Arts

Brian Turner is director of Sierra Nevada College's MFA program and has previously written two books of poetry, Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise.

Books
Arts

'My Life' Asks: How Do You Leave A War Behind?

7:03am September 23, 2014

by Tomas Hachard

Poet Brian Turner's My Life as a Foreign Country is a lyrical, haunting memoir of his military family, his service in Bosnia and Iraq, and the struggle he faced to adjust to life on the home front.

Books
Arts

Former BP CEO: 'Glass Closet' Still Holds Many Gay Workers Back

7:01am September 23, 2014

by NPR Staff

There's a presumption in the business world that everyone's straight, says John Browne, who hid his homosexuality for years. In his new book, he says it's time for a change in corporate culture.

Queue Listen Now

Charles Wright, a retired professor at the University of Virginia, has been named the nation's next poet laureate.

Books
Arts

New Poet Laureate: 'The Meaning Has Always Stayed The Same'

7:01am September 23, 2014

by NPR Staff

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Wright, who will serve as the next poet laureate, tells NPR's Melissa Block that his inspirations — landscape, language and God — have stayed constant for 50 years.

Queue Listen Now

Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee at the 1989 Cannes Festival for the showing of Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing.

Arts

Ruby Dee: An Actress Who Marched On Washington And Onto The Screen

7:01am September 23, 2014

by Mandalit del Barco

Born Ruby Ann Wallace, she grew up writing poetry in Harlem and went on to become a playwright, activist, journalist and one of the most prominent actresses of her time. She died Wednesday at 91.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

An 'Epilogue' That Makes Sense Of The Chaos Of Memory

5:40pm September 22, 2014

by Ellah Allfrey

In his episodic memoir, Will Boast meets the siblings he never knew while navigating family deaths and secrets. Critic Ellah Allfrey finds Epilogue conceptually ambitious, but lacking in execution.

Queue Listen Now

Arts

Sandwich Monday: The Abe Lincoln

4:46pm September 22, 2014

by Ian Chillag

For this week's Sandwich Monday, we eat a mashed-potato-and-sausage-log tribute to our beloved 16th president. After this meal, the better angels of our nature may need CPR.

Ron Perlman played Clay Morrow on FX's Sons of Anarchy.

Books
Arts

Ron Perlman On 'Sons Of Anarchy' And His Many On-Screen Transformations

3:47pm September 22, 2014

Perlman played the ruthless leader of a motorcycle gang on the FX series. In his new book, Easy Street (The Hard Way), he talks about having a face "that was not ugly but surely one of its kind."

Queue Listen Now

Arts

Sounds of MOSAIC Summer Nights

2:52pm September 22, 2014

by Eddie Garcia

Queue Listen Now

Arts

Fall TV Preview: 'Gotham,' 'Scorpion' And 'Black-ish'

2:39pm September 22, 2014

by David Bianculli

For major broadcast networks, Monday is the official start of the 2014-15 TV season. Fresh Air's critic has a not-very-long list of new shows you should make an effort to sample.

Queue Listen Now

Shonda Rhimes speaks onstage at the How to Get Away with Murder panel during the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

Arts

The Only One: A Talk With Shonda Rhimes

2:02pm September 22, 2014

by Linda Holmes

On Friday night, Shonda Rhimes spoke about her hugely successful television career, her love of the National Spelling Bee, and the New York Times article that called her an "angry black woman."