Fresh off his publication in "The Best American Short Stories 2011," the award-winning author discusses John Cheever, New York City, and the search for truth.

The former Squirrel Nut Zippers singer records three acoustic tracks from her new album, "Madly Love."

Brendan Constantine There are people our eyes can’t ride. My grandmother had an expression for it in Greek: Our eyes fall off them. Who don’t you see? What do they make plain instead? Have you thanked them? It’s probably relative. That is, not a question of beauty or character but rather, where you’re standing & when & how long. Today I said hello to someone who didn’t answer. No telling which of us wasn’t there....

Brendan Constantine I put my hand on her stomach and feel for the baby’s head. Earthquake season. After a beat, it finds my palm, nuzzles. I sense other movements, a fumbling in the dark of this woman. The couple downstairs are blind and clumsy. Their daughter is ashamed of her sight and pretends to stumble all day. The baby kicks twice, like its foot is caught on a rug. Yes, like that, I think and move my hand. Long ago, animals...

Dolorean founder and frontman Al James discusses some of the themes at work in the his band’s latest album, The Unfazed.

To mark the paperback release of his latest novel, "The Passage," Ben goes deep with acclaimed author Justin Cronin.

Jason Quever gets out his Macbook, strips it down to the bone, and obliges us by recording two songs with just guitar and vocals.

Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner explores the inspiration behind the band's new album, "Civilian."

Jeffrey Parker The numb narcotic of scrolling down the forever page, growing longer as the day dissolves its relevance into repetitions of images and words, floating over black electricity and disappearing as quickly from memory as from the last neurons – shifting between the hum of backlit screens and the faint subconscious, the dead white illumination of time projects its blindness like snow falling into the white morning, when...

Rachel Mehl my parents read Mother Earth News, sold their house in Seattle to buy a 35 acre plot of forest and swamp. They built a house with a wood furnace, and planted a vine maple in the courtyard to cool the hall in summers. Grandpa Hi water witched. They put in a well. My pregnant mother shingled the roof, belly swelling with what would be me. They brought me home, buried my placenta under a ginkgo. My mother had planted sweet...