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Mo Yan

The Real Mo Yan

The renowned Chinese novelist talks with NEH Chairman Jim Leach.

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  • Mo Yan 101

    Sometime in the late 1960s or early seventies, a neighbor told Guan Moye about a writer he knew whose work was so popular...

    By James Williford
  • Burying the dead from the Battle of Cold Harbor

    The Living and the Dead

    The Civil War divided Americans into two kinds of people.

    By David Skinner
  • “The Political Quadrille, Music by Dred Scott", 1860

    The Man Who Came in Second

    In 1860, John C. Breckinridge ran for president against Lincoln, and broke the Democrats in two.

    By Meredith Hindley
  • Image of Lincoln at McClellan's camp

    Lincoln the Great

    Though He Didn’t Look That Way at the Time.

    By Wilfred W. McClay
  • Etching of Rousseau

    Friends of Rousseau

    Some of the people he has influenced don't even realize it.

    By Leo Damrosch
  • Photo of Chad L. Williams

    Impertinent Questions with Chad L. Williams

    African-American soldiers in WWI: A broadening experience for many.

    By Meredith Hindley
  • Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche

    Nietzsche Is Dead

    The battle for Nietzsche's legacy began when Count Hary Kessler met Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche.

    By Meredith Hindley
  • Frenchman weeps as Germans occupy Paris

    Julien Green: The End of a World

    As Germany occupied France, Green brought Paris to life in his superlative diaries.

    By Francis-Noël Thomas
  • James Agee portrait, standing in a window.

    Let Us Now Praise James Agee

    The journalist who pioneered serious film criticism showed a cinematic touch in all of his writing.

    By Danny Heitman
  • Illustration of medieval mystery play.

    The Body of Christ

    Theology became flesh and blood in the sacred street theater of medieval England.

    By James Williford