Author Interviews

The new poet laureate of the United States, Tracy K. Smith, visits the Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center in Washington, D.C., last month.

Tracy K. Smith, New U.S. Poet Laureate, Calls Poems Her 'Anchor'

8:23am June 14, 2017

by Camila Domonoske

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet says she plans to use her new role to meet people who don't read poetry ... yet, anyway. She believes poetry can be a resource for people in fraught or isolating times.

Books
Arts

Tracy K. Smith Named U.S. Poet Laureate

5:13am June 14, 2017

by Lynn Neary

The Library of Congress has named Tracy K. Smith as the the country's new poet laureate. She's the author of three collections of poetry and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2012.

Books
Arts

What Makes A Good Whodunit? 'Magpie Murders' Author Spells It Out

4:32pm June 13, 2017

by Lynn Neary

Anthony Horowitz's latest novel is a whodunit about whodunits. He says, "I wanted it to be ... a sort of a treatise on the whole genre of murder mystery writing."

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Journalist Ventured 'Behind The Lines Of Jihad' To Interview The World's Most Wanted

1:26pm June 13, 2017

Washington Post correspondent Souad Mekhennet has risked kidnapping and imprisonment to report on extremist groups, such as ISIS and the Taliban. Her new memoir is I Was Told to Come Alone.

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'Hue 1968' Revisits An American 'Turning Point' In The War In Vietnam

1:38pm June 12, 2017

Author Mark Bowden says the capture of Hue, Vietnam, was part of a wave of well-planned Communist attacks that shocked American commanders and helped turn U.S. public opinion against the war.

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The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South by John T. Edge.

Race, Class And Paying Down Southern Food's Great 'Debt Of Pleasure'

12:48pm June 11, 2017

In his book, The Potlikker Papers, John T. Edge tells the story of modern Southern history through food — which means "explicitly digging into issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity," he says.

Books

'Blind Spot' Is A Multimedia Journal Of Travel

8:12am June 11, 2017

Novelist and photographer Teju Cole's latest book is a mix of text and photography. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro asks him about his book Blind Spot.

Books
Arts

The Man Behind Wonder Woman Was Inspired By Both Suffragists And Centerfolds

2:05pm June 09, 2017

Wonder Woman's creator had a few secrets of his own. Historian Jill Lepore describes William Moulton Marstothe's unusual life in The Secret History of Wonder Woman. Originally broadcast Oct. 27, 2014.

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"Racial impostor syndrome" is definitely a thing for many people. We hear from biracial and multi-ethnic listeners who connect with feeling "fake" or inauthentic in some part of their racial or ethnic heritage.

'Racial Impostor Syndrome': Here Are Your Stories

5:26pm June 08, 2017

by Leah Donnella

We got more than 100 letters from our listeners about how y'all feel like fakes. Here are some of our favorites.

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Manal al-Sharif grew up in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. She was the first woman to work in the information security division at Aramco, the Saudi national oil company.

For One Saudi Woman, 'Daring To Drive' Was An Act Of Civil Disobedience

3:03pm June 08, 2017

by Terry Gross

In 2011, Manal al-Sharif filming herself driving in a country where women are banned from getting behind the wheel. Driving, she says, is "a way to emancipate women. It gives them so much liberty."

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