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Reinventing the epic with 'The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois'
When you think of an epic, what comes to mind? The Iliad, the Odyssey, maybe Beowulf? Well, author Honorée Fanonne Jeffers points out that epics are almost always about white men. She told former Mor…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
Virtual memories live in 'The Candy House'
It's already pretty hard to tell what's really real when it comes to social media. But Jennifer Egan takes it one step further in her latest novel The Candy House where people can upload their actual…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
A Douglas Stuart double feature! 'Shuggie Bain' and 'Young Mungo'
Both interviews today are with author Douglas Stuart. The first about his Booker prize-winning Shuggie Bain; a story based on his own life growing up a queer son of a single mother struggling with ad…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
In 'Lessons in Chemistry,' a chemist is the star of ... a cooking show?
Bonnie Garmus' new novel Lessons In Chemistry has been getting a lot of buzz. Elizabeth Zott is a talented chemist but because it's the 1960s she faces sexism in her quest to work as a scientist. So …
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
How to manage a disaster in 'The Devil Never Sleeps'
Former Homeland Security official and author Juliette Kayyem has a new book out that encourages preparedness. The Devil Never Sleeps makes the case that disasters are going to happen, and gives advic…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
Novel 'Four Treasures of the Sky' focuses on the horrors of the Chinese Exclusion Act
Author Jenny Tinghui Zhang is out with a new historical fiction novel, Four Treasures In The Sky. Set in the 1800s during the height of anti-Chinese sentiment, a young girl named Daiyu is kidnapped a…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
Poet Ocean Vuong shares his grief in 'Time Is A Mother'
April is National Poetry Month, so to celebrate we are bringing you a conversation with poet Ocean Vuong. His new collection, Time Is A Mother, is about his grief after losing family members. Vuong t…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
Maud Newton and Jhumpa Lahiri interrogate one's place in the world
Writer Maud Newton could not ignore her family's white supremacist history, so she decided to reconcile with it in her new book Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation. She told NPR's Ari …
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
Viet Thanh Nguyen follows Pulitzer winning 'The Sympathizer' with 'The Committed'
Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel The Committed follows the same unnamed character we met in his Pulitzer-winning thriller, The Sympathizer. The character is now in Paris; having become disillusioned with th…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
'The Vortex' investigates how climate catastrophes can have unexpected consequences
In 1970, a cyclone tore through Pakistan and the political lines that existed, leading to genocide and very nearly a nuclear war in the country. Author Scott Carney was curious about this catastrophe…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago