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In more than 40 years as a journalist, I've interviewed some terrifying people. Manuel Contreras, Chile's chief of secret police, who ordered the torture and murder of tens of thousands of people. Roberto d'Aubuisson, head of El Salvador's right-wing death squads.  Read more

Yesterday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences produced yet another all-male slate for the Best Director category of the Oscars-and provoked yet another round of outrage that America's culture industry is incapable of recognizing the achievements of women. But there is, in fact, a major creative industry in which women are routinely awarded the top honors.  Read more

I love romance. I loved it long before I ever fell in love, and romance narratives served as a kind of template for my own early love-affairs. I filled out diaries with imagined meet-cutes between my crushes and me, assigning them lines I had read some other, more sophisticated love interest say.  Read more

If you grew up on Terry McMillan's books, you know that she's the doyenne of a particular type of black women's lit. It hinges on sisterhood and love but doesn't shy away from confronting how hard it can be to find happiness.  Read more