Writer Julie Hecht on Living in the World as a Normal Person

Before she became a novelist, Ramona Emerson spent 16 years documenting crime scenes. Shutter tells the story of a forensic photographer named Rita who, like Emerson, is a member of the Navajo Nation.

Rice, who died Dec. 11, grew up in New Orleans and hit it big in 1976 with her first novel, Interview with the Vampire. She followed up with more than a dozen novels. Originally broadcast in 1990.

The National Book Critics Circle has announced that two feminist literary scholars, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, will receive a lifetime achievement award. Critic Maureen Corrigan says their groundbreaking 1979 book, The Madwoman in the Attic, changed the way we read.