Johnson was one of NASA's human "computers" and wrote trajectory equations for missions in the space agency's early days. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.
The Color Purple, The Hate U Give and American Sign Language textbooks have all been censored in U.S. prisons. A recent report describes the restrictions as "arbitrary" and "opaque."
Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles says she was at her wits' end trying to find a funny (but not mean-funny) book for her son, a budding humorist. Jake the Fake Keeps It Real was just the thing.
The annual award, doled out in partnership with NPR, honors fiction that doesn't shy from grappling with thorny social issues. Just one of the five books remaining will win $35,000 come April.
Poet and critic Craig Morgan Teicher presents his annual roundup of the poetry he's looking forward to. This year, he's showcasing a group of poets who he says are holding the darkness at bay.
Barnes & Noble suspended its campaign to reissue classic books with covers depicting protagonists as people of color after many authors, including McKinney, criticized the initiative.
The grant, thought to be the largest-ever from a philanthropic institution for poetry, will enable the academy to fund its Poets Laureate Fellowship program for the next three years.
Flatiron Books, publisher of the controversial new novel, has cancelled the remainder of author Jeanine Cummins' book tour after what it called "specific threats" to both the author and booksellers.
Rita Woods' ambitious novel spans 200 years and multiple storylines — it's a complex story of loss and survival that doesn't always work. But Woods creates memorable characters readers can relate to.
Latinx writers and critics are speaking out against Jeanine Cummins' new book American Dirt, calling its depiction of the migrant experience inauthentic and harmful. We asked Cummins to respond.
The new book A Very Stable Genius, by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, goes behind the scenes at Trump's White House. The authors speak with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly.
J.R.R. Tolkien's son was instrumental in cultivating his father's legacy, shepherding unpublished works to readers and helping extend the world of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
After a bookstore in England sent out a glum tweet about its worst sales day in memory, people inundated the store with new orders. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with longtime employee Robert Sansom.
Crissy Van Meter's debut novel is so assured, it's hard to believe it's a debut. It's the story of a young woman dealing with her mother and her difficult family history on the eve of her wedding.
The Plain Janes were the heroes of two acclaimed comic books published in 2007 and 2008. The female high schoolers stood apart from male-centric comics of their time. Now they're back in book form.
Bestselling author Elizabeth Wurtzel was 27 when Prozac Nation, her sensational memoir of a difficult life complicated by depression, was published. Wurtzel had cancer. She died Tuesday at age 52.
Boxes of personal belongings once owned by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck will soon be up for auction. Among the items, a telegram from President John F. Kennedy.
Our kids' books columnist, Juanita Giles, gave her daughter Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story for Christmas; she says the book's depiction of food and history mirrors her family's experiences.
Neal Kosaly-Meyer is memorizing and reciting a chapter a year of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. He plans to finish by 2030. It took Joyce 17 years to write the book.
Many Jews were forced to convert during the Inquisition, a history often lost to their descendants. Finding recipes adhering to Jewish food customs helped one woman unearth her family's hidden past.
Originally published in 1974, the barely 60-page essay by Charles L. Black Jr. is considered one of the reference works on the subject — and it's getting renewed attention.
Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles has a secret: Her kids don't care about Harry Potter. But they do like Mike Johnston's relatably hapless boy wizard Wick, star of Confessions of a Dork Lord.
