Arts & Culture

Ken Liu does a lot of things as a writer. He creates big, doorstopper novels of his own (the Dandelion Dynasty series), and translates works from some of the best Chinese genre writers working in that language (Liu Cixin, Hao Jingfang, others).

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We want to take you right now to a comedy club in South Korea.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DANNY CHO: And I was like, you sure?

(LAUGHTER)

CHO: (Speaking Korean).

Halfway through her debut essay collection, Minor Feelings, author and artist Cathy Park Hong makes clear her mission: "I have some scores to settle ... with this country, with how we have been scripted."

The "we" here are Asian Americans and how we're seen in this country in a time when the us-versus-them dynamic can feel overpowering. In Minor Feelings, the author asks us to reconsider the effects of racism against Asian Americans and how it persists.

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This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.

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BEN MENDELSOHN: (As Ralph Anderson) Look - I've been a law enforcement professional for over 20 years. So is it even imaginable that to you that I'm fine?

STEVE WITTING: (As Herbert Zucker) You feel fine?

MENDELSOHN: (As Ralph) [Expletive] No, I don't feel fine.

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Teddy Wayne's fourth novel is written in the key of Edward Hopper. Apartment is a portrait of loneliness and male insecurity set against the backdrop of the hyper-competitive world of Columbia University's graduate writing program, where ambition and self-doubt go hand in hand, and the workshops seem designed to separate the anointed from the hacks — or, in this case, the men from the boys.

If you're someone who claims the mantel of feminism, who believes in the innate equality of all genders, who thinks that solidarity among communities of women is a core component of the world you want to live in, I strongly encourage you to read Mikki Kendall's debut essay collection, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot. (Also, if you're not one of those someones, I really think you should read Hood Feminism.)

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Coronavirus concerns triggered another steep drop on Wall Street today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 900 points. That is on top of yesterday, when it tumbled more than a thousand points. The outbreak in China appears to have peaked, but investors are worried about the growing number of COVID-19 cases in other countries and a warning from U.S. health officials that the virus could hit closer to home. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

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It's Fat Tuesday, and all day long, people have flocked to a tiny bakery in northwest Philadelphia. Their sights are set on a special kind of doughnut made only once a year. NPR's Neda Ulaby got in line.

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