Lynn Neary
Lynn Neary is an NPR arts correspondent covering books and publishing.
Not only does she report on the business of books and explore literary trends and ideas, Neary has also met and profiled many of her favorite authors. She has wandered the streets of Baltimore with Anne Tyler and the forests of the Great Smoky Mountains with Richard Powers. She has helped readers discover great new writers like Tommy Orange, author of There, There, and has introduced them to future bestsellers like A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
Arriving at NPR in 1982, Neary spent two years working as a newscaster on Morning Edition. For the next eight years, Neary was the host of Weekend All Things Considered. Throughout her career at NPR, she has been a frequent guest host on all of NPR's news programs including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and Talk of the Nation.
In 1992, Neary joined the cultural desk to develop NPR's first religion beat. As religion correspondent, Neary covered the country's diverse religious landscape and the politics of the religious right.
Neary has won numerous prestigious awards including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Gold Award, an Ohio State Award, an Association of Women in Radio and Television Award, and the Gabriel award. For her reporting on the role of religion in the debate over welfare reform, Neary shared in NPR's 1996 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award.
A graduate of Fordham University, Neary thinks she may be the envy of English majors everywhere.
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Aline Ohanesian's debut novel attempts to make sense of the events of 100 years ago, when the Ottoman Empire began forcing Armenians out of their homes in Turkey, leaving more than a million dead. -
Debut novelist Jill Alexander Essbaum's heroine is a deeply unhappy married woman who seeks solace in sexual encounters. Essbaum says it's through those encounters that "we see where she's busted."
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Saturday Night Live celebrates its 40th anniversary on Sunday. Throughout, the show's two photographers have been flies on the wall, capturing read-throughs, rehearsals and back-stage shenanigans. -
News of a second novel has raised concerns that the To Kill a Mockingbird author is being taken advantage of in her old age. But friend Wayne Flynt says Lee, 88, can "understand what's going on." -
The American Library Association awarded its top medals to Dan Santat's tale of an imaginary friend on a mission and Kwame Alexander's story of basketball-playing twins. -
Australian writer Colleen McCullough has died at 77; she was best known for her doomed Outback romance saga The Thorn Birds, famously adapted for TV with Richard Chamberlain as a passionate priest. -
Sesame Workshop's games are designed to help kids learn words and have fun. One New York City educator says it's never too soon to teach tykes that technology can be more than just entertainment. -
Marilynne Robinson's fourth novel is a prequel to 2004's Gilead: That book told the Rev. John Ames' family story and this book tells the story of his wife. -
Smiley used to live in Iowa and says something about the place still pulls on her imagination. Her new book, Some Luck, begins on a family farm in 1920.
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Captain Underpants has once again topped the list of most-challenged books. Author Dav Pilkey says his tighty-whities-clad hero teaches kids a healthy lesson about questioning authority.
