Author Interviews

Books
Arts

In 'Distant Marvels,' A Witness To Revolutions Tells Cuba's Story

11:01am April 12, 2015

by NPR Staff

Chantel Acevedo's latest novel opens in 1963 and focuses on octogenarian Maria Sirena, part of a Cuban generation that lived through both the war of independence from Spain and the Cuban Revolution.

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A Dark, Funny — And Vietnamese — Look At The Vietnam War

9:04pm April 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

Viet Thanh Nguyen grew up in America with war movies like Apocalypse Now and Platoon, which offer accounts of the war focusing on Americans. His new novel, The Sympathizer, follows a Vietnamese spy.

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Mulgrew starred as Captain Kathryn Janeway, the first woman to command a Federation Starship, in Star Trek: Voyager.

Books
Arts

'Born With Teeth,' Actress Kate Mulgrew On A Life Lived With Abandon

7:22pm April 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

Mulgrew played Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager and is a formidable kitchen manager on Orange Is the New Black. But her personal story is more dramatic than any she's ever played on screen.

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Arts

How Jim Grimsley Shed His 'Racist' Skin

12:33pm April 11, 2015

In 1966, Jim Grimsley's North Carolina school was integrated. NPR's Tamara Keith talks to Grimsley and one of his first black classmates, Donnie Meadows, about Grimsley's book, How I Shed My Skin.

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China's 'Barefoot Lawyer' And His Great Escape

11:04am April 09, 2015

by Anthony Kuhn

In his new book, exiled Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng tells the story of growing up blind, being beaten under house arrest and finding refuge in the American Embassy in Beijing in 2012.

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Brooke Borel says bedbugs were essentially wiped out after World War II thanks to DDT. It's not totally clear why they came back in the past couple of decades.

The Creepy, Crawly World Of Bedbugs And How They Have 'Infested' Homes

5:36pm April 08, 2015

Brooke Borel's new book describes their history and how they hide, bite and reproduce. Borel, who has combated them herself, says an infestation "does mess with your mind a little bit."

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Chuckie Taylor in Liberia at an unknown date and location.

Florida Teen, War Criminal: The Life Of An 'American Warlord'

3:33pm April 08, 2015

by NPR Staff

Johnny Dwyer's new book explores the life of Chuckie Taylor: the son of Liberia's former president, a leader in the Liberian Civil War and the only American ever convicted of torture committed abroad.

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Books
Arts

'Displacement': The Frustrations, Fears And Absurdities Of A Cruise Upended

3:25pm April 08, 2015

When Lucy Knisley agreed to go on a Caribbean cruise with her grandparents, she didn't know she'd spend 10 days basically keeping them alive. She writes about it in her new cartoon memoir.

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April Marks The Centennial Of Armenian Genocide

12:20pm April 08, 2015

Some countries, including the U.S., have yet to fully and formally recognize the event. Steve Inskeep revisits history with Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans.

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Masha Gessen grew up in the Soviet Union and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was 14. She returned to Russia to work as a journalist. Her earlier books are about Vladimir Putin and Pussy Riot.

Books
Arts

Tracing The Roots Of 'The Brothers' And The Boston Marathon Bombing

7:32am April 08, 2015

As jurors deliberate whether to convict Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Masha Gessen says there are still some "gaping holes" in the case. Her new book is The Brothers.

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