Author Interviews

Books
Arts

Beyond The 'Sometimes Sentimental' Story Of Filipino Migrants

6:18pm June 21, 2015

by NPR Staff

Mia Alvar's new short story collection spans the globe — from Manila to New York to Manama, Bahrain — to offer a more complicated narrative of Filipino exiles, emigres and wanderers.

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Survival Is Insufficient: 'Station Eleven' Preserves Art After The Apocalypse

10:40am June 20, 2015

by NPR Staff

In Emily St. John Mandel's novel, Station Eleven, a Shakespearean troupe clings to scraps of civilization after a deadly pandemic. Mandel and NPR's Scott Simon talk about art at the end of the world.

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Jacqueline Woodson On Growing Up, Coming Out And Saying Hi To Strangers

1:26pm June 19, 2015

Woodson, the author of the young adult novel Brown Girl Dreaming, says that growing up in South Carolina, she knew that the safest place was with her family. Originally broadcast Dec. 10, 2014.

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Lawyer Argues That Virtual Trials Would Make Justice System More Fair

1:02pm June 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

Adam Benforado's new book, Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice, describes a system in which race, accents and even attractiveness couldn't play a role in a jury's decision.

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Aziz Ansari is a writer, stand-up comedian and actor well-known for playing Tom Haverford in NBC's Parks and Recreation.

Books
Arts

From Dating Exhaustion To ... Flo Rida? Aziz Ansari Surveys 'Modern Romance'

1:02pm June 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

The comic teamed up with a sociologist to write an overview of dating and relationships. His book explains online dating's paradox of choice and how we're all like a song by hip-hop artist Flo Rida.

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Etgar Keret's work has been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and he's contributed to This American Life.

Books
Arts

What Etgar Keret Learned From His Father About Storytelling And Survival

12:01pm June 17, 2015

The Seven Good Years spans the time between the birth of his son and the death of his father. Keret says his father, who was a Holocaust survivor, taught him to "look reality straight in the face."

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In his new book One Man Against the World, Tim Weiner explores some of the questions surrounding the presidency of Richard Nixon, pictured above in the Oval Office on Feb. 19, 1970.

Fueled By Fear, How Richard Nixon Became 'One Man Against The World'

4:52pm June 16, 2015

In his new book, New York Times journalist Tim Weiner paints a portrait of a president overwhelmed by wars at home and abroad, whose self-destructive behavior resulted in "political suicide."

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Kate Atkinson says she never sees her characters at just one stage of their lives. Just as we are constantly thinking about the past, present and future in real life, she constructs her characters in the same way.

Books
Arts

Kate Atkinson Tells Book Club How She Crafts Characters At All Life Stages

4:24pm June 16, 2015

In A God in Ruins, Atkinson jumps forward and backward in time, telling the story of characters as children, parents and grandparents. "We don't just live in this moment," she says.

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'You Couldn't Make This Stuff Up': Inside The Lives Of The 'China Rich'

1:06pm June 15, 2015

by NPR Staff

Kevin Kwan's novel China Rich Girlfriend is inspired by real, young Asian billionaires who live in the lap of luxury, spending fortunes on outfits and sports cars. "It's all ripe for parody," he says.

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Books
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'Seven Good Years' Between The Birth Of A Son, Death Of A Father

6:21pm June 13, 2015

by NPR Staff

Israeli writer Etgar Keret wrote his first piece of nonfiction the day his son was born. Later, when his father became terminally ill, he decided to publish his essays as a "living tombstone."

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