The Academy of American Poets names its first Latino head
Ricardo Alberto Maldonado will become the almost-90-year-old academy's executive director and president.
Books
Remembering acclaimed editor Robert Gottlieb
Gottlieb, who died June 14 at 92, edited Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison, John le Carré and, for more than 50 years, Robert Caro. We listen back to an interview with Gottlieb from just a few months ago.
Two new novels illustrate just how hard it is to find a foothold in America
Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans is a sexually-explicit, cynical novel about young people striving. Such Kindness, by Andre Dubus III, grapples with injury, addiction, masculinity and loneliness.
'Rich White Men' reinforces the argument that inequality harms us all
While not a new concept, Garrett Neiman makes distinct contributions to the conversation; as a rich white man, he has insider's access to that population — and doesn't shy away from self-indictment.
In 'The Fight for Midnight,' a teen boy confronts the abortion debate
Dan Solomon's YA novel The Fight for Midnight takes place during former Texas state lawmaker Wendy Davis' filibuster of a bill that would restrict access to abortion. The protagonist is a teen boy.
Mother-daughter relationships are fraught. Jenny Xie explores how
Jenny Xie's new novel dives into how "strange, infuriating and precious" mothers can be to their daughters.
Jenny Xie tackles a fraught mother-daughter relationship in novel 'Holding Pattern'
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Jenny Xie about her first novel, Holding Pattern. It takes a familiar story — a young adult who decides to move home — and flips it on its head.
'The Brightest Star' tells Anna May Wong's life story from her imagined perspective
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with author Gail Tsukiyama about her new novel The Brightest Star, a fictional account of the life of actress Anna May Wong.
Pain and pleasure do the tango in the engrossing new novel 'Kairos'
A young student in East Berlin falls in love with a much older writer in the run-up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a love story and a rich portrait of people watching their country disappear.
A new book celebrates the contributions of America's Black working class
In Black Folk, Blair Kelley portrays generations of Black workers — Pullman porters, domestic laborers, USPS employees, COVID-19 essential workers — who have contributed to the nation's prosperity.