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'Transit' Is A Journey You Won't Want To End

7:00am January 17, 2017

by Heller McAlpin

Rachel Cusk's latest — the second in a trilogy that began with Outline — follows a writer unmoored by the breakup of her marriage, and the people she meets as she goes about her strange new life.

First lady Michelle Obama speaks as she welcomes community leaders from across the country to celebrate the successes and share best practices to continue the work of the Mayor's Challenge to End Veterans' Homelessness East Room of the White House complex

'Meaning of Michelle' Essays Celebrate First Lady's Realness

8:32am January 16, 2017

by Tanya Ballard Brown

In a new collection, 16 essayists describe how Michelle Obama helped change the perception of black women and the White House.

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Arts

'The New Odyssey' Allows Migrants Stories To Humanize The Crisis

6:05pm January 15, 2017

The Guardian's Migration Correspondent Patrick Kingsley's book The New Odyssey follows several migrants on their journeys from war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa to Europe.

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How To Tell A Story Through Emails

8:02am January 15, 2017

Hey Harry, Hey Matilda is a funny and sometimes icky story of twins. It's told through the twins' emails and unfolds around a lie. Author Rachel Hulin tells Lulu Garcia-Navarro about her new novel.

Zhou Youguang sits at home in Beijing, in 2015. Born when a Qing dynasty emperor was on the throne, he went on to help invent the Pinyin writing system used for transliterating the Chinese alphabet.

Zhou Youguang, Architect Of A Bridge Between Languages, Dies At 111

5:07pm January 14, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

In the 1950s, the linguist — then an "amateur" — helped create a system to Romanize Chinese writing. Zhou's system helped boost literacy and diminished the linguistic divide between East and West.

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The Author Of 'The Exorcist,' William Peter Blatty, Dies At 89

10:58am January 14, 2017

The author of the novel The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty, has died at the age of 89. Scott Simon spoke with him in 2011 about the novel — and he said he never meant for it to be so scary.

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A Century-Old Poet Looks Back — And Fearlessly Forward — In 'Purgatory'

8:08am January 14, 2017

by NPR Staff

Henry Morgenthau III had a long and eventful life even before he started writing poetry in his 90s. Now, at age 100, he's promoting his first poetry collection, called A Sunday in Purgatory.

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Veronica Roth's 'Carve The Mark' Is A Fantasy Inspired By Chronic Pain

8:08am January 14, 2017

by NPR Staff

The Divergent author's new series takes place in a world where everyone has a gift that reflects their personality. One character has what Roth describes as "a supernatural form of chronic pain."

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Arts

In 'Cold Eye,' A Small Story That Packs A Big Punch

7:00am January 14, 2017

by Jason Sheehan

The second installment of Laura Anne Gilman's gritty, mythmaking Devil's West series follows Isobel, the Devil's Left Hand, as she learns the extent of her powers and battles an ancient, angry spirit.

William Peter Blatty, Author Of 'The Exorcist,' Dies At 89

11:20pm January 13, 2017

by The Associated Press

The novelist died from cancer on Thursday. Blatty was best known for writing the best-selling 1971 horror fiction about a 12-year-old girl, possessed by the devil, before the 1973 film became a hit.