Author Interviews

Books

'Likes': Tales That Dig Below The Surface Of Familiar Experiences

4:04pm September 11, 2020

NPR's Audie Cornish talks with author Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum about her new book, Likes. In its stories, she peels back the rhythms of daily life to explore the dark, wondrous elements underneath.

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Books
Arts

Novelist Donald Ray Pollock On Factory Work And Finding Fiction Later In Life

2:08pm September 11, 2020

by Terry Gross

Pollock worked in a paper mill and meatpacking plant for 32 years before becoming a writer. Netflix's film version of his novel, The Devil All the Time, drops Sept. 16. Originally broadcast in 2011.

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Former FBI Agent Ali Soufan, shown here in New York in 2018, interrogated many al-Qaida suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Soufan's 2011 book on that topic, The Black Banners, included many redactions. A new version was released this week without

For Ex-FBI Interrogator Ali Soufan, Sept. 11 Still Frames His Life

12:30pm September 11, 2020

by Greg Myre

Soufan has just released the uncensored version of his book on interrogating al-Qaida suspects. And U.S. officials recently told Soufan that the terrorist group was plotting an attack against him.

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Books
Arts

Author Traces What Happened To WWII's 'Last Million' Displaced People

4:56pm September 10, 2020

by Dave Davies

Historian David Nasaw tells the story of the concentration camp survivors, POWs and other displaced people who remained in Germany following the war. Many had no home to return to.

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Before the Ever After, by Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson Wants Kids To Know The Beauty — And The Danger — Of Football

4:26pm September 10, 2020

by Sacha Pfeiffer

Woodson's new novel in verse Before the Ever After follows a 12-year-old boy whose football star father is beginning to show the damaging effects of too many blows to the head.

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Books

Raz's Book Tracks How Inspiring Entrepreneurs Created Paths To Success

6:24am September 10, 2020

NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with NPR's Guy Raz about his book on successful entrepreneurs: How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs.

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Yaa Gyasi's first novel, Homegoing, won a National Book Critics Circle Award and a PEN/Hemingway Award. Her latest is Transcendent Kingdom.

Books
Arts

Author Yaa Gyasi Says Writing Can Be 'An Act Of Love And Justice'

12:52pm September 09, 2020

by Terry Gross

Gyasi's debut novel, Homegoing, won a PEN/Hemingway Award. Her follow-up, Transcendent Kingdom, draws on Gyasi's life as the daughter of immigrants from Ghana.

Former FBI Agent Addresses Post-Sept. 11 Torture In Newly Declassified Book

1:56pm September 08, 2020

by Dave Davies

Ali Soufan investigated terrorism cases and opposed the CIA's use of torture following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. After a legal battle, the redacted material in his 2011 memoir, Black Banners, has been restored.

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Books

What Is Money? Jacob Goldstein's Book Explains 'Shared Fiction'

6:57am September 08, 2020

NPR's Noel King talks to Planet Money's Jacob Goldstein about his book, Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing. He addresses technology, historic advances, and hustlers who made money what it is.

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New Book Takes A Deeper Look At Quiet Beatle George Harrison

5:03am September 08, 2020

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with music journalist Ashley Kahn about his new book, George Harrison on George Harrison. It's a collection of interviews with and writings by former Beatle George Harrison.