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The Iraqi Governing Council signs an interim constitution Monday after weeks of negotiations. The constitution, meant to pave the way for establishing a sovereign Iraqi government, aspires to balance the nation's Shiite majority with protections for minority Sunnis and Kurds. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and professor Nathan Brown of George Washington University.

The celebrated New Yorker writer Mavis Gallant published two collections of stories at the end of last year. She still lives alone in Paris and, in the words of Russell Banks, she still packs a lifetime into one short story. Frank Browning profiles her.

Irish writer Eoin Colfer has found great success enchanting readers with the fanciful adventures of Artemis Fowl. His new book The Wish List is about saving souls, cell-phone conversations between St. Peter and Beelzebub, and the online presence of both Heaven and Hell. Frank Browning profiles the writer.

The small town of Cambridge, Md., went up in flames 40 years ago this summer. A speech by black activist H. Rap Brown helped incite unrest there. But the town's problems were rooted in a painful history of racial discrimination.

Poet Jon Dressel reads his poem "Beethoven at the Alamo" in honor of composer Ludwig van Beethoven's birthday. It takes its inspiration from the "Peanuts" comic strip, in which piano-playing Schroeder and Charlie Brown used to have an ongoing debate about which boyhood hero was greater...Beethoven or Davy Crockett.

Commerce Secretary William Daley has developed new guidelines for deciding which private sector representatives go on government trade missions. Critics have charged that former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown invited business executives to take the trips as payback for supporting the Democrats. NPR's Phillip Davis reports that Daley has announced that politics won't be a consideration in any future invitations.

ook Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Leaving the Dollhouse, a memoir by British Actress Claire Bloom (Little Brown & Co.).

Today would have been jazz saxophonist John Coltrane's 70th birthday. This past weekend, the town where he grew up...High Point, North Carolina (known as "the furniture capital of the world")...dedicated a marker to him. Paul Brown, of member station WFDD, talked to some of the townspeople who remember Coltrane...and some who don't.

Virginia Biggar reports on the second day of the civil trial of O.J. Simpson. Lawyers for the families of the murder victims summed up their opening statement by describing Simpson as obsessed with rejections by his ex-wife. Simpson's lawyers began their statement with a different take on the relationship, arguing that it was Nicole Brown Simpson who pursued her ex-husband, and who kept up a warm and friendly relationship.

NPR's Michele Norris talks with Tim Brown, sports writer for The Los Angeles Times about last night's L.A. Lakers game, in which Kobe Bryant scored a record-breaking 12 three-point baskets, including a single-game record 9 consecutive 3-pointers.