Author Interviews

Margo Jefferson is a writing professor at Columbia University. In 1994, she won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for her work at The New York Times.

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Privilege And Pressure: A Memoir Of Growing Up Black And Elite In 'Negroland'

10:59am September 10, 2015

In her memoir, Negroland, Margo Jefferson describes growing up black and affluent in 1950s Chicago. Jefferson tells Fresh Air it was a world of sophistication — and snobbery.

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What Intangibles Go Into Winning Team Sports?

10:59am September 10, 2015

In Intangiball, baseball writer Lonnie Wheeler argues that players who work hard, set good examples and mentor other players can make teams better in ways that are easy to see — but hard to measure.

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Cover art from Black Man in a White Coat, by Damon Tweedy.

A Physician Asks: Is Being Black Bad For Your Health?

10:57am September 10, 2015

Damon Tweedy discusses race and medicine in his new memoir Black Man in a White Coat. "There's been a long history of African-Americans being mistreated by the health care system," he says.

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'Black Earth' Explores Dangers Of Misunderstanding The Holocaust

6:40pm September 09, 2015

NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with author Timothy Snyder about his new book, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. He says Nazi Germany's strategy was the destruction of states.

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'Don Quixote' Speaks To The 'Quality Of Being A Dreamer'

3:06pm September 09, 2015

NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with Ilan Stavans about his book, Quixote: The Novel and the World. Stavans was inspired by the Miguel de Cervantes' classic, Don Quixote, which turns 400 this year.

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'Fear Of Dying' Asks: Can You Go Zipless At 60?

3:19pm September 08, 2015

by NPR Staff

Author Erica Jong famously explored female sexuality in 1973's Fear of Flying. In her new novel, she writes about how the need for sex, touch and connection doesn't diminish when you get older.

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Jesse Eisenberg's New Book Gets Seriously Absurd (And A Little Serious)

6:36pm September 05, 2015

by NPR Staff

The actor and writer has a collection of funny short stories that also mine some emotional truths — from post-gender attempts at pick-ups to a lonely 9-year-old reviewing expensive restaurants.

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Salman Rushdie is the author of 12 novels, including Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was once the subject of death threats; now, when asked if he can move about freely Rushdie responds: "You have to stop asking me. ... It's been like 1

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Salman Rushdie: These Days, 'Everyone Is Upset All The Time'

11:38am September 05, 2015

by NPR Staff

"Everything I write upsets somebody," Rushdie tells NPR's Scott Simon. His latest book, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, sweeps the reader into a turbulent, magical, mythological world.

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'Harriet Chance' Explores Late-Life Reinvention

11:38am September 05, 2015

NPR's Scott Simon talks to Jonathan Evison about his new novel, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance, in which the title character finds herself on an Alaskan cruise with the ghost of her husband and a daughter she can't trust.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 68 children has an autism spectrum disorder.

'NeuroTribes' Examines The History — And Myths — Of The Autism Spectrum

4:35pm September 04, 2015

Steve Silberman talks about how Nazi extermination plans and a discredited scientific paper about childhood vaccines shaped our current understanding of autism.

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