Bookworm

Ragtime (Plume) We look back on E.L. Doctorow 's Ragtime , its publication, its structure, its long-lasting surprises and its most recent transformation--as a work of musical theater.

Amy Bloom Love Invents Us (Random House)Amy Bloom, a therapist by profession, candidly discusses her popular short stories and the challenges of writing her first novel.

Kenward Elmslie Postcards on Parade (Bamberger Books) Elmslie is our singing poet. Here, the New York School icon rummages through his song book and comes up with everything from country western anthems to surreal dramatic playlets with musical backgrounds.

Bear and His Daughter (Houghton Mifflin) These collected stories by Robert Stone anticipated developments in American fiction by at least a decade...

The New Life (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk 's imagination evokes the powerful lure of fairy tales. His books bring the magic of childhood reading into the sphere of adult disenchantment.

Vikram Chandra Love and Longing in Bombay (Little, Brown) The Gods, virtues and storytelling of traditional Hindu culture are at the heart of the stories in Vikram Chandra's new book--and are the focus of this conversation about Indian writing and its audience.

Mark Twain The Oxford Mark Twain (Oxford University Press) In honor of the publication of a twenty-nine volume set of Twain, Leslie Fiedler, Charles Johnson and the set's editor, Shelley Fisher Fishkin join in a roundtable celebration of the American Shakespeare.

On a luxury cruise or at a state fair, David Foster Wallace is an ideal reporter on the disintegration of the Actual.

Literary Presses Serious literature faces a double crisis: the disappearance of funding and the indifference of mainstream publishing. A coalition of literary presses springs to the rescue!

Alan Warner Morvern Caller (Anchor) A member of the New Scottish Renaissance talks about the literary nature of the movement, as opposed to the drugs, the raves and the trainspotting reported in the media.

Francine Prose began her career in the magical-realist mode. Now her books are cynical and dark. In Guided Tours of Hell she tells why.

Le Divorce (Dutton) In this satire of American behavior abroad, Diane Johnson exhibits a lethal distaste for innocence.

Closing the Circle A show about an implausible miracle -- a link between art and commerce. Closing the Circle is an Oulipean tale of air travel. With funds earned by the book, Mitch Sisskind is developing a radio station devoted entirely to literature.

Melanie Rae Thon First, Body (Houghton Mifflin) Thon has been chosen as one of the top American writers under forty. A discussion of her stories as a confluence of realistic prose and expressionistic poetry.

Jamaica Kincaid, who grew up in poverty on Antigua, discusses the cultural contradictions of late capitalism and her ambivalent acceptance of American wealth.

The servant-girl novel, that staple of Victorian fiction, is reinvented by Atwood in her most compelling novel to date, "Alias Grace."

The Cattle Killings (Houghton Mifflin) As a writer, John Edgar Wideman finds himself at the intersection of African-American experience and High Modernist experimentation. A talk about ethnicity and the avant-garde.

The Christmas Letters (Algonquin) Lee Smith actively loves her characters; her warmth towards them drives their stories. A conversation about fiction writing as a natural activity-- with roots in childhood, family gossip and country music.

The Night in Question (Knopf) Tobias Wolff on the ethical questions that animate the dramatic heart of his stories. An intense analysis of fiction's relation to truth.

Man Booker-Prize winner Michael Ondaatje seems to be one of the very few writers who appreciates the screen adaptation of his work...

Michael Lally Can't Be Wrong (Coffee House Press) Michael Lally--part Frank Sinatra, part William Saroyan--is an auditory seducer. This poet will leave you panting.

Robert Olen Butler Tabloid Dreams (Holt) The characters from supermarket tabloids reveal their inner truths in Pulitzer Prize-winner Butler's poetic stories..

Elena Poniatowska Tinisima (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Mexico's &quotpremiere; woman of letters" on Tina Modotti--photographer, model, revolutionary--the subject of this biographical novel.

Paul Theroux My Other Life (Houghton Mifflin) This autobiography is a supernatural story in disguise--hear Paul Theroux's Dr. Jekyll explain the demonic nature of Paul Theroux's Mr. Hyde.

Brad Gooch reveals the structure of the heroic quest that underlies this misunderstood and frequently reviled novel.