Search results for

In Roshi Fernando's upper-middle-class childhood home, conversations about sex were taboo. But at 13, already a survivor of sexual trauma, she needed answers. Fernando turned to Maya Angelou's autobiographical I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and, in its pages, found comfort and strength.

In Dancing Fish And Ammonites, the British writer reflects on growing older. She tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about adjusting to her husband's death and losing the desire for new things.

Nellie Bly of the New York World was one of the most famous "girl stunt reporters" of her time. Now, the first ever edited collection of her work is being released, in honor of her 150th birthday.

Ellison's exploration of race and identity won the National Book Award in 1953 and has been called one of the best novels of the 20th century.

Turan says movies are like friends — they speak to you, and can even change your life. In his new book, he shares some personal favorites, and explains why the magic of the movies endures.

Lee's upcoming novel is a dystopian tale, set in a future America where corporations have replaced a long-crumbled government, and Chinese immigrant workers have become a new laboring class, repopulating deserted cities.

Mary Rickert's new magical realist novel stars women often pushed to the edges of narrative: the elderly. Reviewer Amal El-Mohtar calls it a lovely, uplifting book of friendship, sadness and healing.

Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, a literary journal known for publishing experimental fiction and emerging writers alongside household names, celebrates its 15th birthday with an anthology of selected works. Editor Dave Eggers remembers the magazine's early days, when it was a "land of misfit writings" that had been rejected from more mainstream publications.

Hercules, a slave of George Washington, and James Hemings, owned by Thomas Jefferson, began a long connection of presidents and their African-American cooks. And President Lyndon Johnson's black cook may have influenced his work on civil rights reform.

In Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons, editor Kelly Gerald lays out the youthful visual artwork of the woman who would become one of the greatest fiction writers of the 20th century. NPR's Glen Weldon sees it as a prototype for her prose sensibility.