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Novelist Lee Smith says she has based her new work of fiction, The Last Girls, on a personal experience: a 1966 boating adventure along the mighty Mississippi River. Smith says it's a story about "aging, among other things." Smith talks with NPR's Bob Edwards.

Neither a shaky economy nor industry scandals deterred collectors from New York's art auctions this week. Contemporary work sold for several million dollars. But the future of the market remains cloudy. David D'Arcy reports.

Richard Buckner is a singer/songwriter who's spent most of his adult life on the road. Meredith Ochs reviews Impasse, a soul-searching, enigmatic, poetic rock recording by Buckner.

A new museum featuring the works of well-known illustrators of children's books opens in Amherst, Mass. The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art showcases art from such classics as The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Where the Wild Things Are. NPR's Lynn Neary talks to Eric Carle.

It's holiday film season and that usually means big budgets and special effects. But the film Drumline puts the emphasis on storytelling. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan offers a review.

The State Department has collected essays of 15 top authors on what it means to be an American writer. The anthology, aimed at promoting American values abroad, will be distributed free at U.S. embassies worldwide. An anti-propaganda law makes it illegal to disseminate the works in the United States, but they are available on a government Web site aimed at foreign audiences. NPR's Susan Stamberg interviews novelists Bharati Mukherjee and Charles Johnson about their participation in the project.

Saxophone legend John Coltrane's 1964 recording A Love Supreme is one of the masterworks in the canon of jazz. A new edition includes the only live performance of the complete work. Writer Ashley Kahn, whose new book goes behind the scenes of the landmark album, has an essay on the project.

The recording industry's trade association says 2002 amounts to a terrible year for the major labels. According to preliminary estimates, the number of records sold this year may have fallen by 10 percent. That follows a 10-percent decline in 2001 and a seven-percent drop the year before. NPR's Rick Karr reports.

Friday the 13th is the perfect opening day for a movie about luck. And that describes Intacto, a psychological thriller from Spain. NPR film critic Bob Mondello offers a review.

Duncan Sheik burst onto the music scene in 1997 with his hit single "Barely Breathing," and garnered rave reviews for his own brand of folk-tinged pop music. For his fourth record, Daylight, New York-based Sheik — singer, songwriter, composer, producer and guitarist — dares to rock out a little more than usual. He talks to NPR's Jacki Lyden.