Jun 16th, 2008 · Twenty years ago, author and literature professor Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina was looking for an undiscovered classic for her African-American-fiction class. What she found was Ann Petry's The Street, and she's been teaching it ever since.
May 1st, 2008 · Is it ever OK for writers to tell private stories for the good of the public? In a round-table discussion, three prominent writers — Annie Proulx, Uzodinma Iweala, and Michael Ondaatje — talk about the role of privacy in the public world of literature and the media.
Apr 16th, 2008 · Richard Shryock, Virginia Tech's chairman of foreign languages and literatures, lost two faculty members and 15 students in his department in last April's shootings. A year later, he's planting trees in quiet reflection over their loss.
Mar 31st, 2008 · Rachel Donadio talks about her essay in Sunday's New York Times, "It's Not You, It's Your Books." She writes that mismatched literary tastes can make it "chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast." Does love conquer literature? Listeners weigh in.
Mar 12th, 2008 · What can we learn from fiction about embattled New York governor Eliot Spitzer? UC Berkeley English professor Catherine Gallagher discusses classic examples of hypocrisy.
Feb 27th, 2008 · Karibu Books was the nation's largest black-owned chain of bookstores, specializing in African-American oriented literature. But after 15 years in operation, the CEO decided to pull the plug on Karibu, to the surprise of many. Simba Sana says his own spiritual growth aided in his decision to close shop.
Jan 18th, 2008 · Andrew Davies is the go-to screenwriter for adapting classic literature for television and the movies. He adapts Northanger Abbey and Sense and Sensibility as PBS prepares to air The Complete Jane Austen.
Dec 25th, 2007 · Pierre Bayard, professor of French literature at the University of Paris, is the author of How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read. Steve Inskeep hasn't read Bayard's book, but he gets some tips on how to talk about it.