Author Interviews

Author Beth Macy worked for years as a reporter for the Roanoke Times. "When I became a journalist, I gravitated to those kinds of stories of what I call 'outsiders and underdogs,' " she says.

How A Factory Man Fought To Save His Furniture Company

3:34pm July 14, 2014

Virginia furniture owner John Bassett III was determined to beat out foreign competitors. Author Beth Macy documents him, and the collapse of the U.S. furniture industry, in her new book, Factory Man.

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The decline of honeybees has been attributed to a variety of causes, from nasty parasites to the stress of being transported from state to state to feed on various crops in need of pollination.

Biologist Says Promoting Diversity Is Key To 'Keeping The Bees'

3:32pm July 09, 2014

Laurence Packer says humans need to appreciate both domestic bees and the some 20,000 species of wild bees. His book Keeping The Bees explores all types, including some that feed on tears.

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Playwright and writer Samuel Beckett, shown here around 1970, wrote Echo's Bones at his editor's request — only to have it cut from his first collection.

Books
Arts

Release Of 'Echo's Bones' Resurrects Beckett's Rejected Work

7:14pm July 05, 2014

by NPR Staff

The story, which is about a man who comes back to life, was meant to be the final piece in Samuel Beckett's first collection of stories. But his original editor refused to publish it.

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Books
Arts

A Noodle-Maker's Daughter Falls For Ballroom Dancing In 'Mambo'

1:08pm July 05, 2014

by NPR Staff

Jean Kwok, the award-winning writer of Girl in Translation, has written a new book called Mambo in Chinatown, a Cinderella story about a 22-year-old Chinese-American torn between two cultures.

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Paul Greenberg is also the author of Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food.

Books
Arts

'The Great Fish Swap': How America Is Downgrading Its Seafood Supply

12:09pm July 03, 2014

One-third of the seafood Americans catch is sold abroad, but most of the seafood we eat here is imported and often of lower quality. Why? Author Paul Greenberg says it has to do with American tastes.

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Colombia Advances In World Cup, Two Decades After Infamous Murder

6:27pm June 29, 2014

In 1994, star player Andres Escobar was killed just weeks after he scored an own goal in the Cup. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with Colombian-American journalist and novelist John Rojas about the crime.

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Everything I Never Told You is Celeste Ng's debut novel about a Chinese-American family living in 1970s Ohio. She is currently working on a second novel and a collection of short stories.

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Arts

'Everything I Never Told You' Exposed In Biracial Family's Loss

6:22pm June 28, 2014

by NPR Staff

In times of tragedy, our deepest insecurities can take over. In Celeste Ng's new novel, set in the Midwest in the late 1970s, the fear that bubbles up is related to race and identity.

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Books
Arts

After The Rapture, Who Are 'The Leftovers'?

1:25pm June 27, 2014

Tom Perrotta's 2011 novel examined the aftermath of an unexplained rapturelike event. A new HBO series inspired by The Leftovers begins Sunday. Originally broadcast Aug. 25, 2011.

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Books
Arts

A Reclusive Novelist Reckons With His Legacy '& Sons'

3:00pm June 20, 2014

David Gilbert tells the story of a famous, aging writer whose children do not feel as warmly toward him as his readers do. Originally broadcast July 23, 2013.

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National

Writer Reflects On Aircraft Carrier's Mission To The Persian Gulf

3:06pm June 18, 2014

Geoff Dyer spent two weeks aboard the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush for his book Another Great Day at Sea. He talks with Fresh Air about his book, and the carrier's latest position for possible air strikes.

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