Podcasts about national book award winner

  I remember getting the knife.     It was near Christmas about 10 years ago and Leslie and I were zipping up a tiny suitcase before a beach trip with her grandparents and extended family. We weren't married and I was making a desperate last-second plea to stuff a 576-page novel called ‘The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen into our bag. “It just won't fit,” Leslie said. “You have … 100 pages left? Want to leave it and read it when we're back?”     I did *not* want to do that.     The book was slipping under my skin—serrating my soul.     So I remember getting that knife.     The deep blasphemous pain I felt slicing the paperback spine and carving the last 100-ish pages off the book was far outweighed by the exquisite suite of pleasures I had slowly savoring it on the beach all week.     I had never read anything like ‘The Corrections'—with a clarity of character, wildly spinning plot, and unique three-dimensional *realness* that, page by page, twist by twist, left pits in my stomach, lumps in my throat, and tears in my eyes.     The book single-handedly elevated what I thought books could do.     I read ‘Freedom' (2010), ‘Purity' (2014), and Crossroads (2021) the same way—equal parts admiration, fascination, and with a psychologically-transporting feeling of living outside of myself.     Jonathan Franzen is one of the most successful, accomplished, and decorated writers in the world. He is a Fulbright Scholar, National Book Award Winner, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, PEN/Faulkner Finalist, 2x Oprah's Book Club Pick, voted to TIME's ‘100 Most Influential' list as well as gracing their cover as "Great American Novelist," and much, much more.     The NYT calls his books "masterpieces of American fiction," NYMag calls his books "works of total genius," and Chuck Klosterman writing in GQ says "Franzen is the most important fiction writer in America, and—if viewed from a distance—perhaps the only important one.”     Tall praise! But there is just nothing like a Jonathan Franzen novel and it was sheer delight going deep with the master of the deep to discuss writing advice, the magic of the written word, what heroes look like today, competing with David Foster Wallace, the best thing we can do for the climate, Jon's 3 most formative books, and much, much more…     Let's turn the page to Chapter 137 now…

"The 2015 National Book Award Winner is a deep look at being black in America today"

Beth Golay recently spoke with "The Vulnerables" author Sigrid Nunez about the autobiographical aspects that emerge in her novels, her extensive literary references, and more.

