Author Interviews

Looking at difficult mathematics equations on a blackboard.

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Arts

'How Not To Be Wrong' In Math Class? Add A Dose Of Skepticism

11:01pm June 07, 2014

by NPR Staff

Professor Jordan Ellenberg gives students points for recognizing when they get a wrong answer, even if they can't figure out why. In his new book, he writes that good math is about good reasoning.

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'Take This Man': Uncovering A Mother's Reinventions

8:08pm June 07, 2014

by NPR Staff

When Brando Skyhorse was 3, he and his mother were abandoned by his Mexican father. So his mother created a new story line for the family, identifying herself and her young son as American Indian.

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Swallowed By The Times And The Fate Of 'Great Powers'

12:41pm June 07, 2014

Tom Rachman has written a book for book lovers in The Rise and Fall of Great Powers. The best-selling novelist talks with NPR's Scott Simon about the difference between reading and literature.

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Brothers rides down the front stretch before the 88th Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on May 18, 2012, in Baltimore.

For Jockey Donna Barton Brothers, Horse Racing Runs In The Family

3:35pm June 05, 2014

At the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, former jockey Donna Barton Brothers will interview the winner on horseback. Now an analyst for NBC, Brothers won more than 1,100 races before retiring in 1998.

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'Burning Down The House' Makes The Case Against Juvenile Incarceration

4:57pm June 04, 2014

by NPR Staff

In her new book, Nell Bernstein says America's juvenile justice system is overdue for reform. Time in jail as a child or teen, she says, is the best predictor of adult criminality and incarceration.

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Laura Bridgeman, A Pioneer 50 Years Before Helen Keller

11:38am May 31, 2014

What Is Visible imagines the life of Laura Bridgman, the first blind and deaf person to learn language, years before the more famous Helen Keller. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with author Kimberly Elkins.

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Tarquin Hall, shown here near the Rajpath in Delhi, is a British-born journalist and author. The Case of the Missing Servant, the first book in the Vish Puri series, was his first mystery novel.

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Mystery Series' Portly P.I. Peels Back The Layers Of Delhi Society

5:59pm May 28, 2014

by Julie McCarthy

Tarquin Hall's mystery novels, starring the Punjabi detective Vish Puri, are a merry introduction to India's cultural and culinary delights.

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Jassy Mackenzie was born in Rhodesia and moved to South Africa when she was eight years old. She edits and writes for the annual publication Best of South Africa.

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Hardcore With A Heart: Joburg Thrillers Star A Spunky P.I.

5:54pm May 28, 2014

by Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

Jassy Mackenzie's crime novels, set in Johannesburg, star the not-always-law-abiding private investigator Jade de Jong. Mackenzie says that de Jong and "Joburg" are well-matched.

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'Fresh Air' Remembers Poet And Memoirist Maya Angelou

3:10pm May 28, 2014

In 1986, Angelou spoke to Terry Gross about Southern influences in her writing, her love of autobiography and how, as a traumatized young girl, poetry inspired her to start speaking again.

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A view of Dan Barber's Stone Barns Center field and barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y.

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'Third Plate' Reimagines Farm-To-Table Eating To Nourish The Land

5:56pm May 23, 2014

by NPR Staff

Renee Montagne talks to Dan Barber about his new book The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food. Barber advocates eating a wider variety of foods that better support the land.

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