Accessibility links
Author Interviews NPR interviews with top authors and the NPR Book Tour, a weekly feature and podcast where leading authors read and discuss their writing. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Author Interviews

Against The Odds, A 'Miracle Boy Grows Up'

Against The Odds, A 'Miracle Boy Grows Up'

Ben Mattlin was born with a condition called spinal muscular atrophy. Many infants with the disease don't live past age 2, but Mattlin went on to attend Harvard, get married and have kids. "I had this dumb idea from childhood that I could do anything anybody else could do," he says.

Against The Odds, A 'Miracle Boy Grows Up'

Listen · 7:19
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/160259194/160366774" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Ascent of the A-Word

A Linguist's Serious Take On 'The A-Word'

Fresh Air

In his new book, Ascent of the A-Word, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg looks at how the term took root among griping World War II GIs — and how its meaning evolved in the '60s and '70s. He tells Fresh Air that crude words are "wonderfully revealing."

A Linguist's Serious Take On 'The A-Word'

Listen · 12:32
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/160252153/160252218" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Devil in Silver

Victor LaValle On Mental Illness, Monsters, Survival

Fresh Air

In the author's latest novel, The Devil in Silver, a man is mistakenly committed to a mental hospital where a buffalo-headed monster stalks patients at night. LaValle tells Fresh Air why he picked monsters, about his family history of mental illness and how he had his own brush with psychological problems.

Victor LaValle On Mental Illness, Monsters, Survival

Listen · 34:36
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/160246687/160249020" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
First Cameraman

Behind The Lens With Obama's 'First Cameraman'

Arun Chaudhary, the first official White House videographer, says having a cameraman around can be a "dangerous proposition." He has written a book about his sleepless nights and adventure-filled days following Barack Obama's every move.

Behind The Lens With Obama's 'First Cameraman'

Listen · 5:27
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/160194973/160457961" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Real Romney' Authors Dissect His Latest Campaign

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at a campaign rally in Powell, Ohio, on Saturday. AP Photo/Evan Vucci hide caption

toggle caption
AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Mitt Romney

'Real Romney' Authors Dissect His Latest Campaign

Fresh Air

Michael Kranish and Scott Helman's biography of Mitt Romney — The Real Romney — is now out in paperback with a new afterword. The authors discuss Romney's shift to the right, his faith and his recent comment that no one's ever asked to see his birth certificate.

'Real Romney' Authors Dissect His Latest Campaign

Listen · 43:26
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/160173451/160173500" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Interventions

Kofi Annan On Syria, Hard Choices Of Peacekeeping

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and former secretary-general of the U.N. has co-authored a book on his life's work, Interventions: A Life in War and Peace. He spoke with NPR's Scott Simon about difficult experiences involving Kosovo and Rwanda, as well as the future of Syria.

Kofi Annan On Syria, Hard Choices Of Peacekeeping

Listen · 6:56
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/160135085/160425637" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Stories Reach Below The Surface Of China's Growth
Ye Rin Mok

BRICSion: Powerful Stories, Powerful Nations

Stories Reach Below The Surface Of China's Growth

Tell Me More looks at literature from the rising BRICS nations: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Of those countries, China may be considered the most powerful. But for award-winning author Yiyun Li, it's China's personal stories that intrigue her. She discusses her book Gold Boy, Emerald Girl with host Michel Martin.

Stories Reach Below The Surface Of China's Growth

Listen · 12:52
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/160111794/160111785" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Michigan Author Dreams Up A Deadlier Ann Arbor

The Dangerous Streets Of ... Ann Arbor? Harry Dolan sets his David Loogan crime series in the university town of Ann Arbor, Mich., which is also home to Borders' flagship book store (right of mural), a now-empty writers landmark. Jens Wessling/via Flickr hide caption

toggle caption
Jens Wessling/via Flickr

Crime In The City

Michigan Author Dreams Up A Deadlier Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor residents would easily recognize their city in Harry Dolan's crime fiction, but the likeness ends with murder; while Dolan can pack several homicides into each book, the real Ann Arbor is much more peaceful.