NOTE: This is an updated replay of an amazing chat I had with New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award winner, James McBride. His latest novel, THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE, was named Amazon's #1 Book of the Year Pick, and Barnes & Noble's Book of the Year, among many other accolades for 2023. Congrats James! New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award winner, James McBride, spoke to me about eschewing literary fame, his friendship with Spike Lee, and his latest novel THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE. James McBride is a musician, screenwriter, and award-winning author of New York Times bestselling Oprah's Book Club selection Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award–winner The Good Lord Bird (now a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke), and the American classic The Color of Water. His debut novel, Miracle at St. Anna, was turned into a 2008 film by Oscar-winning writer and director Spike Lee, with a script written by McBride.  The author's latest novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, was an Instant New York Times Bestseller and Named a Must Read for the Summer by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Time, Town & Country, and others. Described as “... a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them,” it begins in 1972 when workers in Pottstown, PA, find a skeleton at the bottom of a well. The New York Times Book Review called the book, “A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel.” James McBride received a National Humanities Medal from President Obama, “... for humanizing the complexities of discussing race in America.” He is a distinguished writer in residence at New York University. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file James McBride and I discussed:  Why he finds no joy in being well-known How The Color of Water changed his career The lessons he learned from Michael Jackson The hyperbole of the literary world and standing on the shoulders of giants How we're all more alike than we are different Why writers must seek out their mentors And a lot more! Show Notes: jamesmcbride.com The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel by James McBride (Amazon)  James McBride on Facebook James McBride on Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ned Blackhawk's book 'The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History,' just won a National Book Award. In recognition of that award, we listen back to our interview with Professor Blackhawk. We also hear Professor of Law Matthew L.M. Fletcher give us the context around the Supreme Court ruling on the Indian Child Welfare Act from earlier this year. GUESTS: Matthew L. M. Fletcher: the Harry Burns Hutchins Collegiate Professor of Law and Professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan and a citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. He is appointed to the appellate court of several tribes Ned Blackhawk: Professor of History and American Studies at Yale. His most recent book, 'The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History,' just won a National Book Award This episode originally aired on July 5, 2023. Special thanks to our interns Carol Chen and Stacey Addo.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award winner, James McBride, spoke to me about eschewing literary fame, his friendship with Spike Lee, and his latest novel THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE. James McBride is a musician, screenwriter, and award-winning author of New York Times bestselling Oprah's Book Club selection Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award–winner The Good Lord Bird (now a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke), and the American classic The Color of Water. His debut novel, Miracle at St. Anna, was turned into a 2008 film by Oscar-winning writer and director Spike Lee, with a script written by McBride.  The author's latest novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, was an Instant New York Times Bestseller and Named a Must Read for the Summer by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Time, Town & Country, and others. Described as “... a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them,” it begins in 1972 when workers in Pottstown, PA, find a skeleton at the bottom of a well. The New York Times Book Review called the book, “A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel.” James McBride received a National Humanities Medal from President Obama, “... for humanizing the complexities of discussing race in America.” He is a distinguished writer in residence at New York University. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file James McBride and I discussed:  Why he finds no joy in being well-known How The Color of Water changed his career The lessons he learned from Michael Jackson The hyperbole of the literary world and standing on the shoulders of giants How we're all more alike than we are different Why writers must seek out their mentors And a lot more! Show Notes: jamesmcbride.com The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel by James McBride (Amazon)  James McBride on Facebook James McBride on Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James McBride's newest book is THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them. As the story begins, it's 1972. Workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania are digging the foundations for a new development, and the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.  When the truth is finally revealed about what happened and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community— heaven and earth— that sustain us. James McBride is an award-winning writer, musician, and screenwriter, the author of eight books, and brother to 11 siblings. His landmark memoir, The Color of Water, published in 1996, has sold millions of copies.  Considered an American classic, it is read in schools and universities across the US.     --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Tiya Miles is best known as a historian and the author of the National Book Award winner All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, A Black Family Keepsake. But Tiya had preceded All That She Carried with a novel The Cherokee Rose, published in 2015, which she has revised and has just been reissued with a new introduction.  The novel moves from contemporary Georgia to the early 1800s and back again, as it explores the intertwined and sometime painful histories of indigenous peoples and enslaved Black communities and those repercussions still felt in the 21st century. Drawn from Miles's imagination but based in her scholarly research,  The Cherokee Rose foregrounds the voices and experiences of women: Black, indigenous, multi-racial, and white while it shines a light on a little-known history.  In this podcast, Tiya Miles talks about the challenges for her as an historian in writing a novel, what fiction allows her to explore, how writing the novel helped her think creatively when she conceptualized and wrote All That She Carried We also discuss her winning the MacArthur Fellowship and the freedom it gave her, her reasons for revising The Cherokee Rose, and how she draws hope from the creative determination of the women that she has spent her life studying.

Tiya Miles is best known as a historian and the author of the National Book Award winner All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, A Black Family Keepsake. But Tiya had preceded All That She Carried with a novel The Cherokee Rose, published in 2015, which she has revised and has just been reissued with a new introduction.  The novel moves from contemporary Georgia to the early 1800s and back again, as it explores the intertwined and sometime painful histories of indigenous peoples and enslaved Black communities and those repercussions still felt in the 21st century. Drawn from Miles's imagination but based in her scholarly research,  The Cherokee Rose foregrounds the voices and experiences of women: Black, indigenous, multi-racial, and white while it shines a light on a little-known history.  In this podcast, Tiya Miles talks about the challenges for her as an historian in writing a novel, what fiction allows her to explore, how writing the novel helped her think creatively when she conceptualized and wrote All That She Carried We also discuss her winning the MacArthur Fellowship and the freedom it gave her, her reasons for revising The Cherokee Rose, and how she draws hope from the creative determination of the women that she has spent her life studying.

