The French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, was presented with a Freedom on Expression award from the PEN American Center this week. Six high-profile writers boycotted the awards ceremony at PEN's big annual gala. Hundreds more protested, while others gave the magazine's editors a standing ovation. The chariman of the PEN World Voices Festival is Colm Toibin, the celebrated Irish novelist. Toibin shares his thoughs on the controversy.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Mario Vargas Llosa is one of the godfathers of Latin American fiction. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010. He also once ran for president of his native country, Peru. Politics and literature are the driving forces in his life.
Pullman speaks with Steve Paulson about the fictional world he's created.
James McBride won the National Book Award for "The Good Lord Bird," his novel about the abolitionist John Brown. He explains why he doesn't like most fictional portraits of slavery and how he tried to tell a different story.
Karen Levine talks with Anne Strainchamps about “Hana’s Suitcase.” Hana Brady perished as a child in a Nazi death camp.
If you think the American middle class has it bad, consider life in debt-ridden Italy or Greece. Best-selling financial writer Michael Lewis portrays the downfall of several European countries with his usual verve, in Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World.
Rachel Naomi Remen tells Steve Paulson it’s important to treat the whole person, not just the disease and says she has no idea what happens at the end of life.
Kent Walker is the son of Sante Kimes, who is currently incarcerated for the murder of a New York woman. Walker is the author of a memoir called “Son of A Grifter.”
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