Barrie Hardymon
Barrie Hardymon is the Senior Editor at NPR's Weekend Edition, and the lead editor for books. You can hear her on the radio talking everything from Middlemarch to middle grade novels, and she's also a frequent panelist on NPR's podcasts It's Been A Minute and Pop Culture Happy Hour. She went to Juilliard to study viola, ended up a cashier at the Strand, and finally got a degree from Johns Hopkins' Writing Seminars which qualified her solely for work in public radio. She lives and reads in Washington, DC.
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Kenneth Smith, 58, died at 8:25 p.m. Thursday, after a slew of last-minute appeals to several courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, failed. -
It's been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. Host Leila Fadel takes stock of the war and where it stands. We'll also look back at NPR's reporting from Ukraine over the past year. -
NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to Secretary of State Antony Blinken about U.S.-China tensions, the earthquake aftermath in Turkey and Syria and the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. -
Acclaimed author Hilary Mantel had died at age 70. She is best known for writing the Wolf Hall trilogy.
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Musician John Legend is using his national platform to elevate local races for district attorney — endorsing progressive prosecutors who prioritize preventative solutions over incarceration. -
Lauren Tarshis's I Survived series takes kids through famous historical disasters — and more recent ones like the California wildfires. So they're perfect pandemic books for anxious little readers. -
The Mirror & the Light will be the last novel in Mantel's acclaimed trilogy about King Henry VIII's powerful chief minister Thomas Cromwell. "I fold my hands. It's over to you, the reader," she says. -
When it's super hot, sometimes cold thoughts is all you've got. Three NPR colleagues offer suggestions on what to watch, hear and read to get in a chilled state of mind.
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The novelist, who died last week at 91, was often slammed by critics as a frivolous sex-and-shopping writer. But her luxuries were meticulously researched and her sex scenes gloriously shameless. -
Judith Viorst's new collection of poetry is called Nearing 90, though she's quick to note she's only "a girl of 88." She's still writing, looking forward to grandchildren graduation, and feeling good.
