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Nancy Mairs Discusses her New Memoir.

Poet, writer, and teacher Nancy Mairs. She's a Catholic feminist, who started out Protestant, and who late in life became a feminist. She calls herself, "the connoisseur of catastrophe." She's known for writing honestly about her struggles with multiple sclerosis, depression, and the life-threatening illness of her husband, also about being a woman, a mother, and a wife. Her newest book of personal essays is "Ordinary Time," (Beacon). One reviewer calls it "a small miracle of honesty mediated by dignity and humor."

22:55

Other segments from the episode on July 19, 1993

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, July 19, 1993: Interview with Nancy Mairs; Interview with Jeff Apple and Jeff Maguire; Review of the film "Orlando."

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