Terry Gross

Munro has a new collection called "Selected Stories." Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review. She's written seven previous short story collections, and has received Canada's highest literary prize three times.

Film director Anthony Minghella. He made his film debut with the highly acclaimed, "Truly, Madly, Deeply." His latest project is the film version of the novel "The English Patient," by Michael Ondaatje which won England's prestigious Booker Prize in 1992.

Berube is a professor of English at the University of Illinois and is the author of the new book, "Life As We Know It: A Father, a Family, and an Exceptional Child." It's about the birth of his son in 1991, Jamie, who has Down syndrome, and how that has affected his family's life. Berube writes in the introduction, "individual humans like James are compelling us daily to determine what kind of 'individuality' we will value, on what terms, and why."

Satirist and columnist Harry Shearer. He is one of the creators of and performers in the mock-rock group Spinal Tap, and he is also the host of the syndicated NPR radio program, "Le Show" and a weekly commentator on ABC TV's World News Now. Shearer will give some of his impressions of the 1996 electoral campaign.

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved the sale of RU486, the French abortion pill, in the United States. The drug won't be available widely until mid-next year. Dr. Elizabeth Newhall works in a clinic in Portland, Oregon, where they have been testing the drug with their patients.

Nationally syndicated columnist and author Roger Simon. He's covered every presidential election for the past twenty years. He'll give us his impression of this year's election, the day after. Simon wrote the book "Road Show" about the 1988 presidential election. He's currently working on a book about this year's campaign which will be out next year.

Two guests discuss their work in Hollywood.

Next week, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist will be honored at the National Book Awards ceremony for her distinguished contribution to American letters. In 1992, at the time of this interview, she had a new novel "Jazz," and a book of essays, "Playing in the Dark." Her novel, "Beloved," won the Pulitzer prize. She's written five novels in all. (REBROADCAST FROM 4/24/92).

Director of the Brookings Institution Center for Public Management, John Dilulio, Jr. He's also a professor at Princeton University and member of the Council on Crime in America. He's just co-authored a new book called Body Count, in which he and others warn that though violent crime by juveniles may be down now, the worse is yet to come. They blame violent crime not on economic poverty, guns, or the use of lack of prisons.

President and founder of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives Jerome Miller. When he was commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (1969-1972), he closed down the state reform schools and placed residents in community programs because of the brutal, inhumane way the residents were treated. His "experiment" turned out to be a success. He wrote about it in the book "Last One Over the Wall: The Massachusetts Experiment in Closing Reform Schools."