DeMent's music combines country and folk. Her latest album is called "My Life." She draws from her and her family's life experiences growing up in rural Arkansas, and Southern California. Her first album, "Infamous Angel' was released in 1992. Some of the music from it is used in the recent movie, "LIttle Buddha."
O'Brien spent twenty years as a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times. In 1988, she worked as Michael Dukakis' press secretary when he ran for president. She now writes novels; her latest is called "The Ladies Lunch," about a group of Washington women who meet weekly for lunch, until one of their group, the White House press secretary, dies a violent and mysterious death.
Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews Julia Blackburn's new book "Daisy Bates in the Desert," an experimental biography about the real life Australian woman who often lied about her past and identity.
A broadcast of a panel held at New York University in April called "Cops and Writers: Crime and Punishment in Literature and Real Life." The panel, sponsored by the PEN American Center and The New York Review of Books, features police officials and writers, including crime writer Walter Mosley and author Joyce Carol Oates. The panel focuses on the fine line between crime fiction and crime reality. The writers talk about the fact that crime novelists generally draw on real criminals and real crimes to create their characters and plot.
Shell has just written his first novel, "Iced," about a talented and ambitious man who is also addicted to crack. As an actor, Shell has appeared in many shows in England, including "Miss Saigon," "Starlight Express," "Jesus Christ Superstar," and "Hair." He is also a songwriter, and has written music for singer Kate Bush.
Cale was the violist, keyboardist and bassist of the 1960s avant garde band, The Velvet Underground. Since the breakup of the group in 1968, he has had a career as a solo artist. Most recently, he collaborated with former Velvet Underground member Lou Reed, on "Songs for Drella," the 1990 tribute to artist Andy Warhol. This past month, he released "Seducing Down the Door: A John Cale Collection," which is a compilation of his post-Velvet Underground solo recordings.
Physician Mike Stroud and his companion Ranulph Fiennes were the first people to cross Antarctica on foot. Their 95-day expedition culminated in 1993. Stroud has just written a book, "Shadows on the Wasteland," about the 1350-mile journey. Stroud is a nutritionist and survival consultant to the British Ministry of Defense, and has participated in other Polar expeditions
Hamilton's new novel is about a Midwestern farm family whose lives are changed irrevocably by one terrible incident. Her first book, "The Book of Ruth," won the 1989 PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel.
Music by blues singer and guitarist Robert Pete Williams has just been reissued. Williams, like Leadbelly, was a convicted murderer who sang his way out of prison. Commentator Milo Miles has this review.
Sindiwe Magona is a fiction writer who was born and educated in South Africa. Her autobiography, "To my Children's Children," traces her life under the apartheid system. In her memoir, she describes her childhood in a poor South African town, and the hasty end a teenage pregnancy put to her career as a teacher. The memoir won an honorable mention from the 1991 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. Magona has also published a novel, "Forced to Grow," and a collection of short stories. She currently works as a translator for the United Nations.
Thomas Friedman is a Middle East correspondent for "The New York Times," and author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book "From Beirut to Jerusalem." He'll talk about last week's pact between Israel and Jordan.
Schorr is the Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio. He was the CBS Chief Watergate Correspondent, and is now narrating a five-part BBC documentary, "Watergate." After ending up on Nixon’s "enemy list," Schorr resigned from CBS in 1976, and wrote a book about the Watergate scandal called "Clearing the Air." Before joining CBS, he was a foreign correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times.
Ken Tucker looks back at the career of the Irish rock band, who wrote brash songs about girls and boyhood. The Ryko label has recently reissued several of their album.
Cave and his band The Bad Seeds are best known for Cave's angry, twisted ballad-like lyrics. Their latest album, "Let Love In," is marked by a dark, bitter view of love and relationships. They've released eight albums to date, and have contributed songs to the last three Wim Wenders films, including "Far Away, So Close," and "Until the End of the World." Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds are performing in this summer's Lollapalooza concert.
Biographer Laurence Bergreen has just written a biography of Al Capone, called "Capone: The Man and the Era," which challenges many of America's popular beliefs about the famous gangster. Bergreen reveals the complexity of Capone's life by focusing on the personal details of his life -- his marriage, his role as a loving father, and generous giver. Bergreen has also written biographies of James Agee and Irving Berlin.
Hayes rose to the top of the charts in the 1970's on the Staxl record label. He released his first solo album, "Presenting Isaac Hayes," in 1968. His next album, "Hot Buttered Soul," became a gold record in the 1970's.
