Terry Gross

Television producer Tom Fontana has collaborated with Barry Levinson on the critically acclaimed drama "Homicide: Life on the Street." The team is now premiering a new adult drama for HBO, called "Oz," which FONTANA also wrote. "Oz" is a realistic look at an experimental unit of a maximum security prison whose aim is to rehabilitate its inmates. Each episode focuses on a specific theme, such as sex or capital punishment, and how it affects the characters. "Oz" debuted on July 12 on HBO and can be seen on Mondays at 11 PM ET.

Former prison warden Tekla Dennison Miller wrote a memoir called "The Warden Wore Pink" (Biddle Publishing Company) about her twenty year career as a warden of a men's maximum security prison. She describes the experience of women in corrections and reveals the reality of prison life.

Guitarist Link Wray. He's credited with inventing the "power chord" in the 1950s. His first big recording hit was "Rumble" an instrumental piece that he wrote. When he went to record it in the studio he wasn't happy with the sound on the amp, so he pierced holes in the speaker cone to create additional distortion. Later guitarists like Pete Townshend and John Lennon were influenced by his work. Wray's other hits include "Rawhide" and the Batman Theme. Rhino records released "Rumble: the Best of Link Wray" in 1993.

Mystery writer Donald Westlake has written 70 novels and screenplays (including "The Grifters" and "The Stepfather"). He is known for his novels which combine laughs with thrills, and which show equally incompetent criminals and law enforcement. His recurring characters include a bungling burglar named John Dortmunder, and a gun-for-hire named Parker. Westlake has also written novels that parody the world of publishing and supermarket tabloids. His latest novel is a crime novel about downsizing, "The Ax" (Mysterious Press/Warner Books)

Eric Foner is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. He has published numerous works on the American Reconstruction after the civil war, a period whose problems with promoting racial and economic justice in a diverse country remain relevant to America today.

Writer Cari Beauchamp is the author of the new book, "Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood" (Scribner). She was the highest paid writer, male or female, for three decades, and was also the first woman to win an Academy Award twice for screenwriting. Her stories were directed by George Cukor, John ford, and King Vidor. She was married four times (she has said, "I spent my life searching for a man to look up to without lying down.") But her friendships with women in Hollywood were legendary.

Artist William Christenberry is known for his portrayal of the American South in his work. He has spent 35 years rendering images of the architecture and the landscape of his birthplace, rural Alabama, in drawings, sculptures, and photographs. His art deals with Southern heritage with both affection and aversion.

Jazz bassist Charlie Haden. He's released his fifth album with his Quartet West, "Now is the Hour," (Verve). Haden formed the quartet to play the music of the 1940s and early 50s. He's worked with jazz musicians Art Pepper, Paul Bley, Ornette Coleman. And he's recorded with many artists including Abbey Lincoln, Bill Frisell, Joshua Redman, Rick Lee Jones, and others. Last year Haden released a much regarded album of spirituals with pianist Hank Jones, "Steal Away--Spirituals, Hymns and Folk Songs." REBROADCAST from 5/29/96.

This summer New York's Lincoln Center pays tribute to jazz legend Ornette Coleman with "? Civilization: A Harmolodic Celebration" July 8-11, a series of concerts which features him and other musicians including Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins who with Don Cherry in 1959 and Coleman changed the course of jazz with the start of "free jazz" and the formation of The Ornette Coleman Quartet. Today's show features archive interviews with:

Director John Woo grew up in Hong Kong and directed numerous films there before coming to Hollywood. He has established himself as a master of action thrillers and is known for his elaborate action scenes. Woo also directed the American films Broken Arrow, and Hard Target." His new blockbuster film starring John Travolta and Nicholas Cage is called "Face/Off." It's in theaters now.