To kick off Season 2, we have the wonderful Tess Gunty: An award-winning author whose first published novel, The Rabbit Hutch, received the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction. She holds a BA in English with Honors in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame, and an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU. Tess joins Emily to discuss intentionality behind focus and attention, the journey behind writing her first published novel, and the experience of living an external life as an introvert.

Washington Post national political enterprise reporter Robert Samuels speaks with Imani Perry, author of “South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation,” which recently won the National Book Award for nonfiction, about what she learned writing the book about America's past and present. Conversation recorded on Tuesday, November 29, 2022.

#PodcastersForJustice Addendum: Hey just a quick addendum on this week's redux, I am out of town this week and enjoying the sweatiest summer of all time with my kids, but I wanted to revisit a fantastic episode with now National Book Award Winner, Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction Winner, Pushcart Prize nominee, NAACP Image Award nominee, and Carnegie Medals For Excellence Longlist nominee Jason Mott. Congrats! Enjoy, I'll catch you next week with some fresh writerly wisdom. New York Times bestselling author, Jason Mott, took a timeout to talk with me about the high-wire act of building Hell of a Book, talking about race in America, and NOT working with Brad Pitt. Jason is the author of The Returned, a New York Times bestseller that was turned into a TV series that ran for two seasons. His fourth novel is titled Hell of a Book, and is described as a "... funny and honest [work of fiction] that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans, and America as a whole." The book has been named to dozens of "Must Read" lists for 2021 including Entertainment Weekly, The NY Post, GMA, USA Today, Fortune's 21 Most Anticipated Books Coming out in the Second Half of 2021 and more. Charles Yu, author of National Book Award winner Interior Chinatown called the book, "Playful, searching, raw and necessary..." Jason has BFA in fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction have appeared in various literary journals. Stay calm and write on ... Discover The Writer Files Extra Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please "Follow" us to automatically see new interviews. In this file Jason Mott and I discussed: What it's like to write a book in your head for a decade Why he dared to dream to become a writer How to build a technically complex novel, draft by draft His study and love of film noir And why writers need to be nicer to themselves Show Notes: JasonMottAuthor.com Hell of a Book: A Novel by Jason Mott Jason Mott Amazon author page Jason Mott on Facebook Jason Mott on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nate Powell, National Book Award Winner as cartoonist/illustrator of the great Congressman John Lewis' (with Andrew Aydin) powerful graphic memoir of the Civil Rights Era,  “MARCH “ vols. 1, 2 and 3, is here to talk about both that and his latest work, “Save It For Later: Promises, Parenthood and the urgency of Protest” in the Trump and post-Trump eras.  Nate Powell: Website: http://seemybrotherdance.org Instagram : @seemybrotherdance Twitter : @Nate_Powell_Art     Geoff: instagram: @greenscreencomic website: geoffgrogan.com patreon.com/geoffgrogan

Bill welcomes award-winning novelist Jason Mott to the show. Jason is a Bestselling author, National Book Award Winner, Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction Winner, Pushcart Prize nominee, and Carnegie Medals For Excellence Longlist nominee, His poetry and fiction has appeared in various literary journals, and Entertainment Weekly listed him as one of their 10 “New Hollywood: Next Wave” people to watch. He is the author of two poetry collections: We Call This Thing Between Us Love and “…hide behind me…”  He is the author of four novels:  The Returned, The Wonder of All Things, The Crossing, and Hell Of A Book. The Returned, Jason's debut novel, was adapted by Brad Pitt's production company, and aired on the ABC network under the title “Resurrection.” His fourth novel, Hell Of A Book, won the the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.

