The history of school desegregation in America has long been centered around the southern United States. But in her new book, "In Pursuit of Knowledge," University of New Hampshire Professor Dr. Kabria Baumgartner explores an earlier story from much closer to home. She joined All Things Considered host Peter Biello. Note: The following transcript is lightly edited for clarity What happened in the Northeast that warrants more attention, in your view? Well, I think there were quite a few episodes

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 launch party for the newest volume will take place at the Peterborough Public Library on Friday, March 6. Editor-in-chief Zoë Wroten-Heinzmann and creative director Chris DiLoreto spoke with NHPR's Peter Biello about the release of their latest issue. Editor's note: This transcript has

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. Editor's note: This interview includes discussion of sensitive subjects that may make some listeners feel uncomfortable, such

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? These questions are at the heart of New Hampshire author Lisa Gardner 's new thriller, When You See Me. We've spoken with Lisa Gardner before, often about the characters we get to know as they reappear in her books....Sergeant D.D. Warren and FBI Agent

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. NHPR’s Peter Biello spoke with Peary about this effort and about her new collection of poetry, The Water Draft . Read Alexandria Peary's Top Five Reading Recommendations: 1. Wallace Stevens, The Collected Poems. This book is a must-read

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. This month, Copeland

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. There he met farmers, road workers, and war veterans who, to Brighton, were the very essence of the rapidly changing rural New Hampshire landscape. Brighton's new memoir recalls the Washington of the 1960s and 70s, and the people who lived there. NHPR’s All Things Considered host Peter Biello sat down with Brighton to discuss his new book,

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. Such a metaphor proved irresistible to Marie Harris. The Barrington, New Hampshire poet's new collection, Desire Lines, keeps these paths in mind as it explores aspects of her own life. Harris, a former New Hampshire poet laureate

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. Elisabeth Jewell of Penacook has been trying to find time to put her feet up on her couch, open her laptop, and work on her novel. "I like fun books, so I

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. In his new novel, "Continental Divide," Myers writes about 19-year-old Ron, who was born female, and grew up in Tamworth, New Hampshire. Ron decides to reinvent himself as a man by moving west to work on a ranch in Wyoming. Alex Myers is an English teacher at Philips Exeter Academy. NHPR's Peter Biello stopped by his classroom earlier this

Writer Stacia Tolman worked for many years as a high school English teacher at a private school in New Hampshire’s Monadnock region. Now, she’s drawn on her observations of high school social dynamics to write her debut young adult novel, The Spaces Between Us . The story centers on the relationship between Serena Velasco and Melody Grimshaw, high school students and best friends with a common goal: to escape their dull, lifeless hometown in rural New York. Serena is from a middle-class family,

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. Now, more than a decade since his first collection of stories was published, Hill is comfortable with publicly discussing his origins as a writer—so comfortable, in fact, that his introduction to his newest collection of short stories features descriptions of

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 book is edited by Concord resident Kelsie Collins. She, along with poet Brianna Coykendall, have been working to build a community of writers who collaborate, edit, and inspire each other. Coykendall is the founder of The Central New Hampshire Writer's Circle , which played a hand in the editorial process for The People's

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. Read Marko Kloos's Top Five Reading Recommendations: 1. The Book of M by Peng Shepherd. "A haunting

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. Read Jennifer Militello's Top 5 Reading Recomendations: 1. Come Closer and Listen

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. Read Miriam Levine's Top Five Reading Recommendations 1. Dart by Alice Oswald. "A

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

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 "The Rationing" isn't a book about a disease. It's a political satire about how the United States

The first elephants to arrive in America were imported from India and Africa in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Those elephants were paraded up and down the east coast. Their owners charged people to see the elephant, which was such a sought-after experience, even President George Washington considered it worth the price of admission. The story of these elephants, and the young slave who cared for them, is the focus of the new novel in verse by the current Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, Tammi

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. She’s starting at a new school far from where she grew up, but more importantly, she’s now identifying as the girl she always knew she was, leaving behind the boy she’d been labeled as since birth. Zenobia July is the name of Exeter, New Hampshire novelist’s

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.

About a dozen years ago, New Hampshire author David Elliott was in Germany on a book tour with his wife when she suggested they hop over the border into France. Before he went, he thought, “I have a lamp that looks like the Eiffel Tower – that’s good enough for me.” But after just spending 20 minutes in Paris, he says he fell in love with the city and France. Elliott’s new book takes on a topic Francophiles may enjoy. It's called Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc , and it's written in

Marian Engström always had a few nagging suspicions about her boyfriend Tate. Before he died suddenly, she wondered about that faraway empty look in Tate's eyes, and was puzzled by a profound lack of empathy he sometimes displayed. And then there was the time he said he found the body of a young woman who had been murdered. Did he really just find that young woman? Or was he somehow responsible for her death? Diane Les Becquets' new novel, The Last Woman in the Forest , is the story of Marian's

Fionn Shea is an actor, activist, musician, and writer from New Hampshire. He is also transgender. In the new book, “transVersing,” which is also a play, Fionn Shea contributes his thoughts on what it means to have made the transition from woman to man, and to navigate a world that Shea says “rejects my manhood [and] forces my womanhood.” Read Fionn Shea's Top Five Reading Recommendations: 1. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost A book of Frost's poetry stays with me at all times, no matter where