Terry Gross

Ondaatje won Britian's highest literary prize, the Booker Prize, for his novel set in post World War II, "The English Patient," He was born in Cyelon (now Sri Lanka), emigrated to England, and now lives in Canada. "The English Patient" has been made into a new film. (REBROADCAST from 1/6/94)

Guest host Marty Moss-Coane speaks with two experts about the refugee crisis in Rwanda and Zaire. Chris Cushing is Regional Emergency Coordinator for Care International in Zaire. Journalist Philip Gourevitch is based in Rwanda. He writes frequently on the region for The New Yorker and is currently working on a book about Rwanda and the aftermath of the 1994 civil war.

Senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal, George Anders. He's been covering the business side of medicine since 1993. His new book is "Health Against Wealth: HMOs and the Breakdown of Medical Trust." He's concerned with the lack of control individuals have within the health maintenance organization system.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet grew up in Detroit and worked in the factories as a young man. He's probably best known for his 1992 book of poems about the working class, "What Work Is," which won the National Book Award. He has several volumes of poetry as well as a memoir. His forthcoming book is called "Unselected Poems."

New York Times writer Jason DeParle. He covers poverty and social welfare issues for the Times. Recently, DeParle has been writing about the disappearance of affordable housing. On top of that, government subsidies for low-income housing have all but disappeared. DeParle's New York Times Magazine cover story about housing appeared on October 20, 1996.

From Australia, adventurer Robyn Davidson. Her book "Tracks" was the account of her 1,700 mile journey across Australia with four camels and a dog. Her next trip was a trek across the Indian desert with nomads, which she chronicled in the new book "Desert Places."

Actor Bruno Kirbly and playwright Alan Zweibel. Zweibel wrote the play "Bunny Bunny" about his friendship with Gilda Radner, whom he met while working on "Saturday Night Live." Their friendship lasted the rest of her life. The play is on view through December 1st at Plays and Players Theatre in a Philadelphia. Kirby plays Zweibel in the play.

Theroux's extensive travels have taken him through Africa, Asia and Central America. In his earlier writings, a central theme of his work was the ironic examination of the clashing and mingling of Western and Third World cultures. His new book, "My Other Life" (Houghton Bufflin) is a work of fiction about a character named Paul Theroux, based on his experiences and encounters as a world traveler. His interview was recorded at the Free Library in Philadelphia

The New Yorker called Trevor "probably the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language." Besides his eight volumes of short stories, he has written eleven novels, several plays for stage and for radio and television. In 1994 his memoir, "Excursions in the Real World" was published by Knopf. He writes about his family and childhood in Ireland. His latest book is "After Rain" published by Viking. It's a collection of short stories many which appeared in The New Yorker.

Brinkley will retire this week. He is host of ABC's "This Week with David Brinkley." He is also getting attention this week for calling President Clinton a "bore" who "doesn't have a creative bone in his body." In this archive show, Brinkley highlights his half century of journalism. His book, Washington Goes to War, was a surprise best-seller in 1988. It told the story of Washington in the early 40s, and how both the government and town itself were transformed by the responsibilities thrust on them as a result of the war.