In this special episode, Connor and Jack discuss the 2021 National Book Awards - the long list, the finalists, and the winner "Floaters: Poems" by Martín Espada. They dig into an excerpt from the title poem "Floaters" and discuss how it brings urgent attention to issues of immigration and uses narrative to fight against the dehumanizing language often used to describe those seeking a better life in the United States. Listen to the National Book Awards Finalist Reading, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts4YxshQK10 Learn more about Espada, here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/martin-espada Get a copy of "Floaters: Poems" here: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393541038 Read all of "Floaters" here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/151158/floaters-5d8d0d07466b9 Excerpt from Floaters By: Martín Espada "Ok, I'm gonna go ahead and ask ... have ya'll ever seen floaters this clean. I'm not trying to be an a$$ but I HAVE NEVER SEEN FLOATERS LIKE THIS, could this be another edited photo. We've all seen the dems and liberal parties do some pretty sick things." —Anonymous post, “I'm 10-15” Border Patrol Facebook group Like a beer bottle thrown into the river by a boy too drunk to cry, like the shard of a Styrofoam cup drained of coffee brown as the river, like the plank of a fishing boat broken in half by the river, the dead float. And the dead have a name: floaters, say the men of the Border Patrol, keeping watch all night by the river, hearts pumping coffee as they say the word floaters, soft as a bubble, hard as a shoe as it nudges the body, to see if it breathes, to see if it moans, to see if it sits up and speaks. And the dead have names, a feast day parade of names, names that dress all in red, names that twirl skirts, names that blow whistles, names that shake rattles, names that sing in praise of the saints: Say Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez. Say Angie Valeria Martínez Ávalos. See how they rise off the tongue, the calling of bird to bird somewhere in the trees above our heads, trilling in the dark heart of the leaves. Say what we know of them now they are dead: Óscar slapped dough for pizza with oven-blistered fingers. Daughter Valeria sang, banging a toy guitar. He slipped free of the apron he wore in the blast of the oven, sold the motorcycle he would kick till it sputtered to life, counted off pesos for the journey across the river, and the last of his twenty-five years, and the last of her twenty-three months. There is another name that beats its wings in the heart of the trees: Say Tania Vanessa Ávalos, Óscar's wife and Valeria's mother, the witness stumbling along the river.

Phil Klay, National Book Award Winner and Iraq War Veteran, and Colonel David Harper sit down with us to discuss our publication of Klay's story Ten Kliks South in collaboration with the Thornwillow West Point Fellows. While we reflect on the nature of modern warfare, we also remember the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the conflicts that followed. Support the show (https://thornwillow.com/thornwillow-dispatch)

Wendy Lower is an American historian and a widely published author on the Holocaust and World War II. Since 2012, she holds the John K. Roth Chair at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, and in 2014 was named the director of the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at Claremont. As of 2016, she serves as the interim director of the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. She is the author of the National Book Award Winner, Hitler's Furies, and most recently of The Ravine. Books by Wendy Lower: Hitler's Furies The Ravine Books Recommended by Wendy Lower: Caste - Isabelle Wilkerson Poems by Henri Cole - Henri Cole Grief - David Shneer About The Inquiring Mind Podcast: I created The Inquiring Mind Podcast in order to foster free speech, learn from some of the top experts in various fields, and create a platform for respectful conversations. Learn More: https://www.theinquiringmindpodcast.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinquiringmindpodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theinquiringmindpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanGGoldberg Subscribe to the Inquiring Mind Podcast: Spotify: http://spoti.fi/3tdRSOs Apple: http://apple.co/38xXZVJ Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3eBZfLl Youtube: https://bit.ly/3tiQieE

