Search results for

The humorist, who made his name with personal essays and other nonfiction, tells Steve Inskeep that his return to fiction kept taking him to surprising places. But the unhappy endings? Those he could have predicted.

David Lipsky says that his favorite comic, Runaways, is both a brilliant reading experience — and an embarrassment festival. The tiny digests by Brian K. Vaughan have been a fount of guilt, awkwardness and grave personal doubts, but he still pulls them out on the subway, because they are just that good.

Tamil is a language known for its poetry, but commentator Sandip Roy knows it has another side. Dime-store pulp fiction has a large Tamil-speaking following — and a newly translated anthology is coming to America.

Tracy Morgan, a Saturday Night Live alumnus and one of the stars of NBC's 30 Rock, has a new memoir — I Am the New Black — about growing up in what he calls "Ghetto, USA."

The star of NBC's 30 Rock talks to Terry Gross about his tough childhood, how he made the grade in the comedy college that was Saturday Night Live, and why even though he may cry a little on the radio, "the funny bus is still sitting downstairs." (Rebroadcast from Oct. 22, 2009)

In times of great danger, some survivors report encountering a phantom presence, which guides them to safety. Writer John Geiger chronicles the phenomenon in his new book, The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible.

The former fourth grade teacher, principal and state education commissioner will take the reins at the U.S. Department of Education as the fight intensifies over school reopening.

It's hard to remember now, but MTV did once play music videos all day. A new oral history recalls that golden age, and the network's meteoric rise to the top of the music industry.

When Roya Hakakian moved from Iran to the U.S., she didn't think any poet in her adopted country could top the ones whose work she grew up with. But then she discovered a piece that blew away her prejudices. It was "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke.

Author Ann Kirschner first read Anthony Trollope's Palliser series as a graduate student. Now, returning to it after more than 20 years, she finds her impression of the Victorian tale has transformed along with her life.