Sven Birkerts tried to write a novel, but realized he had more success writing about fiction than writing fiction. He tells Steve Paulson how he became a literary critic.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Charles R. Cross talks about Kurt Cobain's influence on hip-hop.
Ever since the Cold War ended, we've largely forgotten about the threat of nuclear war. Ron Rosenbaum says that's a huge mistake. In fact, the threat is very real in today's world.
The first stories in "Thousand and One Nights" were written down in the ninth century. They’ve been added to over the years. In some ways, it’s not so much a book as a living river of stories. Some of the most recent additions come from the celebrated novelist Salman Rushdie.
You can also hear many more interviews with Rushdie.
Tom Matthews' first novel, “Like We Care,” tells what happens when some teenagers simply stop spending money on all the stuff that’s marketed to them.
Everyone's afraid of something. Here's a small sampling of fears from Question Bridge: Black Males, a transmedia project that fosters dialogue between African American men of diverse backgrounds.
Question Bridge: Black Males was created by Chris Johnson and Hank WIllis Thomas, with Bayeté Ross Smith and Kamal Sinclair.
Vikram Chandra writes in English, the language of the colonizer, and faces accusations that he's not really an Indian writer.
Olivia Laing says John Cheever's "The Swimmer" is one of the finest short stories every written.
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