Today

With novel 'Among Friends,' Hal Ebbott says he wanted to take friendship seriously

In Hal Ebbott's debut novel, Among Friends, two wealthy New York families are spending a weekend in the country. They've gotten together for decades – but one act ruptures their close ties. In today's episode, Ebbott tells Here & Now's Asma Khalid that he's drawn to story premise ... Show More

10m 39s

Yesterday

David Litt's new memoir is about finding common ground through surfing

Former Obama speechwriter David Litt and his brother-in-law, Matt, couldn't be more different. But during the pandemic, Matt taught Litt how to surf. The time they spent together out on the water created what Litt refers to as "neutral ground" – a space that isn't coded as libera ... Show More

9m 23s

Jul 8

In the new speculative novel 'Weepers,' mourning is outsourced to professionals

In Peter Mendelsund's novel Weepers, many in the world are concerned they'll be replaced by smart machines. But a cowboy poet named Ed has found work in the American Southwest. He's a professional weeper, part of a group of union workers hired to mourn at funerals. In today's epi ... Show More

8m 23s

Oct 2021

BONUS: 'Nina' And 'Just Us' Offer Ways To Start A Conversation On Race

After the protests last year, we heard the phrase "racial reckoning" a lot, as some groups of people struggled to catch up with what's just been reality for many others. On this episode of NPR's new Book of the Day podcast, we've got two books that might help you reckon with that ... Show More

18m 40s

Jan 2021

Claudia Rankine On The Uneasy Conversations Between 'Just Us'

After a year that offered many moments of reflection—from the coronavirus pandemic, to protests for racial justice, to the long election season—acclaimed poet Claudia Rankine's latest book offers a framework to process it all. That book is called Just Us: An American Conversation ... Show More

30m 55s

Mar 2019

Why is it so hard for white people to talk about racism? – books podcast

On this week’s show, academic Robin DiAngelo talks about her book White Fragility and Margaret Busby reflects on her new collection of black female writers, New Daughters of Africa. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/bookspod

46m 9s

Sep 2021

Melissa Daniels-Rauterkus, "Afro-Realisms and the Romances of Race: Rethinking Blackness in the African American Novel" (LSU Press, 2020)

From the 1880s to the early 1900s, a particularly turbulent period of U.S. race relations, the African American novel provided a powerful counternarrative to dominant and pejorative ideas about blackness. In Afro-Realisms and the Romances of Race: Rethinking Blackness in the Afri ... Show More

2h 28m

Jul 2020

Radical Imagination: Tracy K. Smith, Marilyn Nelson, and Terrance Hayes on Poetry in Our Times

In a special episode of the Poetry Podcast, Tracy K. Smith, Marilyn Nelson, and Terrance Hayes join Kevin Young to read their work, and to discuss its relationship to protest and liberation. Tracy K. Smith served two terms as a U.S. poet laureate, and has won an Anisfield-Wolf Bo ... Show More

45m 41s

Apr 2024

Simple Thing, Felt: Nina LaCour on Unwrapping a Moment

"I spend a lot of time trying to hope that I'll remember little things and how a certain simple thing felt. … Writing is one way of trying to capture that feeling, even if I'm fictionalizing it still.” - Nina LaCourIf Nina LaCour were a drink, she would be a cozy cup of tea. You’ ... Show More

37m 57s

In song and poetry, 'Nina' and 'Just Us'...