Bookworm

Greer on his heroine's late wish to escape the troubled 1980's, his experience inhabiting a female narrative voice and the gender traveling implicit in his latest novel.

Linda Spalding on her historical novel, the story of an abolitionist in Antebellum America forced to buy a slave, and the inherent conflicts of spirit and commerce.

The author of "Shoplifting from American Apparel" on writing his latest novel, written in meticulously careful prose.

Scottish writer James Kelman on his penchant for internal dialogue and his a working-class romance set in modern-day London. 

Canadian poet and professor Anne Carson on cultural life in the wake of classical knowledge, and her poetry novels Autobiography of Red and the follow-up, Red Doc>.

Tom Drury latest novel follows a resident of his fictional Grouse County who has moved to Los Angeles to reunite with his mother, co-star of a New-Agey TV series.

A troubled teen who seeks refuge from the demon of addiction is also a symbol for a host of social ills in post-socialist Chile and present-day America.

Reading David Sedaris is like watching an aerialist. His famed humor pieces take escalating risks while never failing to bring off smooth, astonishing landings.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie prefers thorny, resistant characters to likeable ones. She talks about why readers shouldn't settle for characters that are less than difficult.

Inspired by an iconic American image, Marisa Silver's Mary Coin imagines the fabric of life behind Dorothea Lange's depression-era photograph, "Migrant Mother."