In Aimee Bender’s story "The Doctor and The Rabbi" the two characters argue about the efficacy of prayer. The reader is Ellen Burstyn.
Next, thriller writer Elmore Leonard has some lighted-hearted fun with the tradition of the "Hail Mary" football pass in "Spirituality, with or Without a Prayer" read by Julie White.
And the title says it all in Jenny Hollowell's "The History of Everything Including You," a lyrical musing read by Kyra Sedgwick.
The program concludes with U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith reading two favorite poems of Krista Tippett's. The first is Carl Dennis's "The God Who Loves You," which Tippett says "has been hanging on the wall in my office for years." The second is Pablo Neruda’s "Poetry." Tippett thinks of it as a talisman--something to carry around with you.
Artists and writers:
Aimee Bender is the author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt; An Invisible Sign of My Own; Willful Creatures; The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, which won the SCIBA award for best fiction and an Alex Award; and most recently, The Color Master. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper’s, Tin House, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and many more publications. She has received two Pushcart prizes and was nominated for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award and the Shirley Jackson Short Story Award.
Ellen Burstyn’s illustrious sixty-year acting career encompasses film, stage, and television. She is the winner of the Academy Award for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the Tony Award for Same Time, Next Year, and two Emmy Awards for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Political Animals, among her many nominations. Her film and television credits include The Last Picture Show, The Exorcist, Resurrection, Requiem for a Dream, Big Love, Flowers in the Attic, Interstellar, The Age of Adaline, House of Cards, Nostalgia, American Woman, and Lucy in the Sky, and Nostalgia. On stage, she appeared in the London production of The Children’s Hour. Burstyn’s best-selling memoir, Lessons in Becoming Myself, was published in 2006. She will appear in the forthcoming films Never Too Late and Bathing Flo.
Jenny Hollowell is the author of the novel Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe. Her short fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Scheherezade, and the anthology New Sudden Fiction, and was named a distinguished story by Best American Short Stories. She received an MFA from the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction and recipient of the Balch Short Story Award.
Elmore Leonard (1925 - 2013) was a novelist and short story writer renowned for his Westerns and crime thrillers, nicknamed “the Dickens of Detroit.” Twenty-six of his works have been adapted into films and television shows, including 3:10 to Yuma, Get Shorty, Be Cool, Jackie Brown, and the FX series Justified. Leonard was honored with the 1984 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel, the 1992 Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Mystery Writers of America, the 2008 F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Award, the 2010 Peabody Award, and the 2012 National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution.
Kyra Sedgwick is best known for her starring role on television program The Closer. Additional television work includes BrooklynNine-Nine and Ten Days in the Valley. Her film work includes Born on the Fourth of July, Singles, Heart and Souls, Phenomenon, The Possession, The Edge of Seventeen, Submission, After Darkness, and Villains. Sedgwick made her directorial debut with Story of a Girl, starring her daughter Sosie Bacon.
Tracy K. Smith is the author of four books of poetry: The Body's Question, which won the Cave Canem prize for the best first book by an African American poet; Duende, winner of the James Laughlin Award and the Essence Literary Award; Life on Mars, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; and Wade in the Water. In 2014 she was awarded the Academy of American Poets fellowship. She has also written a memoir, Ordinary Light (2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. In June 2017, Smith was named U.S. Poet Laureate. She teaches creative writing at Princeton University and hosts American Public Media's daily radio program and podcast The Slowdown, which is sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.
Krista Tippett is a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author. She created and hosts the public radio show and podcast On Being and curates the Civil Conversations Project, an emergent approach to the differences of our age. She is the author of three best-selling books: Speaking of Faith, Einstein’s God, and Becoming Wise. She is at work on a new book, Letters to a Young Citizen. Tippett was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2014 by President Barack Obama.
Julie White won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her work in The Little Dog Laughed, and has also appeared on and Off-Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles, From Up Here, Airline Highway, Sylvia, and most recently Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. She is also known for her recurring roles in film and television, including the programs Grace Under Fire, Six Feet Under, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, the Transformers series, Michael Clayton, Lincoln, Go On, Alpha House, Nurse Jackie, Man Seeking Woman, and Designated Survivor.
