Terry Gross

Poet Mark Halliday joins us again to read a poem.

Film critic Owen Gleiberman (gly-ber-man) reviews the new comedy, "Pretty Woman," starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.

Novelist Tim O'Brien. He was writing about Vietnam long before it became fashionable to do so. His Vietnam memoir, "If I die in a Combat Zone," was published in 1973. O'Brien's 1979 novel "Going After Cacciato" was praised for its depiction of the Vietnam War. It also was the surprise winner of the 1979 National Book Awards -- beating out books by John Irving and John Cheever.

Sportswriters Alexander Wolff and Armen Keteyian. The pair have covered college basketball for years, and now they've collaborated on a new expose of college recruiting practices. It's called "Raw Recruits." (Pocket Books). Terry also talks with David Berst, the head of enforcement for the NCAA.

Author and Journalist T.J. English. His new book is "The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob." From the 1960's to the 1980's the mob led by James Coonan terrorized Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Testimony from a former hitman of the gang, Mickey Featherstone, eventually broke up the gang. English's book has been called, "a grotesque chronicle" of the gang and "reminiscent of Poe and Dostoyevsky in subject and character," by New York Newsday. English's book is published by Putnam.

Cuban-born poet Heberto Padilla (air-BARE-toe puh-DEE-uh). He was a friend of Castro and an early supporter of the revolution in Cuba. But later he became disillusioned and was imprisoned by Castro as a counter-revolutionary in 1971. He left Cuba in 1980 and has been living and teaching in the U.S. He has a new memoir, "Self Portrait of the Other," published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

A spring medley from stride pianist Dave McKenna. The tunes are: "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," "Spring is Here," and "It Might as Well Be Spring."

Pulitzer prize winning biographer Robert A. Caro on Lyndon Baines Johnson. The book focused on Johnson's early years. The Boston Sunday Globe called it, "a powerful, absorbing, at times awe-inspiring, and often deeply alarming story." In the just-published second volume, "Means of Ascent," Caro examines seven years of Johnson's life, from 1941 to 1948.

Soviet-born artists Vitaly Komar and Aleksandr Melamid. The pair are the creators of two huge, multi-paneled works called "Yalta 1945" and "Winter in Moscow 1977." Both works are being shown in America for the first time at the Brooklyn Museum. "Yalta 1945" is made of 31 4x4 foot panels depicting Lenin and the four leaders from the Yalta Conference. "Winter in Moscow 1977" uses 26 panels to show Komar and Melamid's home town shortly before they fled to the West. (The exhibit runs until June 4th).

Fresh Air producer Amy Salit interviews producer Noel Pearson and director Jim Sheridan of the film "My Left Foot." The film tells the story of Christy Brown, who became a painter and writer in spite of having cerebral palsy. Pearson, who produced the film, knew Christy and his family and Sheridan co-wrote as well as directed it. "My Left Foot," a first film for both, has been nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Picture.