Places & Travel

Journalist Fred Hiatt is a member of the Editorial page staff for the Washington Post. He's also the paper's former Russia correspondent. He'll discuss Russia's position on the Serbs, and the NATO bombings.

Former United Nation's Chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter spent seven-years hunting down Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. He has written about his experience in "Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem Once and for All." (Simon and Schuster) He resigned his U.N. post in August 1998 claiming the U.N Security Council and the U.S. Government had fatally undermined his team's ability to do its job. Ritter served as an Intelligence officer in the U.S. Marines for eight-years.

Former hostage Terry Anderson talks about his 100-million dollar lawsuit against the government of Iran. He alleges Iran supported the Islamic extremists who kidnapped him and held him hostage for seven-years. The former Associated Press Middle East correspondent now teaches journalism at Ohio University. The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Washington. The Iranian government denies any role in his captivity. We'll first listen back to an excerpt from Anderson's 1993 (12/28/93) interview with Terry. And then we have their current interview.

Terry Gross talks with writer Allen Barra ("Bear-ah"), the author of "Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends" (Carroll & Graff Publishers). It tells the story of the famous sometime lawman and the shootout at the O.K. Corral at Tombstone, Arizona where Wyatt Earp was the only man left standing. Barra is a sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the borrowing of English words in Europe.

Journalist Patrick Cockburn (CO-BURN). He's been a senior Middle East Correspondent for the Financial Times and the London Independent. He's the co-author of the new book, "Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein" (HarperCollins). He'll discuss the bombing campaign against Iraq, Saddam's hold on power, the royal family and more.

Novelist Arthur Golden wrote the bestseller, "Memoirs of a Geisha" which was on the New York Times Bestseller List for one year. It's now out in paperback, and a movie version will be made by Stephen Spielberg. "Memoirs of a Geisha" was GOLDEN's debut as a novelist.(

Guitarist Salman Ahmad (Sol-MAHN AH-MAHD) and bassist Brian O'Connell, from the Pakistani rock band Junoon (Ju-NOON). They are Pakistani's best-selling band, with four albums, and 2-million sales. They've gained an international following thanks to the Internet and MTV. The band also includes lead singer, Ali Azmat. The group is currently on tour.

Critic Milo Miles reviews "Bloque" (pronounced, "Blow-K") from Colombia(Lukabob/WArner).

Husseini writes for the Jordan Times, the country's only English-language daily. Her reporting on "crimes of honor" has brought to light the practice of a woman being murdered by her own relatives when it's thought the woman brought dishonor upon them. In one instance a 16 year-old schoolgirl was killed by her older brother because her younger brother raped her. Police and prosecutors have taken little notice of "honor killing" but that attitude has begun to shift because of Husseini's efforts.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Mark O'Donnell's new Christmas novel, "Let Nothing You Dismay."

New York writer Daniel Drennan has written a new collection of essays about life in Manhattan. His book "The New York Diaries: Too True Tales of Urban Tramau" is published by Ballantine Books.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan interviews historian and author Mike Wallace. He's co-authored a monumental new history of New York City, "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898" (Oxford University Press). Wallace is a Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Hours" (FS&G), Michael Cunningham's literary tribute to Virgina Woolf.

Lehman is the series editor of "The Best American Poetry." His new book "The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets" (Doubleday) is a cultural history about a group of poets in the 1950s who he says helped to reinvent literature, like John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler. They took their cue from the Abstract Expressionistic painters of the time who were also in New York.

Herzog's latest movie is a documentary, "Little Dieter Needs to Fly: Escape from Laos" the true story of Dieter Dengler, the only U.S. pilot to have sucessfully escaped from a North Vietnamese-controlled prison. Herzog's other works include the feature films "Aguirre: The Wrath of God," "Heart of Glass," "Fitzcarraldo," and "Nosferatu."

Barry is best known for his play, "The Steward of Christendom," as well as for his commentaries on the troubles in Ireland for the The New York Times. He's written a new novel, "The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty" (Viking). It's about a naive Irishman who joins the British Merchant Navy during World War I, and then is blacklisted from his beloved hometown by the Royal Irish Constabulatory. A review from Kirkus Reviews says the book is "one of the best novels out of Ireland in many a year."

TV critic David Bianculli previews the ABC telemovie "Columbo: Ashes to Ashes" starring Peter Falk. It airs tonight at 9:00.

Terry's interview with Allegra Goodman, the author of the novel, "Kaaterskill Falls" (Dial Press) about an orthodox Jewish family in upstate New York. This is Goodman's first novel. Her previous work, a collection of stories, "The Family Markowitz," was hailed by critics. One critic for the New York Times writes, "Goodman is brillant at capturing the clutter of both interior and exterior life. . .These stories sound like no one else's as she sharply appraises the shifts and quandaries of one variety of American Jewish life."

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Birds of America" (Knopf) by Lorrie Moore.