Patricia Smith is an African American who's the four-time champion of the National Poetry Slam.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Naturalist and environmental activist Janisse Ray talks with Jim Fleming about her memoir, "Ecology of A Cracker Childhood." Ray now devotes herself to long leaf pine restoration.
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.
Linda Kauffman talks with Jim Fleming about artists who make deliberately provocative and sensational art. She feels it’s a good thing to challenge our beliefs about what can be seen.
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.
Jennifer Cohen flew off to Russia to be a journalist and live with the man of her dreams. Things didn’t quite work out the way she planned
Many things can evoke a memory. Like a smell. Or a touch. When Mamek Khadem wanted to evoke the memory of her native Iran during the Islamic revolution in 1979, she did it with music.
So romance is about attraction, about intimacy, and sometimes about sex. Sometimes, it's also about love. And love is all around.
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