Elias Khoury is a Lebanese novelist, playwright, and journalist.  He edited the Al-Mulhaq, which became known as the "tribune of opposition" paper in Beirut, and he's often outspoken about Middle East political issues, like helping to establish the Democratic Left Movement.

Kris Saknussemm fled America in his 20s, thanks to a "youth of crime and drugs," and a rift with his parents.  He spent the next 20-plus years in Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Mary Gaitskill has written stories of people struggling to create intimacy and build relationships but events and often their own weaknesses overtake their efforts to succeed. As one critic notes, her stories are often more like a vivisection than a narrative.

The militant atheism of Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins misunderstands how religion works and takes the worst examples of irreligious behavior to all religion as evil. Not so fast, says Harvard Professor of Divinity Karen King.

Only one in five Americans say they could definitely vote for an atheist for President but that has not stopped the recent spate of public intellectuals proudly displaying their unbelief - Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris among them. Author Susan Jacoby will be defending freethinkers and our secular republic at a panel discussion on "Theism/Atheism: Belief and Unbelief in America" at the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV this Thursday at 7pm.

Ishmael Reed is one of the most prolific African-American poets and essayists to date, known for stirring controversy when it comes to politics and black culture.  He says he "holds up the mirror to hypocrisy.

Writing a memoir can be a raw, very personal process. What does it take to crack open your own life and examine your own family tree? Does everyone have a story to tell? And can anyone learn how to write a memoir? We talk to both a memoirist and an instructor who teaches people to write memoirs.

"Tomorrow begins with shrapnel and blood...." That's the line Brian Turner wrote - about death he saw firsthand.

Brian Turner was a soldier in Iraq when he started writing poetry. He described the rush of bullets, the desert nights in Iraq, and what it's like to see a comrade fall in battle. His first book of poetry, Here, Bullet, skyrocketed him into the limelight - at the same time, he struggled to adjust with his return to America. Brian Turner reflects on the painful beauty of Iraq, and how one finds grace in a time of war. Join us for an in-depth look at the battleground through a soldier-poet's eyes.

When Peter Hessler joined the Peace Corps and taught English in China, he didn't realize those two years would turn into a lifetime of writing about China and its people. But that's what happened.