Society & Culture

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the uniquely American tradition of spelling bees. The oracular practice may date back to a time when literacy was considered a form of magic. But, Nunberg says, it has nothing to do with education.

The writer published her first story she was 35; her first novel came out nine years later. Her latest book, Silver, is about marriage, domesticity and suburban life.

The husband-and-wife rock duo -- with a boombox for a rhythm section -- joins Fresh Air for an in-studio concert. They recently found commercial success with their hit, "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades."

Mystery novelist Tony Hillerman's books feature Navajo detectives in the American Southwest, and are informed by that tribe's religious practices. He's not Indian himself, but grew up in their communities.

Harvard Law professor and professional negotiator Roger Fisher applies his principles to personal relationships in his new book, Getting Together.

Newsweek correspondent Sylvester Monroe. He recently returned to the ghetto housing project in Chicago where he was raised for a reunion with his boyhood friends. He chronicles their successful and failed attempts to escape the ghetto and ghetto culture in his book Brothers.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg discusses the logic behind the dictionary and thesaurus.

Writer Paul Monette. His new book, Borrowed Time, is a memoir about watching his lover die from AIDS.

Poet Sharon Olds. She writes passionate and intensely personal poems about her childhood with abusive and alcoholic parents, and her own experiences as a mother and a wife. Suicide attempts in New York, and encounters on the subway also provide inspiration for her work. Sharon Olds is the recipient of the 1985 National Book Critics Circle Award for her collection titled The Dead and the Living.

Writer Jeanette Winterson. Her autobiographical first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, is the coming-out story of a young British girl raised in an evangelical household who must come to the religion's severe view of right and wrong. Winterson was the recipient of the Whitbread Prize for best first novel and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for best writer under thirty-five. Her new book, "The Passion," is a historical novel set at the time of the Napoleonic wars.

Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone profiles comedienne Angela Scott.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker looks at several women rock musicians who reject female rock stereotypes and work in highly idiosyncratic and original styles. The groups and individuals includes the Sugarcubes, Jane Wiedlin and M.C. Lyte.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg discusses the way the language of the drug culture has worked through the language of the mainstream.

Journalist Irvin Muchnick. His recent reporting has focused on recent developments in professional wrestling.

Michael Harrington, a political scientist, author and co-chairman of the Democratic Socialists of America. His 1962 book, The Other America, caught the attention of President John Kennedy and became the handbook for Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. Harrington's central theme is that poverty is growing, not shrinking, and that the free market has proven inadequate to the task of reducing it. His more recent works include The New American Poverty and The Next Left. His latest work, The Long-Distance Runner, is his autobiography.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews "Vivid," the debut album by the black rock group Living Colour.

Standup comic Richard Lewis. In his act, Lewis portrays a spastic, tortured, self-deprecating man living a life of unrelieved pain. He says of his comedy that after he's finished his act "people throw prescription drugs and the names of their therapists instead of roses. I'm the wreck they can't be." Lewis has appeared roughly 35 times on the "Late Night with David Letterman" show. His new HBO comedy special, "Richard Lewis: I'm Exhausted Concert," premieres on June 18th.

Screenwriter Shawn Slovo. Her first film, "A World Apart," is the autobiographical story of the relationship between a white woman, committed to fighting apartheid, and her 13-year-old daughter, who is struggling to cope with the political choices her mother has made. Slovo's parents were early members of the outlawed African National Congress; Her mother reported on the injustices of apartheid for alternative newspapers, while her father defended blacks in the court system. Slovo's mother was murdered in exile by a parcel bomb.

Cinematographer and director Chris Menges. His new film, "A World Apart," opens soon. The film deals with the relationship between a white woman, politically committed to the fight against apartheid in South Africa, and her 13-year-old daughter's attempts to understand the political choices her mother has made. Menges is Britain's foremost cinematographer and the winner of two Oscars for his camera work on "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission." "A World Apart" is his first feature film as a director.

Writer Bharati Mukherjee. Her new book of short stories, The Middleman and Other Stories, portrays immigrants from Third World countries who strive to maintain their indigenous identity while embracing much of Western culture and lifestyle.