Oct 21 Where does poetry live in your world? By Colleen Shalby Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey visits the New York Memory Center, a community-based nonprofit designed to help people experiencing memory disorders. How does poetry play a role in Americans’ lives? That’s the question PBS NewsHour is exploring over the next… Continue reading
Oct 20 Watch Mark Twain is back! Volume II of his autobiography just out The second volume of The Autobiography of Mark Twain has just been published -- a scant 113 years after his death. Volume One, published in 2010, was a bestseller. The 700-page book is filled with the author's pictures and letters… Continue watching
Oct 20 Mark Twain Speaks! Special excerpt from Twain's Autobiography Vol. II The second volume of The Autobiography of Mark Twain has just been published -- a scant 113 years after his death. Volume One, published in 2010, was a bestseller. The 700-page book is filled with the author's pictures and… Continue reading
Oct 18 Author Jonathan Lethem looks at American communism in 'Dissident Gardens' By Victoria Fleischer // Jonathan Lethem’s new novel, “Dissident Gardens,” is a look back at American communism across decades and generations through the eyes of Rose Zimmer and her daughter, Miriam. Lethem sat down with chief arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown to talk about… Continue reading
Oct 16 Watch 6:46 Stanley Crouch recounts rise of jazz giant Charlie 'Bird' Parker Stanley Crouch recounts rise of jazz giant Charlie 'Bird' Parker… Continue watching
Oct 16 Eleanor Catton wins the 2013 Man Booker Prize By Victoria Fleischer The 45th Man Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded Tuesday to Eleanor Catton for "The Luminaries." Set in 1860s New Zealand during the Gold Rush, Catton's second novel is a murder mystery that constructs its own astrological calendar… Continue reading
Oct 15 Watch Jim Lehrer returns to haunting 'what if' in novel on the JFK assassination What if the glass bubble top on the car in which President John F. Kennedy was riding in Dallas had not been removed by a Secret Service agent? The NewsHour's own Jim Lehrer explores that idea in "Top Down: A… Continue watching
Oct 14 Weekly Poem: Cathy Park Hong Reads 'Ballad in A' By Victoria Fleischer Ballad in A by Cathy Park Hong A Kansan plays cards, calls marshal a crawdad, that barb lands that rascal a slap; that Kansas jackass scats, camps back at caballada ranch. Hangs kack, ax, and camp hat. Kansan's nag mad… Continue reading
Oct 14 Weekly Poem: Cathy Park Hong Reads 'Ballad in A' By Victoria Fleischer Ballad in A by Cathy Park Hong A Kansan plays cards, calls marshal a crawdad, that barb lands that rascal a slap; that Kansas jackass scats, camps back at caballada ranch. Hangs kack, ax, and camp hat. Kansan's nag mad… Continue reading
Oct 14 Stanley Crouch on 'Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker' By Victoria Fleischer Listen to Chief Arts Correspondent Jeffrey Brown's interview with Stanley Crouch above "The Jazz story ... it's the American story" or so says Stanley Crouch, jazz scholar and author of the new book, "Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and… Continue reading