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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Take a pinch of Hitchcock, a bit of Gone Girl, stir in a mysterious author and you've got the recipe for something unusual: One of the rare debut novels to hit number one its first week on the market.
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The National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Gene Luen Yang passed the baton to his successor Jacqueline Woodson on Tuesday. NPR takes a look at where young people's literature is now and where the new ambassador would like to take it in the coming year.
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Naomi Alderman's new novel imagines a world in which women suddenly pose a physical threat to men. Alderman says it was gratifying to imagine how characters might use that power to fight back.
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Matthew Weiner's first novel is Heather, the Totality. It's a character study of a well-to-do New York family — and a violence-prone construction worker who becomes obsessed with their daughter.
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In a new memoir, the Joy Luck Club author searches her past for the sources of her creativity. She says, "I certainly think that the bad experiences ... shaped me as a writer."
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Chris Jackson is revitalizing One World, a division of Random House known for publishing black authors. To celebrate, it's releasing Ta-Nehisi Coates' new book, We Were Eight Years in Power.
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Barnes & Noble is experimenting with food, Amazon is replicating its online business and an indie shop aims to be part of the community. Ultimately, they all want to sell more books.
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Hilderbrand reigns over the summer book market with her breezy novels, mostly set in Nantucket. Even if you're in a drab office, she says, if you're reading one of her books, you're at the beach.
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Anthony Horowitz's latest novel is a whodunit about whodunits. He says, "I wanted it to be ... a sort of a treatise on the whole genre of murder mystery writing."
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Joshua Ferris is best known for his book Then We Came To An End, a satirical depiction of office life. In The Dinner Party, he turns to short stories that take aim at the inner lives of clueless guys.
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The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood was a best-seller list after the 2016 election. We reread the dystopian classic to prep for a new TV miniseries that begins next week.
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The author behind the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series writes from experience — her parents divorced when she was young, and she says the divisions remain "to this day."