In the fourth segment of the Author Showcase, Author Toretha Wright is in the guest chair.Toretha Wright is a writer of prose, plays, and poetry. Her works include ten celebrated novels and poetry books, three children’s books, several performed plays, and essays on the human condition.  She's been writing professionally for 18 years.She has been honored twice as a “Living Legend” for “phenomenal writing” and recently won  a National Book Award for Historical Fiction/Romance for my book  "The Secrets of the Harvest." My latest book is "Ties That Bind Us - Part II: Cleo's Song" published September 27, 2020She is the owner of WrightStuf Consulting, LLC. The company provides assistance to literary artists who would like their voice in print. Our services include editing, proofreading, and general assistance to others in the arts and entertainment industry. Empowering Insights You Will Gain from this EpisodeThe childhood experiences that inspired her to love writingThe book that was her prized possession growing upThe benefits of becoming a member of a writer's groupWhat she gained from being a guest of a reader's groupWhy she doesn't struggle with writer's blockWhat she would tell her younger self when she first embraced the path of becoming an authorKey insights and strategies from her creative writing processHow she uses stories told to her, and her experiences to create award-winning fiction booksAnd so much more ... Contact Toretha WrightWebsiteFacebookRecent Book: Ties That Bind Us - Part II: Cleo's Song" Subscribe to Podcast: Apple Itunes | Spotify | Amazon TuneIn | iHeartRadioMusic Credit:Success  - Adobe MusicSubscribe to Podcast: Apple Itunes | Spotify | Amazon TuneIn | iHeartRadioContact Jackie Capers-Brown at www.jackiecapersbrown.comSupport the show (https://paypal.me/jackiecapersbrown?locale.x=en_US)

Charles Yu writes playful and inventive novels and short stories, often with a kind of sly irreverence. There's warmth and wisdom at their heart, he's very funny. Charles has written two collection of stories, Third Class Superhero and Sorry Please Thank You and the novels How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and his latest Interior Chinatown that won the National Book Award and Le Prix Médicis Étranger. Charles has also received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award, been nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards for his work on the television series Westworld, and has written for shows on FX, AMC, Facebook Watch, and Adult Swim. He's also written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine,The Atlantic and Wired. 

In an encore presentation, Kate and Medaya talk with award-winning screenwriter and novelist Charles Yu about his book, Interior Chinatown; an experimental, yet eminently enjoyable, novel-in-the-form-of-a-screenplay, which won the 2020 National Book Award for fiction. Charles discusses how he came to write such a formally challenging book, in which the central character's world is defined by, and limited to, the horizons available to Asian and Asian-American characters in popular film and television. Also, J Hoberman, author of Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan, returns to recommend Victor Serge's recently discovered Notebooks from 1936-47, in which the great communist writer lived in exile, from Paris to Mexico.

In an encore presentation, Kate and Medaya talk with award-winning screenwriter and novelist Charles Yu about his book, Interior Chinatown; an experimental, yet eminently enjoyable, novel-in-the-form-of-a-screenplay, which won the 2020 National Book Award for fiction. Charles discusses how he came to write such a formally challenging book, in which the central character's world is defined by, and limited to, the horizons available to Asian and Asian-American characters in popular film and television. Also, J Hoberman, author of Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan, returns to recommend Victor Serge's recently discovered Notebooks from 1936-47, in which the great communist writer lived in exile, from Paris to Mexico.

Charles Yu, winner of the 2020 National Book Award Winner for Fiction, joins us to talks about his first short work of literary fiction since Interior Chinatown. Titled, "The Only Living Girl on Earth," this 10,000-word story will be published on January 8 by Scribd Originals as an e-book and audiobook.

