Dec 10th, 2009 · Romanian novelist Herta Mueller was awarded the 2009 literature prize for her depictions of "the landscape of the dispossessed." Her first novel, Nadirs, has just been reissued. Critic Alan Cheuse has a review.
Dec 26th, 2008 · Self-proclaimed "sex kitten" Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress has died. She was 81. Her career spanned six decades which includes starring on film next to Nat King Cole, to playing Catwoman on TV's Batman. Kitt won two Emmys. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.
Dec 25th, 2008 · Influential British playwright Harold Pinter, who won the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature, died Christmas day at the age of 78 after a long battle with esophageal cancer.
Dec 21st, 2007 · Record producer Joel Dorn worked with Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, Max Roach, Herbie Mann, the Allman Brothers and many more. He worked as an in-house producer at Atlantic Records before going out on his own, and in the late 1980s he repackaged back catalogs for the major record labels. He founded or co-founded several independent labels. He died Monday at age 65, of a heart attack. Fresh Air remembers him with this archival interview from April of 1991.
Nov 18th, 2007 · The final report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change includes data and findings on climate change, work that earned the panel this year's Nobel Peace Prize. The group warns of heat waves and rising sea levels as early as 2020 unless urgent, global action is taken.
Aug 13th, 2007 · Boots in a store in Saint Jo, Texas, feature scenes of busting broncos and a cattle drive. They won an award in 2003, and then sat peacefully in the store. But a man walked in wearing tennis shoes, and walked out wearing the boots. The boot-maker is offering a $1,000 reward.
Jul 16th, 2007 · There are wines of the Old World, the New World, and now the Developing World. Brazil is churning out award-winning wine at unlikely latitudes. Technological advances in both irrigation and refrigeration have made vast parts of the globe ideal for viticulture.
Jul 10th, 2007 · Doug Marlette, a Pulitzer-winning cartoonist, was killed Tuesday in a car crash in Mississippi. Marlette's editorial cartoons and his comic strip, "Kudzu," are syndicated worldwide. He was 57 years old.