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Tracy Morgan, a Saturday Night Live alumnus and one of the stars of NBC's 30 Rock, has a new memoir — I Am the New Black — about growing up in what he calls "Ghetto, USA."

The humorist, who made his name with personal essays and other nonfiction, tells Steve Inskeep that his return to fiction kept taking him to surprising places. But the unhappy endings? Those he could have predicted.

David Lipsky says that his favorite comic, Runaways, is both a brilliant reading experience — and an embarrassment festival. The tiny digests by Brian K. Vaughan have been a fount of guilt, awkwardness and grave personal doubts, but he still pulls them out on the subway, because they are just that good.

In times of great danger, some survivors report encountering a phantom presence, which guides them to safety. Writer John Geiger chronicles the phenomenon in his new book, The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible.

When Roya Hakakian moved from Iran to the U.S., she didn't think any poet in her adopted country could top the ones whose work she grew up with. But then she discovered a piece that blew away her prejudices. It was "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke.

Author Ann Kirschner first read Anthony Trollope's Palliser series as a graduate student. Now, returning to it after more than 20 years, she finds her impression of the Victorian tale has transformed along with her life.

Kids eventually realize their parents are real people, says author Molly Brodak. But in her new memoir, she talks about another sort of realization: That her father was dishonest, and a criminal.

Biographer Frances Wilson discusses the intense connection between William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy — and the "vortex of poetry" in which they lived.

At the annual Oscar gala, the cameras flash and reporters ask whose clothes you're wearing. But they only offer a glimpse of nominees and their escorts. This Sunday, commentator Peggy Orenstein will walk the red carpet with her filmmaker husband — another time.

It's hard to remember now, but MTV did once play music videos all day. A new oral history recalls that golden age, and the network's meteoric rise to the top of the music industry.