In this week's episode, we discuss the work of Elizabeth Acevedo, a Dominican-American poet and author. She is the author of The Poet X, With the Fire on High and Clap When You Land. The Poet X is a New York Times Bestseller, National Book Award Winner, and Carnegie Medal winner.This episode includes an excerpt from Acevedo's live performance of her poem "Afro Latina."Support the show (https://getlit.org/donate/)

This week: National Book Award Finalist and National Book Award Winner, Jarrett J. Krosoczka and Jeanne Birdsall about our live reading of JJK’s graphic memoir Hey Kiddo. Granny panties? Sitch? Hundo? Stan? Swole? These are now words. I talk with Emily Brewster from Merriam-Webster. John Hodgman's clarinet makes an appearance for the second week in a row. Tick talk with Dr. Steve from the Sunderland Animal Hospital. Making sure art remains forever in Northampton with the folks at The Arts Trust. Congressman McGovern about fresh cruelty at the border. Non-alcoholic beer and more.

The journalist and 2017 National Book Award Winner delivered the Library's annual Robert B. Silvers Lecture. The talk is named in honor of the co-founding editor of the New York Review of Books, who died in March 2017. With unexpected candor and intimacy, Gessen traced her own life as a sequence of choices and explored how notions of choice affect ideas about immigration, identity, and purpose.

Russian-American Journalist and winner of the National Book Award, Masha Gessen shares her perspective on Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump and the societies they lead, including the sexual harassment moment in the United States. She discusses her new book, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, now a National Book Award Winner.

Russian-American Journalist and winner of the National Book Award, Masha Gessen shares her perspective on Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump and the societies they lead, including the sexual harassment moment in the United States. She discusses her new book, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, now a National Book Award Winner.

Phil Klay, National Book Award winner, reads from his book, "Redeployment," 12 short stories about soldiers and their experiences in Iraq during the surge in 2007-2008. Praised by President Obama and critically acclaimed, "Redeployment" is a must read.

Recently we spoke of the 50 Anniversary of Freedom Summer and the early flowering of the civil rights movement.  Much has been written of the historical roots and narrative of those events. But now Jacqueline Woodson tells her personal story and the larger story of the journey of a movement from the Deep South, to urban core of America.  The story of   Brown Girl Dreaming is a story made all the more powerful by recent events that bring into focus the arc of that journey. A journey that ended short of its target.My conversation with Jacqueline Woodson:

Slaves in the Family with Edward Ball If you knew that you were a descendant of a slave- owner, would you tell anyone? If you had an opportunity to apologize to descendants of those enslaved by your family, would you?   Edward Ball is a writer of narrative nonfiction and the author of five books, including The Inventor and the Tycoon (Doubleday, 2013), about the birth of moving pictures. The book tells the story of Edward Muybridge, the pioneering 19-century photographer (and admitted murderer), and Leland Stanford, the Western railroad baron, whose partnership, in California during the 1870s, gave rise to the visual media. Edward Ball’s first book, Slaves in the Family (1998), told the story of his family’s history as slave-owners in South Carolina, and of the families they once enslaved. Slaves in the Family won the National Book Award for nonfiction, was a New York Times bestseller, was translated into five languages, and was featured on Oprah. Edward Ball was born in Savannah, raised in Louisiana and South Carolina, and graduated from Brown University in 1982. He worked for ten years as freelance journalist in New York, writing about art and film, and becoming a columnist for The Village Voice. His other books, all nonfiction, include The Sweet Hell Inside (2001), the story of an African-American family that rose from the ashes of the Civil War to build lives in music and in art during the Jazz Age; Peninsula of Lies (2004), the story of English writer Gordon Hall, who underwent one of the first sex reassignments—in the South during the 1960s—creating an outrage; and The Genetic Strand, about the process of using DNA to investigate family history. Edward Ball lives in Connecticut and teaches at Yale University.    

Finney won the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry with her title Head Off & Split.

Aired 01/15/12 In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. The man was Poggio Braccionlini, the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things by Lucretius—a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions. The copying and translation of this ancient book fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare and even Thomas Jefferson. Stephen Greenblatt is John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Among his books are Will of the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, a Finalist for the 2004 National Book Award in Nonfiction and a New York Times best seller, and Hamlet in Purgatory. He holds honorary degrees from Queen Mary College of the University of London and the University of Bucharest.