memoir

With insight, humor, formal invention, and lyricism, in "A Man of Two Faces" Viet Thanh Nguyen rewinds the film of his own life. He expands the genre of personal memoir by acknowledging larger stories of refugeehood, colonization, and ideas about Vietnam and America, writing with his trademark sardonic wit and incisive analysis, as well as a deep emotional openness about his life as a father and a son. This interview was recorded on October 4.

When Jarrett J. Krosoczka was in high school, he was part of a program that sent students to be counselors at a camp for seriously ill kids and their families. Going into it, Jarrett was worried: Wouldn't it be depressing, to be around kids facing such a serious struggle? Wouldn't it be grim?But instead of the shadow of death, Jarrett found something else at Camp Sunshine: the hope and determination that gets people through the most troubled of times. Now, in his follow-up to the National Book Award finalist "Hey, Kiddo," Jarrett brings readers back to Camp Sunshine so we can meet the campers and fellow counselors who changed the course of his life.

"The Smile of Her" is a world premiere play written and performed by Academy, Emmy and Golden Globe Awards winner Christine Lahti. The play, running through July 29 at BTG’s Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, takes the audience on a sometimes funny, always deeply personal, journey of denial, neglect, abuse, understanding and by the end: hope.

Academy and Tony Award-winning actor, Alan Arkin, has died at 89. Joe Donahue spoke with him on The Roundtable in 2011 about the memoir "An Improvised Life." In this wide-ranging interview Arkin recalls his time at Second City, his aversion to being typecast, and how winning the Oscar didn't change his career.

When Jarrett J. Krosoczka was in high school, he was part of a program that sent students to be counselors at a camp for seriously ill kids and their families. Going into it, Jarrett was worried: Wouldn't it be depressing, to be around kids facing such a serious struggle? Wouldn't it be grim?But instead of the shadow of death, Jarrett found something else at Camp Sunshine: the hope and determination that gets people through the most troubled of times. Now, in his follow-up to the National Book Award finalist "Hey, Kiddo," Jarrett brings readers back to Camp Sunshine so we can meet the campers and fellow counselors who changed the course of his life.

Anthony Chin-Quee, M.D., is a board-certified otolaryngologist with degrees from Harvard University and Emory University School of Medicine. At first glance, Anthony Chin-Quee looks like a traditional success story: a smart, ambitious kid who grew up to become a board-certified otolaryngologist—an ear, nose, and throat surgeon. Yet the truth is more complicated.

What happens when a celebrated "caterer to the stars" (and incessant people pleaser) begins to REALLY ponder "what's it all about?" Mary Giuliani deconstructs her ever-evolving existential internal conversation in "How to Lose Friends and Influence No One," a new collection of essays, beginning when all the world (and all the stars) are ordered to stay home.

Mary Louise Kelly has been reporting for NPR for nearly two decades and is now cohost of All Things Considered. She has also written suspense novels, Anonymous Sources and The Bullet, and is the author of articles and essays that have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among numerous other publications.Her new book is "It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs."

Four years ago actor and model Colton Haynes woke up in a hospital. He’d had two seizures, lost the sight in one eye, almost ruptured a kidney, and been put on an involuntary psychiatry hold. Not yet thirty, he knew he had to take stock of his life and make some serious changes if he wanted to see his next birthday.

In the fall of 2019, John Hendrickson wrote a groundbreaking story for The Atlantic about Joe Biden’s decades-long journey with stuttering, as well as his own. The article went viral, reaching readers around the world and altering the course of Hendrickson’s life. Overnight, he was forced to publicly confront an element of himself that still caused him great pain.