Places & Travel

From the Los Angeles Times, Assistant Editor of the editorial page Janet Clayton. In addition to functioning in her official media capacity, she'll be leaving work early to visit her mother, who lives in the curfew zone.

Irish screenwriter and novelist Shane Connaughton co-wrote the screenplay for "My Left Foot." Now he's written the screenplay for the new film "The Playboys," starring Aidan Quinn and Albert Finney.(Samuel Goldwyn) He also has a new novel out called "The Run of The Country." (St. Martin's Press)

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "City of Quartz" by Mike Davis (Vintage), a non-fiction look at the city of Los Angeles.

Rock and roll historian Ed Ward remembers The Memphis Jug Band.

New York Times reporter Elaine Sciolino. She was the first American and the first woman to interview the Ayatollah when he came into power in 1979. She was expelled from Iran ten years ago and recently returned there for the first time since to cover the elections. Terry talks with her about the changes she saw in Iran from the ten years previous.

Writer Wallace Stegner. His novels and essays are often based in the West where he grew up and lived for many years. Stegner started the creative writing program at Stanford University in California, which he ran for 26 years. He's now in his eighties. His new book of essays is called "Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs." (Random House)

Film director Roland Joffe. His movies include, "The Killing Fields," and "The Mission." His latest film is "City of Joy," based on the book of the same name by Dominique Lapierre about life in the slums of Calcutta.

British writer Richard Rayner. His new semi-autobiographical novel is "The Elephant," about a son's relationship with his father. The father steals a lot of money, fakes his own death, and disappears for ten years. Once reunited, the two engage in scandalous exploits. One reviewer wrote that the novel progresses from the picaresque to the poignant "densely woven with brilliantly macabre, hilarious details..." (published by Random)

Novelist James Lee Burke. He's been writing for 35 years but he's best known for his more recent detective novels about Dave Robicheaux (ROW-bah-show), a recovering alcoholic, who is also a troubled Vietnam vet, and a New Orleans police lieutenant. The books are: "The Neon Rain," "Heaven's Prisoners," "Black Cherry Blues," and "A Morning for Flamingos." His fifth Robicheaux novel is, "A Stained White Radiance." (published by Hyperion).

World music commentator Milo Miles explores the eerie music of the master musicians of Jajouka, Morocco.

British elections are coming up this week: We'll look at the elections, and how the British media is covering them, with New York Times London correspondent William Schmidt.

William Taubman is a political science professor at Amherst College. He was recently in Moscow as one of the scholars invited to help open up the archives of the government under Communism. He was able to get a sense of the day to day workings of the Soviet empire.

Writer Geoffrey Wolff. His new collection of essays, "A Day At The Beach" (Alfred A. Knopf), is about the worst vacation ever. It started with over-priced dinners and ended in open heart surgery. Wolff is best known for his book "The Duke of Deception," a memoir about being the son of a con man.

Economist Lester Thurow (say it like "Thoreau"), author of "The Coming Economic Battle Between America, Europe, and Japan." THUROW will discuss how Euorpe and Japan are playing by a new set of business rules and that it's time to update our own.

Book critic John Leonard reviews, "How We Survived Communism," by Yugoslavian critic and feminist Slavenka Drakulic. (Slah-VENKA Drah-COOL-ITCH).

Reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer Vernon Loeb. He's been reporting from the Far East for the last several years. He'll talk with Terry about the problems facing the region like the explosion of AIDS in Thailand and especially Bangkok; the repression and ethnic fighting in Burma; and the amassing on the Thai/Burmese border of refugees fleeing repression in Burma.

Author Adam Ulam (OO-lom) ("om" as in bomb) Director of the Russian Research Center and Gurney Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard. His new book is "The Communists: The Story of Power and Lost Illusions 1948-1991." (published byScribner's). He's also the author of "The Bolsheviks.

Israeli writer A. B. Yehoshua. He's one of Israel's most acclaimed authors. His work, written in Hebrew, includes essays, short stories and novels and spans 30 years. His writing has often been compared to William Faulkner. His books include the novel, "Five Seasons," the collected stories, "The Continuing Silence of a Poet," and his latest novel, "Mr. Mani," is about six generations of a Jewish family. (published by Doubleday).

Documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple. Her documentary, "American Dream," chronicles one of the most bitter strikes in recent labor history, the 1984 strike against the Hormel meat packing plant in Austin Minnesota. The film won the 1991 Oscar for best documentary feature. Kopple also won an Oscar in 1977 for "Harlan County, UsA," her documentary of a coal mine strike in Kentucky.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Talking To High Monks In The Snow," Lydia Minatoya's memoir of growing up a Japanese American (It's published by Harper Collins).