Author Interviews

In Kevin Henkes' new picture book, all of the figurines on the windowsill are waiting for something. "It's really about the concept of waiting," he says.

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Arts

Some Kids' Books Are Worth The Wait: 'They Do Take Time,' Says Kevin Henkes

7:39pm September 22, 2015

by NPR Staff

The Caldecott and Newbery award-winning author says he won't publish anything he isn't proud of. His new picture book is about five figurines on a windowsill who are all waiting for something.

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Surgeon Seeks To Help Women Navigate Breast Cancer Treatment

3:51pm September 22, 2015

Thirty years ago no one uttered the words "breast cancer" in public. Now there's no shortage of information, but the glut can make it hard for women to make choices about care.

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Joyce Carol Oates, pictured above on Easter, 1949. It is strange, she says, to live so long that you are older than your own parents were when they died. She uses the word "vertiginous" to describe the dizzying sensation of looking back on your life from

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Arts

Joyce Carol Oates' Memoir Revisits The Farm And The Family That Shaped Her

10:35pm September 21, 2015

by Lynn Neary

Oates grew up on a farm in upstate New York. In The Lost Landscape, she describes how her parents, her grandmother, and her school experiences made her into the writer she is today.

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Assessing The $100 Million Upheaval Of Newark's Public Schools

1:55pm September 21, 2015

In 2010, Mayor Cory Booker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg devised a plan to improve Newark's failing schools. Dale Russakoff recounts their efforts in The Prize.

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Finding Love And Self-Acceptance 'Under the Udala Trees'

6:55pm September 19, 2015

by NPR Staff

Chinelo Okparanta's new novel follows a Nigerian girl as she grows up during a violent civil war and struggles to come to terms with her sexuality.

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Author Mary Karr says she once broke her computer's delete key while writing a memoir.

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Mary Karr On Writing Memoirs: 'No Doubt I've Gotten A Million Things Wrong'

11:17am September 18, 2015

Karr discusses the faults of memory, the challenges of writing about loved ones and the pain of deleting 1,200 pages because "there was something untrue about them." Her new book is The Art of Memoir.

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Lutheran Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber says that all are welcome at her Denver church, The House for All Sinners and Saints.

Lutheran Minister Preaches A Gospel Of Love To Junkies, Drag Queens And Outsiders

4:52pm September 17, 2015

Nadia Bolz-Weber was a standup comic who opened up a church for people who didn't belong. "My job is to ... remind people that they're absolutely loved," she says. Her new memoir is Accidental Saints.

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Is 007 Losing His Cool? 'Trigger Mortis' Helps Bring Bond Into 21st Century

6:44pm September 16, 2015

by NPR Staff

From Bond's smoking habit to the Pussy Galore storyline, there's a lot about the franchise that doesn't fly anymore. In a new Bond novel, writer Anthony Horowitz gives the spy story a modern edge.

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Author Discusses Francis, A Pope Seeking To Change 'The Tone Of The Church'

1:38pm September 16, 2015

On the eve of the Pope's first visit to the U.S., journalist Paul Vallely discuses the reforms Francis is making within the Church as well as the teachings that the pope is unlikely to change.

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"Poetry is a call to action," says poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, "and it also is action."

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Poet Laureate's Migrant Childhood Was Like 'Living In Literature Every Day'

7:42pm September 15, 2015

by NPR Staff

Juan Felipe Herrera is the child of Mexican migrant farmworkers. He says, "I had a mother [who] sang and told stories and loved poetry, even though she only went to third grade."

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