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'The Scent of Burnt Flowers' uses fiction to explore a real, historical event
Blitz Bazawule directed the first Ghanaian original film to be released on Netflix, co-directed Beyonce's visual album 'Black is King', directed the upcoming film musical version of 'The Color Purple…
Published on 3 years, 3 months ago
Author weaves family history with fiction in debut novel
In Belinda Huijuan Tang's debut novel, A Map For the Missing, readers can find parallels between Tang's personal history and her fiction. The book touches on family mystery, personal identity and co…
Published on 3 years, 3 months ago
Mohsin Hamid and Alora Young detail the impact of colorism in their stories
The two books featured in this episode illustrate the impact of colorism in society. First up is The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. In conversation with Scott Simon, Hamid talks about his personal e…
Published on 3 years, 4 months ago
Romance novelist pokes fun at genre while writing it, in 'Thank You for Listening'
Author and audiobook narrator Julia Whelan says narrating her own second book, Thank You for Listening, was "so meta, that it just spins off its axis." It's about a former on-camera actress who suffe…
Published on 3 years, 4 months ago
In new memoir, Sen. Tim Scott details the second chances he's gotten
In an interview with NPR's Juana Summers, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina talks about the second chances he's been given by his mother and his constituents, which he also details in his new memoir…
Published on 3 years, 4 months ago
A daughter helps her mom finish her book 'Properties of Thirst'
Marianne Wiggins had started to write her latest book Properties of Thirst when she had a stroke in 2016. So her daughter Lara Porzak, helped her finish it. Porzak described the experience as "hard, …
Published on 3 years, 4 months ago
Criminal justice reform and resilience are central in Albert Woodfox's 'Solitary'
In an interview with the author of Solitary, the issue of criminal justice reform is central. Alfred Woodfox, who served 43 years in prison – most in solitary confinement, for a crime he says he didn…
Published on 3 years, 4 months ago
Nikole Hannah Jones and Adam Rubin work to make kids' books more approachable
Today's interviews center on children's books with wildly different topics, but they both aim to make reading more accessible for kids. Nikole Hannah Jones, working with Renee Watson, turned the 1619…
Published on 3 years, 4 months ago
'South To America' shows how southern history shaped our nation
Author Imani Perry is a child of the South. In her newest book South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, she gives the reader a look at the South's complic…
Published on 3 years, 4 months ago
Chinese American culture, murder mystery, and Dostoyevsky in 'The Family Chao'
Patriarch Leo Chao is murdered at his restaurant at the beginning of Lan Samantha Chang's new novel The Family Chao. Eventually family secrets and bitterness reveal themselves — much like a Dostoyevs…
Published on 3 years, 4 months ago