Author Interviews

Books
Arts

'The Woman Upstairs': A Saga Of Anger And Thwarted Ambition

2:59pm May 09, 2013

In her new novel, Emperor's Children author Claire Messud explores the complicated relationship between two women: Nora, who longed to be an artist and have a family but failed, and the woman Nora befriends, who puts her art first and built a family as well.

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Burt Bacharach has just released a memoir, Anyone Who Had a Heart.

Burt Bacharach: 'Never Be Afraid Of Something That You Can Whistle'

10:25am May 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

The award-winning songwriter speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the value of melody, and writing a song about rain for a movie scene that had none.

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Patricia Volk is an essayist, novelist and memoirist. She recounts her experiences growing up in a restaurant-owning family in New York City, in her memoir Stuffed.

Books
Arts

'Shocked': Patricia Volk's Memoir About Beauty And Its Beholders

3:18pm May 07, 2013

Even as a child, Patricia Volk knew she would never measure up to her strikingly beautiful mother. But after reading the memoir of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, Volk found a new understanding of beauty that had more to do with personality than a pretty face.

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The term "third coast" refers to American cities that sit on the Great Lakes shoreline, like Chicago.

Books
Arts

Through Art And Industry, Chicago Shaped America

10:16am May 07, 2013

by NPR Staff

Blues, jazz and gospel; a civil rights movement that began with the Emmett Till case; modern glass and steel buildings that dared the sky. In Third Coast, Thomas Dyja writes that "the most profound aspects of American Modernity grew up out of the flat, prairie land next to Lake Michigan."

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Author Benjamin Alire Saenz writes about life on the U.S.-Mexico border. Here he holds his latest book, Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, in front of "$26," a painting by Francisco Delgado (the presidents in the painting appear on American

Vibrant 'Club' Links Two Countries In Award-Winning Book

3:27pm May 06, 2013

by Monica Ortiz Uribe

Benjamin Alire Saenz won this year's PEN/Faulkner award for his latest collection of short stories, Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club. The real-life Kentucky Club is just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and Saenz joined a reporter there to talk about life in two countries.

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Cover of The Selected Letters of Willa Cather

Books
Arts

'Wonderful Words' In Willa Cather's No-Longer-Secret Letters

3:27pm May 06, 2013

by NPR Staff

Willa Cather's will forbade the publication of her private letters, but that will has now expired. The Selected Letters of Willa Cather contains more than 500 missives — including one that details the real-life story behind Cather's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, One of Ours.

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Books
Arts

A Tale From The Delta, Born Of The Blues

7:20pm May 05, 2013

by NPR Staff

Bill Cheng's debut novel, Southern Cross the Dog, is full of mythical characters who feel like they rose right out of the Mississippi Swamp, and narratives that churn and swirl like the river itself. Cheng calls the novel "a love note to those old blues players."

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Book cover detail: Papadaddy's Book For New Fathers

Books
Arts

Advice For New Dads From A Veteran Father Of Four

8:28pm May 03, 2013

Novelist Clyde Edgerton has four kids; one is an adult, and the other three are all younger than 10. His new book, Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers, is a guide for dads that's written from his perspective as an older father. Pay heed, expectant fathers: Install that car seat now.

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Casual clothing detail fashion background made in the USA

Ethical Fashion: Is The Tragedy In Bangladesh A Final Straw?

4:05pm May 02, 2013

Since a garment factory collapsed last month in Dhaka, killing more than 400 people, ethical fashion has been in the spotlight. Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Price of Cheap Fashion, explains the economy that created this tragedy and what we can do to fix it.

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Criminologist Believes Violent Behavior Is Biological

1:22pm May 01, 2013

In a new book, The Anatomy of Violence, Adrian Raine argues that violent behavior has a biological basis just like depression or schizophrenia. This raises questions about treatment, accountability and punishment, including the death penalty.

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