Tanya Talaga: Searching for her great-great grandmother — a story of family, truth and survival

Alison McCreesh: Exploring the magic and nuance of life in the North in her latest graphic novel

Aysegul Savas: Finding home in foreignness and capturing the uncertainty of early adulthood

Sloane Crosley: Losing her best friend and sharing her grief with the world

David Huebert: Exploring the complexity of our relationship with oil through fiction

Heather O'Neill: How motherhood and artistry intersect in the bestselling writer's life and work

Kaveh Akbar: Finding meaning in sobriety and writing his bestseller, Martyr!

Introducing Bookends with Mattea Roach

Madeleine Thien interviews Eleanor Wachtel on the final Writers & Company episode

Ali Smith on ghost stories, activism and the cyclical nature of time

Peter Eisenman on pushing the bounds of modern architecture and transforming influence

Danzy Senna's darkly comic take on racial identity

Francine du Plessix Gray on growing up the daughter of a great Russian beauty

Prolific and daring author Joyce Carol Oates on her childhood, widowhood and concerns about American society

Amitava Kumar on India, the U.S. and the indelible imprint of the immigrant experience

Edna O'Brien: from Ireland's outcast to celebrated icon

Laurie Anderson on language, story and losing her archives to Hurricane Sandy

Tony Kushner on his evolution as a storyteller, from Angels in America to The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide

Claire Messud on the stories and secrets of a French Algerian family in The Last Life

Biographer Nicholas Murray reflects on Kafka's life — this month is the 100th anniversary of his death