Best Of: Writers Rachel Eliza Griffiths & Quiara Alegría Hudes

This election season you can streamline your news intake with up first. Our team of reporters and editors works overnight so you can start every morning with three stories you need to know in short episodes, 12-14 minutes long, to save you time and your sanity. Follow up first on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley.

When writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths married Salman Rushdie in 2021, she expected her wedding day to be joyful, but the joy was invaded by tragedy, when her best friend never showed up, because she suddenly died. Eleven months later, Salman Rushdie was stabbed and nearly killed on stage. Griffiths describes that year in her new memoir, The Flower Bearers. Also, we hear from Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Chiara Allegria Hughes, writer of In the Heights, Water by the Spoonful, and the memoir My Broken Language.

Her new novel, The White Hot, tells the story of a young mother who buys a one-way bus ticket and leaves her 10-year-old daughter behind. Plus, film critic Justin Chang reviews Sound of Falling, which is shortlisted for an Oscar for Best International Feature. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend. Austin Tice is an American journalist who disappeared over a decade ago while reporting in Syria. And for years we've been searching for him.

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