Terry Gross

Paul Rudnick is an essayist, novelist, and playwright. His latest play on off-Broadway is a comedy called "Jeffrey," about a man who swears off love and sex because of his fear of AIDS. Rudnick also wrote the Broadway play, "I Hate Hamlet," about John Barrymore's ghost. He writes a column in "Premiere," called "If You Ask Me," in which he adopts the voice of a quintessential Jewish mother who critiques movie stars' personal lives.

Robinson recorded many classic blues and R&B sessions for his Red Robin, Fire/Fury and Enjoy record labels. He recorded Elmore Jones, Buster Brown, and Gladys Knight and the Pips. A new boxed set of work is called "The Fire/Fury Records Story."

The Pulitzer-prize winning columnist for The New York Times writes about issues and events that affect women and families. She has a new collection of her work, "Thinking Out Loud."

Foreign Correspondent for NPR, Tom Gjelten He's been reporting from Bosnia. Terry will talk with him about what it's been like to cover the war in the former Yugoslavia. Gjelten just won the prestigious George Polk Award for his piece, "Massacre on the Mountain," about a massacre of 200 Bosnian Muslim men. Gjelten also reported on the Gulf War and on the conflicts in Central America.

Author Lorenzo Carcaterra is managing editor of the CBS weekly series "Top Cops." He's written a memoir, "A Safe Place," about growing up the son of a violent, loving, murderous, and generous father. They lived in New York's Hell's Kitchen during the 50s and 60s. Lorenzo found out at the age of 14 that his father had murdered his first wife when she threatened to leave him. Lorenzo's father went on to terrorize his second wife, beating her and Lorenzo. Yet his father also could be warm and affectionate to his family.

Hall has been an actor, a private detective and a screenwriter -- he wrote the horror movie C.H.U.D. Now he is a novelist, writing mysteries featuring Stanley Hastings, a failed actor turned detective.

Nilsson founded the Tenderloin Action Group in San Francisco. He works with "drifters and dreamers who shared the same conundrums of heart and head that confront us all." The organization has a grass-roots theatre group and are putting together a film, "Chalk," a pool-hall drama, about and starring homeless actors. Nilsson began the project as a way to alleviate his own feelings concerning his younger brother, who lived on the street.

Probation officer for Los Angeles County Jim Galipeau works with gangs in Los Angeles, and is currently trying to raise money for a program with older gang members. He has been a probation officer for 27 yearsm is a Vietnam vet, and a teenage street fighter and drug addict. Terry talked with Galipeau in March, and invited him back for another conversation.

The world of New York drag queens was captured on film long before "Paris Is Burning." In 1968, a movie called "The Queen" documented the Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant. The film was a sensation in New York City; it was even shown at the Cannes Film Festival. This month "The Queen" has been revived for a short run at New York's Film Forum. Terry talks with Jack Doroshow also known as Sabrina, the organizer and mistress of ceremonies of the 1968 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant.