Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance is the latest book by this award-winning journalist and author. Published by Scribner this June, it is the first major biography of Bundles’ great-grandmother. Bundles, a Forbes Magazine’s 50 Over 50 Impact honoree, also authored On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, a New York Times Notable Book and bestseller about her great-great-grandmother, an early 20th-century hair care industry entrepreneur and… Read More »
This journalist, historian, and Vietnam War veteran is the author of eleven books. His most recent book, The Unlikely War Hero: A Vietnam War POW’s Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton, was published by Stackpole Press in December 2024. Leepson’s Ballad of the Green Beret: The Life and Wars of Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler was the first biography of the former Green Beret sergeant who wrote and sang “The Ballad of… Read More »
90 Seconds to Midnight: A HiroshimaSurvivor’s Nuclear Odyssey, published by Potomac Books this month, is this author’s biography of Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow—a passionate Japanese individual whose lifelong endeavors helped safeguard mankind. Jacobs is a professor of medicine emerita at Stanford University, where she engaged in cancer research, patient care, and teaching. She is the author of two critically acclaimed books: Jonas Salk: A Life and Henry Kaplan and the Story of Hodgkin’s Disease. … Read More »
Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough is this author’s first full-length book. It was published by New York University Press in September 2024. Originally from Liverpool, England, Kanakamedala is a public historian based in New York City. She writes about 19th-century material culture of the Black Atlantic, New York’s racial fluidity and citizenship during that century, and print activism in Brooklyn’s early free Black communities. Prathibha Kanakamedala, a… Read More »
In Wallace Stegner: Dean of Western Writers, published by Signature Books in February 2025, this longtime Boston Globe columnist and author takes readers on a brisk and riveting journey through Stegner’s life and complicated legacy. As one of the most distinguished chroniclers of the American West, Stegner wrote fourteen novels and seventeen works of nonfiction during a career that spanned half a century. Alex Beam has written two novels and seven works of nonfiction,… Read More »
Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost’s Poetry is literary critic Adam Plunkett’s first biography. His exploration of the life and creativity of one of America’s favorite 20th-century poets was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in February 2025. Plunkett received fellowship support from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Leon Levy Center for Biography, and he has written for The Poetry Foundation, The Point, The … Read More »
In this special episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, National Humanities Medal recipient, and New York University history professor emeritus David Levering Lewis discusses his latest book—a sweeping exploration of his own family history. The Stained Glass Window: A Family History as the American Story: 1790-1958 was published by Penguin Random House in February 2025. Lewis received Pulitzers for his W. E. B. Du Bois biographies, and his extraordinary body of work, including 11 books, has been… Read More »
Thisaward-winning filmmaker, showrunner and Academy of Art University professor, talks about her documentary film, Raise HELL: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and won the Audience Award at SXSW, along with numerous other festival awards and screenings in England and Ireland. Raise HELL reflects themes Engel holds dear, speaking truth to power, igniting activism, advocacy and finding our shared humanity.Engel’s work includes non-fiction… Read More »
