Accessibility links
Literature Literature
Stories About

Literature

Saturday

In The Midst Of Future Calamity, A Different Kind Of Ark: The London Zoo

Author Interviews

In The Midst Of Future Calamity, A Different Kind Of Ark: The London Zoo

In Bill Broun's dystopian Night of the Animals, zoo-bound creatures ask the main character to let them out. "It's a kind of fulcrum between the old world and a kind of liberating cataclysm," he says.

In The Midst Of Future Calamity, A Different Kind Of Ark: The London Zoo

Listen · 5:56
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/490513406/490738826" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Sunday

'Imperial Wife' Trains Its Spotlight On Powerful Women, Past And Present

Author Interviews

'Imperial Wife' Trains Its Spotlight On Powerful Women, Past And Present

Irina Reyn's new novel focuses on two women in difficult marriages. Though they're centuries apart, both relationships are tied to the strong woman's struggle to fulfill gender expectations.

'Imperial Wife' Trains Its Spotlight On Powerful Women, Past And Present

Listen · 8:31
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/488863363/489061770" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Sunday

Why Does Cynthia Ozick Write? 'I Simply Must,' She Says

Author Cynthia Ozick in her home in New Rochelle, N.Y. in 2008. Kathy Willens/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Kathy Willens/AP

Author Interviews

Why Does Cynthia Ozick Write? 'I Simply Must,' She Says

The versatile author says that, like queens, writers are born into their profession. In her new book, Critics, Monsters, Fanatics, and Other Literary Essays, she examines current and past literature.

Why Does Cynthia Ozick Write? 'I Simply Must,' She Says

Listen · 7:06
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/486172884/486359479" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Wednesday

A Top Medical School Revamps Requirements To Lure English Majors

Dr. David Muller, dean of medical education at Mount Sinai, believes that including in each medical school class some students who have a strong background in the humanities makes traditional science students better doctors, too. Cindy Carpien for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Cindy Carpien for NPR

Shots - Health News

A Top Medical School Revamps Requirements To Lure English Majors

KFF Health News

Many of the students at Mount Sinai's medical school in New York majored in English or history, and never took the MCAT. The school sees that diversity among its students as a great strength.

A Top Medical School Revamps Requirements To Lure English Majors

Listen · 5:24
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/407967899/410074641" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Want To Read Others' Thoughts? Try Reading Literary Fiction

Would time spent with Anton Chekov, famed for his subtle, flawed characters, make you a better judge of human nature? Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Shots - Health News

Want To Read Others' Thoughts? Try Reading Literary Fiction

Reading literary fiction improves people's ability to recognize other people's mental states, while popular fiction and nonfiction do not, a study says. That may be because literary fiction tends to focus on the psychology and inner lives of the characters.

Want To Read Others' Thoughts? Try Reading Literary Fiction

Listen · 4:05
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/229190837/229274006" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

A Lively Mind: Your Brain On Jane Austen

Matt Langione, a subject in the study, reads Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Results from the study suggest that blood flow in the brain differs during leisurely and critical reading activities. L.A. Cicero/Stanford University hide caption

toggle caption
L.A. Cicero/Stanford University

Shots - Health News

A Lively Mind: Your Brain On Jane Austen

Could modern cognitive theories explain character development in one of Jane Austen's most famous heroines: Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth Bennett? Reading sessions inside an MRI scanner are shedding light on the question.

A Lively Mind: Your Brain On Jane Austen

Listen · 4:37
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/162401053/162551919" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Tuesday

Thursday

Sunday

Holden Caulfield: Giving Voice to Generations

J.D. Salinger's classic novel, which gave life to Holden Caulfield. Amy Sancetta/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Amy Sancetta/AP

In Character

Holden Caulfield: Giving Voice to Generations

Since his debut in 1951, Holden Caulfield — the funny, complex, wry protagonist of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye — has given voice to generations of teens caught between youth and adulthood.

Holden Caulfield: Giving Voice to Generations

Listen
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/18225406/18272181" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript