Eavesdropping


Photo: Sharona Jacobs Photography LLC

Kelly Link Introduces Her Ghost Boyfriend

Kelly Link's magical-realist stories have earned comparisons to Kafka, the Brothers Grimm, and Alice Munro. She has won a slew of sci-fi literature awards and the O. Henry Prize. She reads an excerpt from a story in her brand-new collection, "Get in Trouble."


Photo: Kat Contreras

‘Awkward Black Girl’ Issa Rae Guides Us Through Hairy Situations

Now in its second season, the award-winning "The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl" is a web video series created by and starring Issa Rae, which has been viewed over twenty million times by adoring fans who identify with her quirky everygirl character's attempts to navigate love, work, and life. Ms. Rae's sensibility has now taken the form of a book of the same name, from which she reads us a passage.


Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Blum & Poe

Miranda July’s First Novel Finds a Careful System at Risk

Miranda July's creativity comes in many forms. She's an esteemed contemporary artist, a maker of widely seen films, and a bestselling author. Her latest book, "The First Bad Man," expands her distinctive worldview into her first full-length novel.


Photo: Andrew Owen

Thomas Pierce’s ‘Mammals,’ Small and Mammoth

South Carolina native Thomas Pierce's debut collection of surreal short stories, all set in the South, is called "Hall of Small Mammals." The book has been praised as "delightfully strange," and that perfectly describes the excerpt he shares with us here, about an a medium-sized creature.


B.J. Novak Tells Stories with No Pictures — AKA Radio

Between his appearances on film and television screens, B.J. Novak published two best-selling books in 2014. At our Holiday Frolic live event, he read a poignant piece from his collection "One More Thing" and then joined Rico and Brendan on the couch for a conversation.


Photo: Carol Loewen

Miriam Toews’ Tale of a Family in Flux

Canadian author Miriam Toews new novel, "All My Puny Sorrows," draws from her own life story to tell a story of two sisters touched by tragedy.


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Aasif Mandvi Can’t Be Michael Jackson All the Time

Actor and writer Aasif Mandvi is best known as the "foreign" correspondent on "The Daily Show." His new book, "No Land's Man," is a collection of humorous essays inspired by his life and the particular challenges of being a South Asian man in Hollywood.


Simon Rich on Spoiled Brats and Anxious Hamsters

Humorist Simon Rich has written stories, novels, and some of the funniest stuff in The New Yorker and on Saturday Night Live. He reads an excerpt from his new collection, "Spoiled Brats."