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Includes telephone interview by host Eleanor Wachtel with the Nobel Prize-winning Russian-American poet and essayist, Joseph Brodsky. After experiencing antisemitism, repression, and imprisonment as a "social parasite" in the 1960s, he was exiled from the Soviet Union. He eventually settled in the United States and won the 1987 Nobel Prize for Literature.. Also, a discussion with two experts on the world's fastest growing language - English.

Eleanor Wachtel talks with author Mavis Gallant about Montreal in the 1940s and '50s, Paris today, and her new collection of short stories called Across the Bridge. Mavis reads a story from the collection, called "Mlle. Dias de Corta."

On the centenary of the birth of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, Eleanor Wachtel talks with biographer Adam Feinstein, who has written a new biography called Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life.

This week on Writers & Company - When Private Lives Go Public: a panel. From Israel and Montréal, Edeet Ravel, from South Africa and England, Justin Cartwright and Gillian Slovo, and from South Africa, Njabulo Ndebele. They talk with host Eleanor Wachtel about where the personal meets the political in their writing.

In his new book, biographer and translator David Bellos chronicles the life and legacy of 19th-century French writer, Victor Hugo. The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables explores the social history and dramatic story behind Hugo's masterpiece - the most frequently adapted novel of all time.

Abdulrazak Gurnah writes about immigrant life, dislocation, power and shame. He talks to Eleanor about his new book Gravel Heart — a powerful story of a young man's experience as an immigrant to England, which reflects elements of Gurnah's own life.

Today marks the beginning of a five-part series called Brazil Inside Out. Host Eleanor Wachtel traveled to Brazil to explore new perspectives on life in this vast, diverse country. The series will feature conversations with eight dynamic writers, filmmakers and theatre artists, offering the untold stories of Brazil. In the opening episode: Brazilians have just commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the military dictatorship that ruled the country for 21 years. Although…

Eleanor Wachtel talks with Sierra Leonean poet and novelist Syl Cheney-Coker this week on Writers & Company. Drawing on his Creole heritage, with its unique mix of influences, his work explores his experience of exile and his relationship to his country.

Week 4 in the special series "Argentina: The Unofficial Stories." This week, Martín Caparrós and Guillermo Martínez. Martín Caparrós: Born in 1957 in Buenos Aires, Caparrós is one of Argentina's most outspoken and adventurous writers. His offbeat fiction, essays, and travel chronicles - which have taken him not only all over the world but also into the "hinterland" of Argentina - reflect a curiosity and passion that lead him down unusual paths. Caparrós' most important nonfiction work is La…

"Burning Books" Part I: Chilean-American author Ariel Dorfman on watching his books being burned by the Pinochet regime; Part II: Prospero burns his books when he gives up his magic in Peter Greenaway's new film adaptation of Shakespeare's Tempest.

"The New South Africa" - A special series that takes you into the lives and writings of novelists and poets with experiences of detention, banning, exile, and celebration. Series episode 1: This afternoon - from Johannesburg, Mandla Langa.

This week on Writers and Company, host Eleanor Wachtel talks with Kenya's greatest novelist, Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo, about his ambitious, satirical, epic work, Wizard of the Crow.

Part I: Ever since he left India to attend a school for the blind, Ved Mehta has been chronicling his life and times in a series of books he calls Continents of Exile. He talks with Eleanor about his life and writing. Part II: Charles Sprawson talks about the love of water and the swimmer as hero.

African Authors series, episode 3: Eleanor talks with Malawian poet Jack Mapanje, who was seized and imprisoned without trial. Now he lives in exile and the poems he wrote in his head during his imprisonment fill his new collection. Also, a reading by Kenyan novelist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.