Society & Culture

Journalist Leroy Aarons and President of the newly formed National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association. Aarons is founder of the group which was organized to deal with issues in the media involving gays and lesbians, to counter the homophobia often found in the mass media, and to promote fair and ethical treatment of gay and lesbian journalists who often fear exposure. The group is holding its first conference this week in San Francisco. Aarons is former editor, national correspondent, and bureau chief for The Washington Post and former executive editor for The Oakland Tribune.

Marian Wright Edelman is the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, a Washington advocacy group that works to prevent teen pregnancy, and provide for children's health, education and employment. The Los Angeles Times has called her "the most powerful advocate in America for children." She was the first black woman admitted to the bar in Mississippi.

Greg Tate is an African-American journalist who writes for the Village Voice. Under the guise of writing about a single subject, often a musician or artist, Tate's essays branch out and explore culture, politics and economic issues. He's written about topics as diverse as African musician King Sunny Ade ("ah-DAY"), the crisis of the black intellectual, and the cultural significance of writer Don DeLillo. A collection of his essays is now available. It's called "Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America." (Fireside/Simon & Schuster)

Joan Micklin Silver directed the upcoming HBO special "A Private Matter." It's the story of Sherri Chessen Finkbine, host of the children's T-V show Romper Room, and her decision to have an illegal abortion in 1962. Publicity about her choice led to intense public condemnation. In the HBO special, "Miss Sherri" is played by Sissy Spacek, and her husband is played by Aidan Quinn. Among Silver's other directing credits are several films, including "Crossing Delancey," and several HBO specials.

Writer Francisco Goldman. He was born in Guatemala, and was raised outside of Boston. His family often returned to Guatemala for visits. After college, he returned to Guatemala to live and write, and was awakened to the brutal political reality there. He then began a career in political journalism, writing for Harper's, The New York Times Sunday Magazine and Playboy.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is an African-American historian. He attended Yale University in the late '60s. The New York Times describes Gates as "a 41-year-old academic entrepreneur who has been one of the most sought-after scholars in the country in the last decade." Gates has taught at Yale, Cornell and Duke. Now he's been recruited to revitalize Harvard's African-American studies department, serving as its new chairman. He's written for Newsweek, Time, and The Nation.

Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, chief nurse of the Washington National Guard. Last week she was discharged from the army for being a lesbian. Cammermeyer is one of the highest ranking members of the military ever to be removed because of her sexual orientation. She served in Vietnam where she received the Bronze Star and in 1985 was chosen from 34,000 candidates to be the Veterans Administration's Nurse of the year. She is challenging her dismissal in Federal Court.

Writer Terry McMillan. Her new novel, "Waiting to Exhale," (Viking) is about four strong, urban black women in their thirties, their successful careers, and their sometimes volatile relationships with black men. She says women -- both black and white -- are frustrated because they can't find a man who's willing to commit, and won't lie and cheat. Her previous novels are "Mama" and "Disappearing Acts."

Novelist Randall Kenan. He was raised in the rural, North Carolina, a part of the country in which he says "it's hard to distinguish between the myths and reality." His new book, "Let the Dead Bury Their Dead," is a collection of stories, about a five-year old who can hear the dead speak, an Asian man who falls from the sky and encounters mindless violence and racism, and a conventional widow who copes with the revelation that her grandson is a homosexual, and others.

Benjamin Cheever is the son of the late John Cheever. Ben is also a writer, and he grew up in the shadow of his father's fame. He's just written his first novel, for which he says he finally found his own voice, separate from his father's. "The Plagiarist" (Atheneum) is loosely based on Ben's life, and the time he spent working at "Reader's Digest" magazine. Ben was also the editor of "The Letters of John Cheever," published in 1988.

Writer and professor Gayle Pemberton. She is associate director of Afro-American Studies at Princeton University. Her new book, The Hottest Water in Chicago: on family, race, time, and American culture, is a collection of autobiographical essays. Pemberton was born into a northern black middle-class family in the late 1940s. (by Faber & Faber)

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg considers the difference between the words "force" and "violence."

Book critic John Leonard reviews "After Henry," a new collection of essays by Joan Didion.

We mark the anniversary of Malcolm X's birth with historian and writer Clayborne Carson editor of "Malcolm X: The FBI files." CARSON is the Director and Senior Editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project. He also co-edited the companion reader to the PBS series "Eye on the Prize."

Frances Lear founded Lear's Magazine. At one time she was married to TV producer Norman Lear, and though her life, from the outside, seems quite pleasant and successful, her new memoir "The Second Seduction" details a life full of pain.

Writer Aram Saroyan ("AH-rum"). His father was William Saroyan; his stepfather is Walter Matthau. In the Sixties, he went through a minimalist poetry writing phase. Then he turned to autobiographical narrative, concentrating on his parents' turbulent marriage, his father's death, and his own family. His new book is called "Friends In The World: The Education of A Writer." (Coffee House press)

Robert Bly is one of the founders of the modern men's movement. He wrote the movement's most influential book, "Iron John." Terry asks him if the men's movement is in conflict with the women's movement. Robert Bly is also a poet, critic essayist and translator. (Bly's book "Iron John" is published by Vintage).

John Lee is a first-generation Korean reporter whose beat at the Los Angeles Times has been Koreatown during and since the riots. Many Korean merchants were targeted, and many wielded guns to defend themselves. He feels that the Korean side of the conflict hasn't been accurately portrayed by the media.

Anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis. He's the founder of Cultural Survival, an organization that that helps indigenous peoples whose ways of life are threatened by development. He's hosting a new PBS series called "Millennium," which starts tonight, and he's the author of the companion book, also called "Millennium." The series and the book seek to gain tribal wisdom for the modern world. (The book is published by Viking.)

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884-1933" by Blanche Wiesen Cook (Viking press).