Literary Figures

Writer Michael Ignatieff. His new book, Russian Album, recalls, through diaries, photographs and a few mementoes, his forebearers, aristocrats at the time of the Russian Revolution. While most of the upper class was killed in the Revolution, Ignatieff's family fled to Canada.

Writer Jane Smiley. Her newest work, a combination of novella and short story, probes the disappointments and loss of middle age. It is titled The Age of Grief.

Francine Du Plessix Gray, journalist and novelist. She has written extensively about women and fashion. Her new book is a collection of essays that cover religion, the idea of home and the current moral climate.

Barry Gifford, publisher and founder of Black Lizard Press. The press specializes in reprints of hard-boiled detective fiction, complete with the original book jackets.

Psychotherapist Eileen Simpson grew up as an orphan; her mother died from tuberculosis. As a young adult, she moved to Greenwich Village and married the poet John Berryman. Writing came to her later in life, after she split up with the renowned poet. Her new book is called Orphans: Real and Imaginary.

Pat Conroy's abusive father tried to groom him for a career in the Marines. Conroy instead became a novelist who incorporates autobiographical details into his fiction.

Deborah Eisenberg began writing short fiction in her 30s, without any formal training, while she worked as a waitress. Her first collection, Transactions in a Foreign Currency, received critical acclaim.

Anand Nagar, which translates into the City of Joy, is one of the most densely-populated slums in Calcutta. In order to learn more about how people survive in dire poverty, French writer Dominique LaPierre and his wife lived in a hovel alongside the neighborhood's residents. His book about the experience, called The City of Joy, has just been released in paperback.

Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman has recently published a number of articles critical of his home country's repressive government.

Tama Janowitz's newest book is a collection of short stories about the New York arts scene. She talks about the challenges and allure of living in the city, and what it's like to be accepted by a creative community of which she never felt a part.