Bookworm

Jackstraws (Harcourt Brace) Award-winning poet Charles Simic on the objects (stones, forks, dolls) that form the internal puppet theater of his imagination.

Ron Hansen "Hitler;?s Niece" (Harper Collins). Ron Hansen?sreconstruction of Hitler?s affair with Geli Raubal gives us a glimpse of acreepy, hypothetical menage ---rois: the novelist in bed with innocence andmonstrosity.

Susan Minot "Evening;" (Knopf). The past recaptured! Susan Minot haswritten a swoony, lyrical novel about loss. We talk about that rare thing: aromantic novel that is literary (and close to perfection).

Bone by Bone (Random House). On the culmination of his momentous trilogy, Peter Matthiessen speaks about history, fiction and the destiny of an American anti-hero.

The Red Leaves of Night (Harper Collins). As David St.John's poems grow more elegant, they become more sexual and obsessive...

Close Range: Wyoming Stories (Scribner)Annie Proulx has written an ominous of Western tales -- tall tales, rodeo bragging, cowboy love stories -- profusely illustrated and emotionally dark...

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (Little, Brown)Witness the uproarious frenzy of definition when David Foster Wallace cuts loose and tries to make a straightforward statement about the hideous men (and women) in his new book.

Arthur Sze "The; Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998" (Copper Canyon) ArthurSze on the fascinating intersection of astrophysics and Asian metaphysics. Hiswork embodies a sense of time that is both ancient and post-modern.

Andre Dubus III "House; of Sand and Fog" (Norton) Andre Dubus III is the son of a prize-winning Catholic author. How does the son write about the extreme conflicts of life without the resource of his father's faith?

Carolyn See "The; Handyman" (Random House) Carolyn See solves the problems of love, life and art by wittily applying practicality, compassion and humor. In her new book, she offer what every woman needs: a handyman.

Lorrie Moore "Birds; of America" (Knopf) Lorrie Moore shows how her short stories compare with the ballads of Tin Pan Alley. That is: how do you give misery and lovesickness the bounce of a popular tune?

Part II of a two-part interview. An epic love story? From Salman Rushdie?! How and why Rushdie, the great cynic, surmounts the worn conventions of boy-meets-girl.

Gods and goddesses-from those of Greece and India, to the media pantheon of Rock and Roll-underlie The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Salman Rushdie on the uses of myth. (Part I of a two-part interview. )

Nathan Englander "For; the Relief of Unbearable Urges" (Knopf)Jewish-American fiction takes a riveting new direction in the work ofNathan Englander, who was brought up Hasidic on Long Island. Thetwenty-nine year old writer breaks your heart when he reads from his story"The; Tumblers."

Steven Watson "Prepare; for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism" (Random House) "Four; Saints inThree Acts" by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson was a modernistsneak-attack, the result of cunning and deliberation. Here's how they did it.

Sue Miller "While; I Was Gone" (Knopf) Sue Miller's new novel has an odd morality ? could it be that generations of preachers have influencedher thought?

Alex Garland "The; Tesseract" (Riverhead) In this unusual interview, the popular young English novelist (The Beach) presents the secret purpose of his work: a closely reasoned defense of atheism.

Heads by Harry (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Asian-American Lois-Ann Yamanaka evokes the melding of native traditions with tourist pop culture that characterized her Hawaiian childhood.

Amsterdam (Doubleday) Articulate and sinister Booker Prize-winner Ian McEwan discusses the role of pathology (and that poet of pathology, Sigmund Freud) in his work.

Thom Jones "Sonny; Liston Was a Friend of Mine" (Little Brown) Thom Jones, famous for his short stories, brings his trademark dementia and wooziness to a discussion of his own writing.