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Academic Insights for the Thinking World

10 questions for Lynn Neary

Each summer, Oxford University Press USA and Bryant Park in New York City partner for their summer reading series Word for Word Book Club. The Bryant Park Reading Room offers free copies of book club selection while supply lasts, compliments of Oxford University Press, and guest speakers lead the group in discussion. On Tuesday 12 June, NPR arts correspondent Lynn Neary leads a discussion on Wuthering Heights.

Lynn Neary. Photo by Max Hirshfeld.
What was your inspiration for this book?

I write radio stories inspired by books.

Where do you do your best writing?

At the office but I pace a lot during the writing process.

Which author do you wish had been your 7th grade English teacher?

Jane Austen. I think she would be fun.

What is your secret talent?

Wish I had one.

What is your favorite book?

So many! Recently I loved Cutting for Stone.

Who reads your first draft?

Me.

Do you prefer writing on a computer or longhand?

Computer.

What book are you currently reading?

The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields, a novel about Edith Wharton.

What word or punctuation mark are you most guilty of overusing?

!!!!! Of course !!

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

A therapist.

Lynn Neary is an NPR arts correspondent and a frequent guest host often heard on Morning Edition, Weekend Edition and Talk of the Nation. In her role on the Arts desk, Neary reports on an industry in transition as publishing moves into the digital age. As she covers books and publishing, she relishes the opportunity to interview many of her favorite authors from Barbara Kingsolver to Ian McKewan. Arriving at NPR in 1982, Neary spent two years working as a newscaster during Morning Edition. Then, for the next eight years, Neary was the host of Weekend All Things Considered. In 1992, she joined the cultural desk to develop NPR’s first religion beat. As religion correspondent, Neary covered the country’s diverse religious landscape and the politics of the religious right. Over the years Neary has won numerous prestigious awards including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism award, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Gold Award, an Ohio State Award, an Association of Women in Radio and Television Award and the Gabriel award. For her reporting on the role of religion in the debate over welfare reform, Neary shared in NPR’s 1996 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award. A Fordham University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Neary thinks she has the ideal job and suspects she is the envy of English majors everywhere.

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  1. […] His stories and essays have been widely anthologized—including, most recently, in Best American Noir of the Century, edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, which featured his story “The Hoarder”—and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. He is completing work on a seventh novel, The Prague Sonatas, which takes place both in Prague, Czech Republic and Prague, Nebraska. Morrow is professor of literature and Bard Center Fellow at Bard College. He divides his time between New York City and an old farmhouse in upstate New York. Previously in the 10 questions series: Lynn Neary and Wuthering Heights. […]

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