Author Interviews

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, pictured here in 2004, was the principal publisher of the writers and poets known as the Beat Generation.

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At 96, Poet And Beat Publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti Isn't Done Yet

3:36pm June 11, 2015

by Richard Gonzales

The publisher of Allen Ginsberg's iconic poem "Howl" has three books coming out this year and is also working on a novel. Looking back, he says, "Everything was better than it is when you're old."

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'Mazie' Pays Homage To A Real-Life Saint Of The Streets

1:44pm June 11, 2015

by Alan Cheuse

Jami Attenberg's new novel is based on a real woman, Mazie Phillips Gordon, who took tickets at a grimy New York City movie house and cared for decades' worth of the down-and-outs who came her way.

Robert Fortune was a 19th-century Scottish botanist who helped the East India Trading Company swipe the secrets of tea production from China.

Tea Tuesdays: The Scottish Spy Who Stole China's Tea Empire

11:05am June 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

In the mid-1800s, Britain was a global superpower with a big weakness for tea, all of which came from China. But a botanist with a talent for espionage helped Britain swipe the secrets of tea.

Robert Siegel interviews Munro Price, author of Napoleon: End of Glory about napoleon's failed plan to relocate to America after the defeat at Waterloo.

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Napoleon In America: Not As Strange As It Sounds

10:25am June 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

Historian Munro Price's new Napoleon: End of Glory imagines what might have happened had the French emperor followed through with a planned flight to America after his final defeat at Waterloo.

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Fallon's new book has a daddy bee, dog, rabbit, cat and donkey (one of his personal favorites) all trying — and failing — to get their babies to say "dada."

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If Jimmy Fallon Gets His Way, 'Your Baby's First Word Will Be Dada'

8:11am June 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

The Tonight Show host's new children's book was inspired by his daughters. He tells NPR about his efforts to trick his first daughter into saying "dada" and his family's struggle to conceive.

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Nisid Hajari led international coverage at Newsweek for more than a decade as a foreign editor and managing editor and now oversees Asia coverage for Bloomberg View.

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India's 1947 Partition And The 'Deadly Legacy' That Persists To This Day

3:49pm June 09, 2015

In his new book, Midnight's Furies, Nisid Hajari describes the riots and massacres that ensued after Pakistan was established as a separate state, and how those tensions are still playing out.

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This 'Book Of Numbers' Speaks A Human Language

6:56pm June 08, 2015

by NPR Staff

Writer Joshua Cohen says his new novel (about a journalist and a tech mogul both also named Joshua Cohen) aims to reclaim the Internet. "It's made of our humanity," he tells NPR's Robert Siegel.

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'Balm' Looks At Civil War After The Battles, Outside The South

1:22pm June 08, 2015

by NPR Staff

In her new novel, Dolen Perkins-Valdez wanted to look beyond the traditional frame for Civil War stories. Her book is set in Chicago and opens as the nation is struggling to heal.

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In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume photo from multimedia

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A New Judy Blume Novel For Adults Is Always An 'Event'

10:10am June 08, 2015

by NPR Staff

In the Unlikely Event is beloved YA author Judy Blume's first novel for adults in 17 years — it's centered on a series of plane crashes that really happened in her home town in the early 1950s.

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In Debut Novel, Air Force Officer Questions How We Honor Our Veterans

6:21pm June 07, 2015

by NPR Staff

Jesse Goolsby, author of I'd Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them, says it's not only a question of appreciation. "We just want a conversation about what our country asks of us," Goolsby says.

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