Terry Gross

Singer and poet, Patti Smith. Her new CD, "Gone Again" (Arista), is inspired by the passing of her musician-husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith of the MC5, and her brother, Todd. They died weeks apart in the fall of 1994. Her first four albums, recorded in the 1970s, established Smith as skinny "Godmother" of punk. Through the 1980s, while raising her children in a Detroit suburb, Smith recorded one album but made plans to record new music with Fred in the summer of 1995.

Author, jazz writer and musician, Stuart Nicholson. He is an expert on and biographer of late jazz great Ella Fitzgerald. Through interviews with those closest to her,. "Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz" (1994, Charlse Scribner's Sons) shows the public and private side of the media-shy legend. In her career of over 60 years, she gained the admiration of her contemporaries in the business. At the age of 79 and after years of suffering from diabetes, Fitzgerald died Saturday (June 15) at her home in California.

Author Andrew Holleran. His latest novel, "The Beauty of Men" (William Morrow), is about a gay man in his late forties who is obsessed with the beauty of youth and his own mortality. At the same time, he harbors guilt for mourning the loss of his youth when so many around him are dying young. Holleran, whose real name is not known, has written two other novels under the pseudonym and is a frequent contributor to "Christopher Street" magazine.