Books

Dawn Anahid MacKeen's grandfather, Stepan Miskjian (left), is pictured with friends around 1910, just a few years before the Armenian genocide.

Long After Armenian Genocide, Retracing A Grandfather's Steps To Survival

4:23pm January 15, 2016

by NPR Staff

For The Hundred-Year Walk, author Dawn Anahid MacKeen visited the sites of her grandfather's escape. Like him, she says she found a haven in Raqqa, Syria, a city currently controlled by ISIS.

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The Cedid atlas was "the first Muslim-published world atlas based on European geographic knowledge and cartographic methods," the Library of Congress writes. The National Library of Norway just discovered a previously unknown copy in their collection, aft

Norway's National Library Discovers Rare Atlas — With A Little Help From Reddit

4:19pm January 15, 2016

by Camila Domonoske

The Cedid was one of the first printed atlases from the Muslim world. There were 14 known copies in existence — until a Norwegian reference librarian with a fondness for /r/MapPorn noticed something.

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Arts

Herman Wouk Says He's A 'Happy Gent' At 100

5:09pm January 14, 2016

by Lynn Neary

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of beloved blockbusters like The Winds of War is celebrating his milestone with a new memoir, Sailor and Fiddler, that sums up his thoughts on what it means to write.

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The American South informed much of C.D. Wright's poetry.

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Arts

'Elegant And Cruel And True': The Life And Death Of Poet C.D. Wright

5:00pm January 14, 2016

by Craig Morgan Teicher

C.D. Wright was beloved not only for her poetry, but for her personality. Critic Craig Morgan Teicher has this remembrance of a writer who loomed large in his imagination and in his life.

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Arts

The Failed Coup That Led To Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'

4:33pm January 14, 2016

Adolf Hitler wrote his famous manifesto while serving time for an attempted coup that started in a German beer hall. Author Peter Ross Range says, "There was an obvious need to get his message out."

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Arts

Super Bowl Commercial Inspires Maraniss To Write About Detroit's Better Times

2:15pm January 14, 2016

David Greene talks to journalist David Maraniss about a key moment when Detroit seemed to rule the world. Maraniss has written a history of Detroit's commerce and culture called Once in a Great City.

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Frisky, Subversive 'American Housewife' Practices Shock And Awwww

2:12pm January 14, 2016

by Heller McAlpin

The slightly demented homemakers in Helen Ellis' new collection wield sharp elbows and sharper knives, but critic Heller McAlpin says the stories build to touching, unexpected punchlines.

Books

'Bad News' Chronicles The Loss Of Press Freedom In Rwanda

7:25pm January 13, 2016

NPR's Kelly McEvers talks with author Anjan Sundaram about his new book, Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship, which tells the story of dwindling press freedom in Rwanda.

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'My Ears Are Open': Novelist Elizabeth Strout Finds Inspiration In Everyday Life

2:21pm January 13, 2016

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge says she was a "bad lawyer" before turning her energies to writing. Her latest novel, My Name is Lucy Barton, is about an aspiring writer.

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Somalis living in the Dadaab camp in Kenya gather to watch the arrival of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees last May.

The World's Largest Refugee Camp Looks Like A Slum/Star Wars Mashup

2:46pm January 12, 2016

by NPR Staff

But for thousands of Somali refugees, the camp in Dadaab, Kenya, is the only home they've ever known.

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