Michigan Author Dreams Up A Deadlier Ann Arbor

Listen · 7:19
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/159387593/160095754" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Caveat Emptor

'A Contest Of Wits': A Former Forger Recalls His Art

Ken Perenyi made millions painting and selling more than 1,000 forgeries over 30 years. He's imitated the likes of Charles Bird King and James Buttersworth — and confesses it all in his new book, Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger.

'A Contest Of Wits': A Former Forger Recalls His Art

Listen · 8:24
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/159369271/160078777" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

An Adventure On The High Seas Stormed By Pirates

British retirees Rachel and Paul Chandler were sailing in the Indian Ocean in 2009 when their boat was hijacked by Somali pirates. They were held captive in Somalia for more than a year. Guest host Viviana Hurtado speaks to the couple about their experience, which they documented in the memoir Hostage: A Year at Gunpoint with Somali Pirates.

An Adventure On The High Seas Stormed By Pirates

Listen · 7:49
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/159988689/159988680" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Incognito': What's Hiding In The Unconscious Mind

Dr. David Eagleman is a neuroscientist and writer. He directs the Laboratory of Perception and Action at Baylor College of Medicine. Sharon Steinmann/Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Texas, Houston Medical School hide caption

toggle caption
Sharon Steinmann/Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Texas, Houston Medical School

'Incognito': What's Hiding In The Unconscious Mind

Fresh Air

Neuroscientist David Eagleman says everything we think, do and believe is determined by complex neural networks battling it out in our brains. His book Incognito, in which he explains what scientists are learning about this hidden world of cognition, is now out in paperback.

'Incognito': What's Hiding In The Unconscious Mind

Listen · 37:26
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/159922899/159923156" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Searching For 'Bernadette' In The Wilds Of Seattle

Books

Searching For 'Bernadette' In The Wilds Of Seattle

Comedy writer Maria Semple's latest, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, follows 15-year-old Bee as she tracks down her mother, Bernadette, who disappeared on the eve of a family trip to Antarctica. Bernadette is an epistolary novel that paints an acidly funny portrait of life in Seattle.

Searching For 'Bernadette' In The Wilds Of Seattle

Listen · 6:12
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/159544124/159975453" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

For Julie Smith, It's All About New Orleans' Secrets

"They say that New Orleans must be a great place to write mysteries because of all the crime there," says Julie Smith, the author of more than a dozen books set in the city. "But that has nothing to do with [crime] — it's all about the secrets." This piece initially aired July 15, 2008 on Morning Edition.

For Julie Smith, It's All About New Orleans' Secrets

Listen · 7:19
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/159971241/159977516" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Faith, Family And Forgiveness In 'We Sinners'

Author Hanna Pylvainen based We Sinners on her own childhood experiences. hide caption

toggle caption

Books

Faith, Family And Forgiveness In 'We Sinners'

Hanna Pylvainen's debut novel is based on her own childhood in a strict and obscure Finnish Lutheran sect. The book follows members of the Rovaniemi family as they struggle with the decision to leave their church — or to stay.

Faith, Family And Forgiveness In 'We Sinners'

Listen · 7:15
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/159928880/160063869" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Paul Auster Meditates On Life, Death And Near Misses

Paul Auster is the author of fiction including The New York Trilogy and In the Country of Last Things. Lotte Hansen/Picador hide caption

toggle caption
Lotte Hansen/Picador

Paul Auster Meditates On Life, Death And Near Misses

Fresh Air

The author's new memoir, Winter Journal, is a history of his body — scars, panic attacks and near-death experiences. He tells Fresh Air how he got a reputation as a dirty fighter, why he doesn't drive and how hard it was to see his mother's dead body.

Paul Auster Meditates On Life, Death And Near Misses

Listen · 18:32
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/159915958/159916410" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript