Writer Lidia Yuknavitch's early failures made her feel unworthy of success. Now, she says, those moments push her to find worth in herself as a writer.
Megan Abbott's novel about a talented young gymnast and her mother starts with a mysterious death, but the real mysteries are the characters themselves: You never really know the people close to you.
In 1990, Walter Mosley first told the story of black postwar LA through Easy Rawlins, an Army vet turned private eye. It became Mosley's best-known series. He discusses Easy's creation and journey.
McPherson, the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, has died at 72. His work explored the intersection of white and black lives with deftness, subtlety and wry humor.
PBS NewsHour co-anchor Gwen Ifill joins All Things Considered from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, to discuss her 2009 book The Breakthrough. Ifill is re-examining the book's conclusions about black political leadership as President Obama prepares to leave office.
Three recent properties - a Netflix series, a comic book and a 2011 Hollywood film - borrow key elements from Steven Spielberg and Stephen King to comment on adolescence in very different ways.
Minicomics are kind of a relic — few artists now want to go to the trouble of printing and distributing paper comics. But there are still a few out there that are worth the trouble of hunting down.
A Key West bar holds an annual Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest. For the first time, an actual Hemingway won. Dave Hemingway (no relation) says he also likes to fish, drink and have a good time.
As TV dramas get better and better, publishers are getting into the game with serialized fiction. Some are even referring to what they publish as "episodes" and "seasons" rather than "books."
Charlotte Wood's short, gripping book focuses on 10 women who have been sent to a prison camp after various sex scandals. Critic John Powers calls The Natural Way of Things a ferocious novel.