Poet and essayist John Haines. Haines' new book The Stars, The Snow, The Fire, recalls the 25 years he spent homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness. Haines is more than "one of our best nature writers," according to Hayden Carruth of Harpers Magazine. Carruth writes that Haines "knows the ecological crisis ... as a crisis of consciousness, the human mind in ultimate confrontation with itself.
Actor AVERY BROOKS. He reached stardom with his TV portrayal of "Hawk," the strong, almost silent partner in the detective series "Spenser for Hire." He took that character into its own series last season. Brooks brings to his TV work the same concern for African-American culture that has marked his stage career and his life. He won acclaim for his reinterpretation of the Harriet Beecher-Stowe character "Uncle Tom" in a production on the Showtime cable channel, and for his stage portrayal of Paul Robeson.
Novelist Frederick Forsyth. With the publication of The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Dogs of War, all in the space of three years, critics dubbed Frederick Forsyth a master of the international suspense thriller. The plots of all his stories have been praised for their split-second calculations and for their attention to the mechanical details of, say, mixing the right sunburn salve or creating an atomic bomb. Forsyth turned to novels after a long career as a newspaper and radio reporter throughout Europe and Africa.
Television Critic David Bianculli reviews "Wise Guys!," an installment of "P.O.V." (Point of View), the PBS series that showcases independently produced documentary films. This program follows contestants as they prepare for, and perform on, the game show "Jeopardy."
Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews "Goin' Home," the second album by tuba player and composer Bob Stewart. Stewart, who stresses that the tuba is a world instrument, heard everywhere from New Orleans to Surinam, mixes genres in this album, jumping from "Sweet Georgia Brown" to Thelonius Monk's "Bemsha Swing."
Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone reviews the work of the young singer Alva Rogers. Rogers has performed in clubs throughout the New York City area over the last several weeks.
Washington Post chief defense correspondent George Wilson. His new book, Mud Soldiers: Life Inside the New American Army, is an analysis of the efficiency and morale of the all-volunteer Army Infantry, the combat branch that would bear the brunt of any war, and which almost certainly sustain the highest loses. Wilson spent a year with 200 recruits, following them from basic training to maneuvers in the Mohave Desert, to their first assignments. Wilson's other books include Army in Anguish and Supercarrier.
Grammy Award-winning blues singer John Hammond performs two songs in Fresh Air's weekly performance segment. Hammond has performed for nearly twenty years, and in that time his style has evolved from straight-forward, rural blues to a harder-edged, urban style of blues. He is the son of music impresario John Hammond Sr. who helped launched and nurture the careers of Bob Dylan, Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday.
Vocalist Fred Schneider and singer/keyboardist Kate Pierson of the rock band The B-52's. In the late 70's, the group came to New York from Athens, Georgia and scored a hit with their song "Rock Lobster." Their danceable music and 60's style stood out among the new wave groups of New York's downtown music scene. They have a new album titled "Cosmic Thing."
Writer Michael Dorris. He and his wife, Louise Erdrich, have written several novels together, including Love Medicine and Yellow Raft in Blue Water. Both are part Native American, and Dorris spent several years of his childhood on an Indian reservation. He has adopted many children, one of which he later discovered was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Dorris's new book, The Broken Cord, is about this syndrome, and also his personal story of dealing with it in his family.
Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews "When Harry Met Sally," the new romantic comedy by director Rob Reiner ("Stand By Me," "This is Spinal Tap") that stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.
Writer Mary Kay Blakely. In 1984, shortly after a divorce, a recent diagnosis of diabetes, the suicide of a brother and a series of missed deadlines in her job as a journalist, Blakely collapsed into a coma. The coma lasted nine days, and when Blakely awoke, she saw the coma as a signal that the crush of commitments and societal pressures had overwhelmed her body, that "the life she planned no longer fit the woman she had become." Blakely writes about her journey back from her coma and her decision to redirect her life in her book Wake Me When It's Over.
Medical examiner Michael M. Baden. In his new book, Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner, Baden, the former chief medical examiner for New York City, reviews the record of famous autopsies of the last 30 years as evidence of a pattern of bungled investigations of unnatural deaths. Baden, who has been a medical examiner for 30 years, views his profession as a historian or anthropologist who revisits ruined or questionable autopsies in the hopes of correcting history. Baden is now director of the forensic sciences unit for the New York State Police.
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of man's first walk on the moon, commentator Stewart Brand shares his thoughts on space exploration and how it has changed us. Brand is founder of The Whole Earth Catalog.
Classical Music Critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new issue of a live recording of the opera "Adriana Lecouvreur" by the Italian composer Francesco Cilea. In this performance, Cilea's favorite soprano, Magda Olivero, sings the title role. This recording was made by a fan who snuck in a tape recorder to what turned out to be Olivero's farewell performance in the role.
Book Critic John Leonard reviews the novel Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith, his sequel to his 1981 best-seller Gorky Park. Reappearing in Polar Star is Arkady Renko, the intrepid police investigator hero of Gorky Park.
Novelist Cynthia Kadohata. Her first novel, The Floating World, is a `road novel' about a second generation Asian American teenager who leads a nomadic life with her parents as her father travels the country from one job to the next. As her journey unfolds, the protagonist struggles to find her place in her family and in America. Kadohata's short stories have appeared in The New Yorker and the quarterly The Pennsylvania Review. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)
