Author Interviews

Books
Arts

Faber's 'Strange New Things' Is A Tribute To His Wife

10:04am November 02, 2014

Michel Faber talks about how he came to write his new novel, The Book of Strange New Things. It's the story of a husband and wife, separated by a huge distance. They're on different planets.

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An Ambivalent Double Agent, Torn Between Two Countries

8:10pm November 01, 2014

by NPR Staff

Ha Jin's new spy novel resembles the story of the real-life Chinese agent Larry Chin — and echoes the expat author's own experiences. But, he notes, a writer's life is less political than a spy's.

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Stephen King On Growing Up, Believing In God And Getting Scared

2:32pm October 31, 2014

"The more carny it got, the better I liked it," King says of his new thriller, Joyland. King talks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about his career writing horror, and about what scares him now.

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Amy Poehler plays Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation, which will air its final season next year. Poehler says, "It's a privilege in television to be able to have a proper goodbye."

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A Candid Memoir From Comedian Amy Poehler? 'Yes Please'

10:23am October 29, 2014

Poehler joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about fighting the body image "demon," being a "world-class snooper" and how she was once told that she had a "great face for wigs."

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The Secret History of Wonder Woman cover

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Arts

The Man Behind Wonder Woman Was Inspired By Both Suffragists And Centerfolds

3:45pm October 27, 2014

Wonder Woman's creator, William Moulton Marston, had a secret life: He had a wife and a mistress and fathered children with both of them. Jill Lepore explains in The Secret History of Wonder Woman.

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The Serious History Of Hocus Pocus In 'Penguin Book Of Witches'

4:38pm October 26, 2014

by NPR Staff

In Colonial America, a witch was not a Halloween costume, but a criminal. NPR's Rachel Martin revisits this moment in history with Katherine Howe, editor of the new Penguin Book of Witches.

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Cartoonist Looks Back On Career Built On Unnerving Visions

6:54pm October 25, 2014

by NPR Staff

As a young man, Jim Woodring was looking for a sign — and he found it in a huge, green hallucinated amphibian. His new book of old drawings, Jim, includes many works inspired by such "apparitions."

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The Life Of De Niro, From 'Mean Streets' To 'Meet The Parents'

11:57am October 25, 2014

by NPR Staff

Shawn Levy's brick-sized new biography of screen legend Robert De Niro was produced without cooperation from the actor — but Levy says that just forced him to do better research.

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Nuruddin Farah is the author of 11 novels, including Maps, Gifts and Secrets. He is a professor of literature at Bard.

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Arts

Novelist Nuruddin Farah: Facing A Blank Page Is 'Bravest Thing' A Writer Does

11:57am October 25, 2014

by NPR Staff

Farah's latest is called Hiding in Plain Sight. It's the story of Bella, a Somali photographer living in Rome who gets drawn into the lives of her niece and nephew after her half-brother is killed.

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Designer Diane Von Furstenberg has written a memoir called The Woman I Wanted to Be.

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40 Years Later, Diane Von Furstenberg's Wrap Dress Still Wears Well

6:59pm October 24, 2014

by NPR Staff

In her memoir, The Woman I Wanted to Be, Diane von Furstenberg says she owes her success to her mother, a strong, strict Holocaust survivor who called Diane her "torch of freedom."

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