For many, the 1960s mark the true end of modern America. Whereas the modernists remained serious about the transcendent nature of art, the artists of the 1960s wanted an art that was relevant. They wanted an art that not only spoke about justice, but also helped create it. This program explores the innovations made in American poetry in the 1960s by Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, and Adrienne Rich.

A #1 best-selling author shows how a boy from small-town New York made it to literary stardom.

Benjamin Moser's Sontag, a biography of Susan Sontag, is a portrait of the iconoclastic and prolific essayist, novelist, and critic and her role in the history of American intellectualism.

"Delia Ephron had struggled through several years of heartbreak. She'd lost her sister, Nora, and then her husband, Jerry, both to cancer. Several months after Jerry's death, she decided to make one small change in her life--she shut down his landline, which crashed her internet. She ended up in Verizon hell. She channeled her grief the best way she knew: by writing a New York Times op-ed. The piece caught the attention of Peter, a Bay Area psychiatrist,...

A biography of Maya Angelou, poet, performer and activist.

"A dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity--and how it saved her life"--

"Biography of prolific children's literature author Beverly Cleary."--From source other than the Library of Congress

The author discusses her life, how she came to be a writer, where she gets her ideas from, and what is involved in producing a book.