Author Interviews

Books
Arts

Jeffrey Eugenides Calls Short Stories 'Maddening' — And Now He Has A Collection

8:09am October 01, 2017

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

"You get it going and then you have to shut it down," Eugenides says. "And I am a novelist by inclination." His new short story collection is called Fresh Complaint.

In Russia, 'The Future Is History'

5:40pm September 30, 2017

Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen talks with Scott Simon about how Russia went from communism back to authoritarianism without a stop at democracy in her new book, The Future Is History.

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Charity Tillemann-Dick is an opera singer who, in 2009, received a double lung transplant. She tells this story in her new memoir, The Encore.

Singing With New Lungs In 'The Encore'

9:47am September 30, 2017

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon talks with opera singer Charity Tillemann-Dick, whose new memoir chronicles her double lung transplant, her recovery and how it feels to sing with someone else's lungs.

Books

Brevity Is The Soul Of Wit: Shakespeare As A Pop-Up Book

8:08am September 30, 2017

Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor of the Reduced Shakespeare Company tell NPR's Scott Simon about their book, Pop-Up Shakespeare, and how Shakespeare's plays are kind of like Looney Tunes.

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King.

Books
Arts

Stephen And Owen King On The Horror Of A World Without Women In 'Sleeping Beauties'

7:35am September 29, 2017

by Mary Louise Kelly

What if every woman on earth went to sleep and never woke up, leaving only men to run things? That's the horror at the center of Sleeping Beauties, the new novel from Stephen King and his son Owen.

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The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine is based on notes for a story Mark Twain told his young daughters, about magical seeds and talking animals.

Books
Arts

A Modern Collaboration With Mark Twain In 'Prince Oleomargarine'

1:13pm September 28, 2017

by Mary Louise Kelly

Authors Philip and Erin Stead have turned 16 pages of Mark Twain's notes — on a serial bedtime story he wove for his daughters — into a new children's book, The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine.

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Books

'Little Soldiers' Examines China's Military-Like Education System

7:51am September 28, 2017

Mary Louise Kelly talks to journalist and Shanghai resident Lenora Chu about educating her young son in the Chinese public education system. Chu has written a book called: Little Soldiers.

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President Barack Obama speaks at the 2014 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, D.C. Speechwriter David Litt, who helped craft the president's comedy routine that night, says, "Some of the joke is always that it's the president tel

A Former Speechwriter Looks Back On His 'Hopey, Changey' Years With Obama

5:59pm September 25, 2017

by Terry Gross

David Litt says writing speeches and jokes for former President Obama was often a delicate task: "There's a whole industry of people trying to take your words out of context."

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'Nomadland' Tracks Rising Number Of Americans Living On The Road

4:33pm September 25, 2017

A new book by the journalist Jessica Bruder describes the increasing number of Americans living on the road, often in RVs, moving from job to job as a way to avoid the expense of a permanent home. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to Bruder about her book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.

In his new book, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explores how he's had to work on his capacity for empathy to change the company's culture.

Books

How Do You Turn Around A Tech Giant? With Empathy, Microsoft CEO Says

4:33pm September 25, 2017

by Aarti Shahani

The CEO of Microsoft was hired to turn the company around. And now, just three years into the job, Satya Nadella has written a book reflecting on this monumental task — and the empathy it requires.