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Stephen King's new story took him 45 years to write

Stephen King says finishing one of his stories decades after he started it felt like "calling into a canyon of time." Francois Mori/AP hide caption

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Francois Mori/AP

Interview highlights

Stephen King's new story took him 45 years to write

Stephen King is out with a new collection of short stories. As you might expect from the reigning King of Horror, some are terrifying. Some are creepy. Others are laugh-out-loud funny.

Stephen King's new story took him 45 years to write

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Code Switch

Understanding the refugee experience, through a time-traveling British colonizer

This week Code Switch digs into The Ministry of Time, a new book that author Kailene Bradley describes as a "romance about imperialism." It focuses on real-life Victorian explorer Graham Gore, who died on a doomed Arctic expedition in 1847. But in this novel, time travel is possible and Gore is brought to the 21st century where he's confronted with the fact that everyone he's ever known is dead, that the British Empire has collapsed, and that perhaps he was a colonizer.

Understanding the refugee experience, through a time-traveling British colonizer

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A German novel about a tortured love affair wins 2024 International Booker Prize

Author Jenny Erpenbeck's novel Kairos was named this year's winner of the International Booker Prize. Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images hide caption

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Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images

Book News & Features

A German novel about a tortured love affair wins 2024 International Booker Prize

Jenny Erpenbeck's novel, translated by Michael Hofmann, follows a couple in 1980s East Berlin and their tumultuous relationship, while Germany undergoes its own political transformation.

A German novel about a tortured love affair wins 2024 International Booker Prize

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Years ago, a psychic told Kristen Wiig to move to LA. She left the next day

Kristen Wiig plays a former pageant queen in Palm Royale. Apple TV+ hide caption

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Apple TV+

Television

Years ago, a psychic told Kristen Wiig to move to LA. She left the next day

Fresh Air

The SNL alum co-stars with Carol Burnett in Palm Royale, an Apple TV+ series about a former pageant queen who wants to break into high society. Wiig says the show was a chance to work with "a legend."

Years ago, a psychic told Kristen Wiig to move to LA. She left the next day

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With age and sobriety, Michael McDonald is ready to get personal

Michael McDonald, 72, describes his voice as a "malleable" instrument: "Especially with age, it's like you're constantly renegotiating with it." Timothy White/Sacks & Co. hide caption

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Timothy White/Sacks & Co.

Music Interviews

With age and sobriety, Michael McDonald is ready to get personal

Fresh Air

McDonald says that earlier in his career, he tended to avoid writing about himself directly in songs. He opens up about his life and career in the memoir, What a Fool Believes.

With age and sobriety, Michael McDonald is ready to get personal

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Hold on to your wishes — there's a 'Spider in the Well'
Illustrations © 2024 Jess Hannigan

Author Interviews

Hold on to your wishes — there's a 'Spider in the Well'

There's trouble in the town of Bad Göodsburg! A wishing well has stopped working! NPR's Tamara Keith talks with Jess Hannigan about her new children's book, "Spider in the Well."

Hold on to your wishes — there's a 'Spider in the Well'

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Writer Carvell Wallace on past pain and forgiveness: Letting go is 'always available'
Macmillian

Author Interviews

Writer Carvell Wallace on past pain and forgiveness: Letting go is 'always available'

Fresh Air

Wallace is known for his celebrity profiles, but his new memoir, Another Word For Love, is about his own life, growing up unhoused, Black and queer, and getting his start as a writer at the age of 40.

Writer Carvell Wallace on past pain and forgiveness: Letting go is 'always available'

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The miracle of middle age with Miranda July

Author Miranda July poses next to her novel, "All Fours" Elizabeth Weinberg/Amazon hide caption

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Elizabeth Weinberg/Amazon

Perspective

It's Been a Minute

The miracle of middle age with Miranda July

Our culture is full of stories about what it's like to be young: to find yourself, to fall in love, to leave home. But there aren't nearly as many scripts for what middle age might look like, especially for women. This week, host Brittany Luse is joined by author and filmmaker Miranda July, whose new novel 'All Fours' dives deep into the mystery and miracle of being a middle aged woman.

The miracle of middle age with Miranda July

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Alice Munro, Nobel Prize-winning short story author, dies at 92

Canadian author Alice Munro as she receives a Man Booker International award at Trinity College Dublin, in Dublin, Ireland, on June 25, 2009. Peter Muhly/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Peter Muhly/AFP via Getty Images

Obituaries

Alice Munro, Nobel Prize-winning short story author, dies at 92

The Canadian writer was known for her masterfully crafted short stories. Throughout her long career, she earned a number of prestigious awards including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013.

Alice Munro, Nobel Prize-winning short story author, dies at 92

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System of a Down's Serj Tankian on his memoir, why a new album hasn't come since 2005

Serj Tankian, singer for System of a Down Travis Shinn/Hachette Books hide caption

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Travis Shinn/Hachette Books

Author Interviews

System of a Down's Serj Tankian on his memoir, why a new album hasn't come since 2005

System of a Down singer Serj Tankian covers fleeing the Lebanese Civil War as a child, advocating for recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and why his band hasn't made a new album since 2005.

System of a Down's Serj Tankian on his memoir, why a new album hasn't come since 2005

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'Brotherless Night,' an ambitious novel about Sri Lankan civil war, wins $150K prize
Random House

Book News & Features

'Brotherless Night,' an ambitious novel about Sri Lankan civil war, wins $150K prize

The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction is a relatively new literary award given to women and nonbinary authors. This year's winner is V.V. Ganeshananthan for her book Brotherless Night.

'Brotherless Night,' an ambitious novel about Sri Lankan civil war, wins $150K prize

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Kathleen Hanna on life as a 'Rebel Girl,' and the joy of expressing anger in public

"When I first started being in Bikini Kill, I thought of myself as a feminist performance artist who was in a punk band," Kathleen Hanna says. Rachel Bright/Ecco hide caption

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Rachel Bright/Ecco

Music Interviews

Kathleen Hanna on life as a 'Rebel Girl,' and the joy of expressing anger in public

Fresh Air

The Bikini Kill frontwoman pioneered the "riot grrrl" movement in the 1990s. "I thought of myself as a feminist performance artist who was in a punk band," Hanna says.

Kathleen Hanna on life as a 'Rebel Girl,' and the joy of expressing anger in public

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Claire Messud's sweeping novel borrows from her own 'Strange Eventful History'
W. W. Norton & Company

Review

Book Reviews

Claire Messud's sweeping novel borrows from her own 'Strange Eventful History'

Fresh Air

Messud draws from her grandfather's handwritten memoir as she tells a cosmopolitan, multigenerational story about a family forced to move from Algeria to Europe to South and North America.

Claire Messud's sweeping novel borrows from her own 'Strange Eventful History'

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Author Interviews

Author Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses 'The Sympathizer' and his escape from Vietnam

Fresh Air

Nguyen and his family fled their village in South Vietnam in 1975. Now his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has been adapted into a series on HBO and MAX. Originally broadcast in 2016.

Author Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses 'The Sympathizer' and his escape from Vietnam

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