Author Interviews

Thomas Thwaites says his exoskeleton was meant to help him feel like a goat, as opposed to helping him look like one.

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Arts

When Being Human Got His Goat, This Designer Became One

8:47am May 14, 2016

by NPR Staff

To be human is to worry, but "you look at a goat," says Thomas Thwaites, "and it's just ... free." In GoatMan, Thwaites explains how he learned to walk, eat and think like the ruminant.

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For Pulitzer Prize-Winner Gregory Pardlo, Poetry Offers 'Intimacy' Between Strangers

8:00am May 14, 2016

In the latest conversation marking the centenary of the Pulitzers, NPR's Scott Simon asks Gregory Pardlo what it means for a poet to win the prize and how it affects his poetry.

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Arts

Baltimore Author Discusses 'Living (And Dying) While Black'

2:13pm May 13, 2016

Author D. Watkins says that crack destroyed his East Baltimore neighborhood, and he explains how the real day-to-day of selling drugs is nothing like the movies. Originally broadcast Oct. 1, 2015.

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In Daniel Clowes' Patience, a man turns to time travel after his true love is murdered.

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Cartoonist Daniel Clowes On Time Travel And Giving Readers Their Money's Worth

2:32pm May 12, 2016

At 55, Clowes is one of the most influential artists in the independent comics world. His latest book, Patience, uses time travel to look at the ways random events can set a life on a new path.

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Louise Erdrich is the author of 15 novels, including The Plague of Doves and The Round House. She is the owner of Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, Minn.

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Arts

After Tragedy, 2 Families Find Their Own Justice In Louise Erdrich's 'LaRose'

6:04pm May 11, 2016

by NPR Staff

When an Ojibwe hunter accidentally kills his friend's child, he sends his own son to live with the grieving family. Erdrich says tribal family ties are "extremely close" and "much more fluid."

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Kate Tempest has written music, plays, poetry and novels.

'There Was More I Wanted To Say': Kate Tempest Turns Hit Album Into A Novel

6:05pm May 10, 2016

by NPR Staff

The rapper's debut album, Everybody Down, followed Becky and Harry, two Londoners struggling with love, work and drugs. Now her new book, The Bricks That Built The Houses, takes a look at their pasts.

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Friend Or Fiend? 'Pit Bull' Explores The History Of America's Most Feared Dog

1:37pm May 10, 2016

Author Bronwen Dickey says the idea of pit bulls as predators is based on myth and misinformation. In the early Hollywood era, Dickey says, the dogs were often chosen to appear in comedies.

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Richard Russo Returns To North Bath, NY, In 'Everybody's Fool'

1:33pm May 09, 2016

The Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Empire Falls says his characters are inspired by his parents' working-class World War II generation. Russo's new novel is set in a small town in upstate New York.

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On this Mother's Day, here's a bit of wisdom: "Having a child is usually just a long patience."

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Arts

'Eleven Hours' Follows Two Soon-To-Be Moms In The Course Of One Labor

7:57am May 08, 2016

by NPR Staff

Pamela Erens' new book tells the story of a woman in labor and the nurse who helps her through it.

Zarqa Nawaz's Little Mosque on the Prairie ran on the CBC from 2007 to 2012.

'Little Mosque' Creator Zarqa Nawaz On Mixing Comedy And Religion

8:44am May 07, 2016

by NPR Staff

The writer/filmmaker uses humor to help people understand Islam, but it took years for some mosque members to come around to her jokes. Nawaz's new memoir is called Laughing All The Way to the Mosque.

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