Hope' And 'Hostility' Toward Emancipation

1:35pm May 25, 2021

by Terry Gross

Juneteenth celebrates the day slavery ended in Texas, June 19, 1865. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed studies the early American republic and the legacy of slavery.

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Dawnie Walton left her job as the deputy managing editor of Essence to write The Final Revival of Opal & Nev.

Books
Arts

'70s Music Journalism Gets An Overdue Rewrite In Debut Novel 'Opal & Nev'

12:58pm May 24, 2021

by Terry Gross

Dawnie Walton's novel is a faux oral history about an interracial rock duo. Opal is a Black proto Afro-punk singer from Detroit, and Nev is a goofy white British singer-songwriter.