Author Interviews

Books

Author Miles Harvey Tells The Story Of Schemer And False Prophet James Strang

8:01am July 18, 2020

NPR's Scott Simon talks with Miles Harvey about his book The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch.

Books
Arts

'Sex And Lies' Author Leila Slimani: 'Women's Lives Matter'

9:45pm July 16, 2020

by Sarah McCammon

Franco-Moroccan writer Leila Slimani's new book examines the restricted sex lives of women in a country where, she says, the unofficial motto is "Do what you wish, but never talk about it."

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Waiting for an Echo, by Christine Montross

Psychiatrist: America's 'Extremely Punitive' Prisons Make Mental Illness Worse

3:42pm July 16, 2020

by Dave Davies

Dr. Christine Montross says people with serious mental illnesses in the U.S. are far more likely to be incarcerated than to be treated in a psychiatric hospital. Her new book is Waiting for an Echo.

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Morris Koll, grandfather of NPR correspondent Pam Fessler's husband, enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to the Philippines in 1902. That's when he contracted leprosy. In 1935, public health authorities took him to the national leprosarium in Carville,

A Family Secret Inspired A New Book About Leprosy

2:23pm July 16, 2020

by Diane Cole

NPR correspondent Pam Fessler, author of Carville's Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice, talks about her research into this once feared disease — and its connection to COVID-19.

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Colin Jost, here in 2018, first joined Saturday Night Live as a writer 15 years ago. "It's a world that I love so much," he says of the show.

Books
Arts

Colin Jost Of 'SNL' Knows You're Laughing At His 'Very Punchable Face'

7:32pm July 14, 2020

by Terry Gross

SNL "Weekend Update" co-anchor Colin Jost acknowledges that his clean-cut image sometimes rubs people the wrong way. "When I get hurt or hit on camera ... the audience really loves it," he says.

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Books
Arts

'Brave New World' Meets 'The Handmaid's Tale' In Sophie Mackintosh's New Novel

7:10pm July 14, 2020

by Ari Shapiro

In the world of Blue Ticket, girls are issued either blue tickets or white ones on the day of their first periods. Blue tickets grant a career but no children; white tickets mean home and family.

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Books

In Serizawa's 'Inheritors,' Family Reflects On Trauma Of War

6:23am July 14, 2020

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Japanese writer Asako Serizawa about her book of short stories that revolve around the trauma of World War II. The O. Henry Prize-winning author's book is: Inheritors.

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Thomas Chatterton Williams, along with more than 150 journalists, authors and writers, published a letter decrying the "intolerant climate that has set in on all sides" of debate in Harper's Magazine.

Books
Arts

Thomas Chatterton Williams On Debate, Criticism And The Letter In 'Harper's Magazine'

9:06am July 12, 2020

by Christianna Silva

A letter on the importance of open debate was published by Harper's Magazine this week and was signed by more than 150 prominent writers and thinkers, fueling a controversy over debate and privilege.

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Books

Author Pam Fessler Discusses Leprosy, New Book

7:58am July 12, 2020

NPR's Lulu Gracia-Navarro speaks with NPR's Pam Fessler about her book, Carville's Cure. It's about the leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana where people with Hansen's disease, or leprosy, were sent.

Books

Charlie Kaufman On His Strange New Debut Novel, 'Antkind'

10:28am July 11, 2020

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Charlie Kaufman about his new novel, Antkind, about film critic B. Rosenberger Rosenberg and his quest to recall a strange new film.

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