The Bookshelf

The Bookshelf: The Little-Known History Of Violence At New England's African American Schools Jun 16, 2020

The history of school desegregation in America has long been centered around the southern United States.

The Bookshelf: Monadnock Literary Journal Brings Regional Writers Together Feb 28, 2020

The second issue of the literary journal Monadnock Underground is set to release next week. The collection brings together more than a dozen pieces of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, mostly by local writers.

The Bookshelf: Meredith Tate Takes On The Difficult Subject of Rape Feb 14, 2020

In Concord-native Meredith Tate’s new novel, a young woman is kidnapped after a drug deal goes badly. To summon help, she has an out-of-body experience. Her quest to give her sister clues about where she is and how she got there serves as the central action of the book, which is called The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly. Tate spoke about it with NHPR's Peter Biello.

The Bookshelf: A Sexual Assault Survivor Learns to Thrive in Lisa Gardner's New Novel Jan 31, 2020

One day, while hiking in the Georgia mountains, a couple finds the bones of a human body buried many years ago. The discovery prompts a search for answers: why was this person killed? Who did it? And how many more bodies are hidden in these hills?

The Bookshelf: N.H. Poet Laureate Will Be Your Reader Jan 17, 2020

Alexandria Peary is New Hampshire’s new poet laureate, and she’s ramping up her work as the state’s official advocate for poetry and the literary arts more broadly. As part of her work as poet laureate, she’s been reading work sent to her by New Hampshire poets.

The Bookshelf: Keene Author Recalls 'Cub' Reporting Days in Graphic Memoir Jan 03, 2020

When Cindy Copeland was in seventh grade in the early 1970s, an English teacher encouraged her to become a writer. Shortly after that, the Keene resident landed an internship as a “cub reporter” with a local journalist, following her to public meetings and learning how question people powerful people—most of them men. And Cindy did all this while navigating the tricky minefield of fraught friendships, cliques, and bullying that so often characterize life in junior high.

The Bookshelf: Author John Brighton Remembers the Sullivan County of the 1960s Dec 20, 2019

When New Hampshire author John Brighton was six years old, his family bought a lakeside farm in Washington, a small town in New Hampshire's Sullivan County.

The Bookshelf: Poet Marie Harris and 'Desire Lines' Dec 06, 2019

If you've ever been on a college campus or a public park, you may have seen desire lines. Those are those well-worn paths carved by travelers who, for whatever reason, preferred a route that diverged from the ones carefully cured in concrete by city or campus planners.

The Bookshelf: N.H. Writers Face the National Novel Writing Month Challenge Nov 22, 2019

This November, writers across the world are participating in National Novel Writing Month. Organized by a non-profit, its goal is to encourage anyone who has dreamed of writing a book to just do it...over the course of one month. With a little more than a week remaining, NHPR's Peter Biello spoke with writers from New England giving it a try.

The Bookshelf: Author Alex Myers Challenges Gender Norms in New Novel Nov 08, 2019

Novelist Alex Myers came out as transgender in the mid-90s, when society's understanding of what it means to be transgender was less clear than it is today.

The Bookshelf: Nelson's Stacia Tolman On Her Debut Novel Oct 25, 2019

Writer Stacia Tolman worked for many years as a high school English teacher at a private school in New Hampshire’s Monadnock region.

The Bookshelf: Joe Hill on Collaboration: 'Story is Our Family's Private Language' Oct 11, 2019

When Joe Hill launched his career as a writer, he didn't want anyone to know about his famous writer parents, Stephen and Tabitha King. Rather than ride their coattails, he wanted to find success on his own—thus the pen name, Joe Hill.

The Bookshelf: The 'People's Book' Showcases New Hampshire Writers, Artists Sep 27, 2019

This week marked the launch of the second annual edition of The People's Book, a collection of literary works and visual art created by New Hampshire writers and artists.

The Bookshelf: Enfield Author Marko Kloos on War and Human Nature Aug 30, 2019

For much of human history, human beings have waged war against each other. In the new novel by Marko Kloos, that tendency to wage war remains as strong as ever more than a thousand years into the future. Aftershocks is an adventure story as well as a portrait of a technologically-advanced civilization struggling to maintain the peace after a devastating war. Kloos spoke with NHPR’s Peter Biello.

The Bookshelf: In Debut Memoir, Jennifer Militello Upends Time Aug 16, 2019

In Jennifer Militello's debut memoir, Knock Wood, time moves in more than one direction. The relationship between cause and effect is upended as Militello explores her memories of illicit love, domestic violence and dangerous influences. Militello, is the author of several books of poetry, and she teaches at New England College. She sat down with All Things Considered host Peter Biello to talk about her new book.

The Bookshelf: Miriam Levine's Poetry of 'Loss and Consolation' Aug 02, 2019

Miriam Levine's new collection of poetry is, as she describes it, a book about loss and consolation. In Saving Daylight, poems recall small moments: a chance meeting outside a theater, an encounter with a mosquito, watching a harmless spider walk across someone's hair. Levine lives in Concord for part of the year, and she sat down with NHPR's All Things Considered Host Peter Biello to chat about her new collection.

The Bookshelf: New Sources and New Liberties in Volume II of Civil War Graphic Novel Jul 19, 2019

Freeman Colby was a young schoolteacher from New Hampshire who joined the Union Army during the American Civil War. For the first nine months, Colby kept detailed notes of his service and wrote to his family members. Marek Bennett of Henniker drew on these rich resources for his graphic novel, The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby. In that volume, Bennett stuck close to Colby's exact language. Recently, he's published Volume II, in which he takes some liberties and draws on new sources for inspiration. NHPR's Peter Biello sat down with Marek Bennett to talk about Volume II.

The Bookshelf: The U.S. Confronts a Future Health Crisis in Wheelan’s Political Satire Jul 05, 2019

Imagine there's a virus living inside you. This virus is harmless. Most of the time. But then, something causes it to change and it could kill you unless you take one dose of a powerful drug. Now imagine there is a critical shortage of this drug. This is the scary scenario at the heart of the debut novel by Hanover resident and Dartmouth professor Charles Wheelan. It's called The Rationing, but this isn't a book about a disease. It's a political satire about how the United States government handles the unfolding public health crisis. Personalities clash. Political ambitions get in the way of productive discussion. Fake News opportunists muddy the waters and foreign countries take advantage of a vulnerable United States. Charles Wheelan joined NHPR's Peter Biello to talk about his new book.

The Bookshelf: Trans Girl Navigates Middle School in Exeter Author's New Novel Jun 07, 2019

For many kids, middle school is a fraught time. Friendships are forged and broken; bodies begin to change in sometimes uncomfortable ways. For Zenobia July, starting middle school is far more complicated than it is for most of her peers.

The Bookshelf: A Story About Two Pairs Of Sister Years Apart May 24, 2019

In a small New Hampshire community two sisters, Henrietta and Jane, grow up under the shadow of a folk tale about the ruins of a house near their own. The house, more than a century earlier, was the home of a family of five who, legend has it, were transformed into coyotes.

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