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This round of the short story contest for weekends on All Things Considered will be judged by author Mona Simpson. For Round 10, she wants original fiction with the "texture of voice."

Vermeer's famous Girl With a Pearl Earring has returned to the United States for the first time since 1995. Very little is known about the painting, so in honor of the visit, The Guardian newspaper asked its readers to come up with a backstory for the mysterious girl.

America's increasingly diverse society is rewriting many of the traditional rules of etiquette. Host Michel Martin gets tips from etiquette experts Harriette Cole, Phillip Galanes, and social commentator Firoozeh Dumas.

As the Directors and Producers Guild Awards go, so does the Academy. At least most of the time.

Valentine's Day is a great time for love and romance. But it can also bring up complicated questions about relationships. If you've been texting incessantly, when is the right time for an actual date? And is there such a thing as being too romantic? Host Michel Martin talks to etiquette experts about romance dilemmas.

Data is being collected about your reading habits — what kind of books you read, whether or not you finish them. Publishers say the information could improve how books are written, but some novelists are skeptical.

Holiday pleasures We Bought a Zoo and The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn are pure entertainments — not high art, but solid family films that just want to show an audience a good time.

The Pulitzer Prize winner is best known for sharing intimate chapters of her personal life, while shedding light on the black experience in America. She's the first African-American to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate. She speaks with host Michel Martin about her latest work and life, and offers wisdom to young poets.

Writer and director Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) and actor Jason Schwartzman (I Heart Huckabees) discuss their latest film, The Darjeeling Limited. The adventure comedy, also starring Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody, follows three estranged brothers on a spiritual quest to India.

When Ken Burns set his sights on World War II, he found a far different conflict than the "good war" we've come to know. His new PBS documentary, The War, tells the stories of young soldiers who are now dying off by the thousands.

Robin Swicord is the writer and director of the new film The Jane Austen Book Club. She talks about being one of a relatively few female directors in Hollywood — and what it's like to make the transition from screenwriter to director.

The Rooney Rule, a policy that went into effect in 2003, requires NFL teams to interview candidates of color for head coaching and senior operation vacancies.

Robert Siegel talks with Alan Sepinwall, a TV reviewer for The Newark Star Ledger, about the shows that have critics excited about the fall TV line up — and which ones just have them disappointed.

Judd Apatow has been a writer for Larry Sanders and Ben Stiller, and he worked on the cult-favorite TV comedy Freaks and Geeks. But you'll know him as the writer-director of the hit film The 40-Year-Old Virgin — and the auteur behind this summer's Knocked Up, starring Seth Rogen.

Actor Anthony Anderson stars as traumatized cop Martin Boulet in the new Fox TV series K-Ville. The drama is set in post-Katrina New Orleans; it's gotten critical acclaim and high ratings. The series is filmed on location in the Big Easy, and airs Mondays at 9 p.m.

Fresh Air's TV critic previews The War, the new documentary series about World War II from filmmaker Ken Burns (The Civil War). It premieres Sept. 23 on PBS.

With 30-odd Beatles songs, Frida director Julie Taymor tells a story about a guy named Jude, a girl named Lucy, and the helter-skelter '60s. Magical mystery tour, anyone?

Exquisitely filmed Assassination of Jesse James lends the heft of Greek tragedy to an oft-told saga. Brad Pitt won an acting prize, but it's Casey Affleck's needy, creepy Robert Ford you can't take your eyes off.

He's played a Nazi war criminal, a super mutant with a magnetic personality, and a master of Middle Earth magic. Now Ian McKellen returns to the stage to play one of its most challenging parts: Shakespeare's King Lear. He joins Farai Chideya to talk about his style, his favorite actors and his love for Lena Horne.

Comedian Demetri Martin is probably best known for his appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He's also written for Late Night with Conan O'Brien, for which he garnered an Emmy nomination. He's released a DVD called Person — a version of his one-hour Comedy Central special, which aired earlier this year.

After a long summer of anticipation and reruns, the fall TV season has finally arrived. Critics offer a preview of what's ahead: several new dramas about wealth, sex and apathy; a documentary series from Ken Burns; a handful of new reality shows; and sitcoms about amnesia and local TV news.

Fresh Air's critic-at-large ponders the 40th-anniversary edition DVD of the The Graduate.

We never really learn what Willy sells — mostly, he tries to sell himself. He loves his sons, who find him foolish; he loves his wife, though he can be cruel. And his tragedy is the tragedy of every man who strives, who doubts, who fails.

Female editors at top women's magazines — Deborah Way of O, The Oprah Magazine, Damarys Ocana of Latina, and Dawn Baskerville of Essence — discuss topics highlighted in current issues of their publications.

North Carolina Democrats have won a battle over the fairness of the state's congressional and state legislative maps. The state Supreme Court threw out maps that give the GOP the advantage.