Literary Figures

John Gerassi (jer-assy), former journalist, currently a professor of political science at Queens College of the City University of New York. He's written an unusual biography of Jean-Paul Sartre. Gerassi is Sartre's official biographer and was a personal friend, yet he is neither totally objective or uncritical. The book includes Gerassi's own observations as well as material culled from over 100 hours of interviews with Sartre and complete access to Sartre's papers.

Writer Cynthia Ozick. In 1981 and 1984, Ozick's two stories, "The Shawl" and "Rosa" won the O. Henry Prize award. Both stories appear in Ozick's new book, called The Shawl. In it, Ozick looks at what it means to `survive' the Nazi concentration camps, telling the story of Rosa, who witnesses the murder of her infant daughter in the camps. Later, living in Miami, Rosa imagines her daughter alive and married to a doctor in the United States.

Shakespearean scholar Gary Taylor. Four years ago, Taylor made headlines when he claimed to have discovered a new Shakespeare poem. Now Taylor's written a cultural history of the Bard of Stratford, called Reinventing Shakespeare. In it, Taylor asks `is Shakespeare really as great as everyone says?' Taylor looks at how changing societies have reinterpreted Shakespeare, and to some extent all great literature, to correspond with changing social mores and opinions.

Journalist, screenwriter and novelist John Gregory Dunne. In his new book, Harp, Dunne explores what it means to be Irish Catholic in America. Dunne explores his own history - "from steerage to suburbia in three generations" - his college days longing to be a WASP, his family's scarred history (suicides, murders), and what he calls his "insane desire to be assimilated." Dunne's earlier novels include The Red White and Blue, True Confessions, Vegas and Dutch Shea, Jr.

Writer Daniel Stern. Stern's written nine novels, and he's just published his first book of short stories. It's called Twice Told Tales, and it pays homage to works by Hemingway, Freud, Lionel Trilling, Henry James, and E.M. Forster. Stern has also been a professional cellist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, an English professor, and the head of advertising for one of the TV networks.

Writer and performer Bobbie Louise Hawkins. In addition to her poetry and prose, Hawkins is an artist, playwright and actress. Her books include One Small Saga, Back to Texas, Frenchy and Cuban Pete, Almost Everything. Her new book, My Own Alphabet, is a collection of stories, essays and memoirs. Hawkins also tours with Terry Garthwaite and Rosalie Sorrels in a performance that combines jazz, story-telling and folk music.

Author Rick Bass. His new book, Oil Notes, is a journal based on Bass' experience as a geologist looking for oil throughout the American West. Bass has also written short stories, essays, and environmental journalism.

Writer May Sarton. For many readers, Sarton is a heroic figure for her decision to expose her lesbianism in the early 60s, long before it society was tolerant of the gay life, and also for her decision to lead a life of solitude. The author of over 35 novels, books of poetry and essays, Sarton is probably best known for her journals, Recovering, and At Seventy. Her most recent book of poems, The Silence Now, explores themes from the solitude of the aging, to AIDS, to world peace.

As a child, the author traveled from her maternal home in Philadelphia to visit her father in North Carolina. He was a paraplegic as a result of a car accident. Campbell's new memoir details the complexities of their relationship.

Cooper says his new novel Closer -- which features explicit depictions of sex acts -- is meant to disturb, but not shock or arouse. While honing in on the experiences of gay men, Cooper sidesteps the issue of AIDS; he says sexuality generates enough anxiety on its own.