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Fresh Air Weekend: Novelist Yaa Gyasi; How Torture Derailed The War On Terror

Yaa Gyasi's first novel, <em>Homegoing</em>, won a National Book Critics Circle Award and a PEN/Hemingway Award. Her latest is <em>Transcendent Kingdom.</em>
Peter Hurley/Vilcek Foundation
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Penguin Random House
Yaa Gyasi's first novel, Homegoing, won a National Book Critics Circle Award and a PEN/Hemingway Award. Her latest is Transcendent Kingdom.

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Author Yaa Gyasi Says Writing Can Be 'An Act Of Love And Justice': Gyasi's debut novel, Homegoing, won a PEN/Hemingway Award. Her follow-up, Transcendent Kingdom, draws on Gyasi's life as the daughter of immigrants from Ghana.

'Our Lady Of Perpetual Hunger' Is A Savory Memoir Of Food, Work And Love: Southern pastry chef Lisa Donovan chronicles her messy, decades-long process of coming to own her worth in a smart and vulnerable new memoir.

Former FBI Agent Addresses Post-Sept. 11 Torture In Newly Declassified Book: Ali Soufan investigated terrorism cases and opposed the CIA's use of torture following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. After a legal battle, the redacted material in his 2011 memoir, Black Banners, has been restored.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

Author Yaa Gyasi Says Writing Can Be 'An Act Of Love And Justice'

'Our Lady Of Perpetual Hunger' Is A Savory Memoir Of Food, Work And Love

Former FBI Agent Addresses Post-Sept. 11 Torture In Newly Declassified Book

Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.

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Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.