AitN: March 12, 2018

On March 7 The New York Times published an interview with playwright Tony Kushner ’78 about the upcoming Broadway revival of his Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning work, Angels in America. In “Tony Kushner, at Peace? Not Exactly. But Close.”, Kushner discusses his current projects (including new plays in the works) and how the 26-year-old Angels in America still “feels very much of the moment.”

ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos ’82 has secured the first interview with former FBI director James Comey, slated to air on April 15. The interview comes in advance of the release of Comey’s book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.

Local news website Gothamist (and its sister sites, LAist and DCist) has been purchased by public radio, reviving Gothamist after its sudden closure last November. NPR reported on the purchase, quoting WNYC’s Jim Schachter ’80 and mentioning Gothamist’s founders, Jen Chung ’98 and Jake Dobkin ’98.

Yale University Press announced that Yanyi ’13’s manuscript, The Year of Blue Water, won the 2018 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. Poet Carl Phillips, who judged the contest, describes the work as “a strange, elegant, beguiling, persuasive debut.” Awarded since 1919, the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize celebrates the most prominent new American poets.

Fast Company’s recent article, “How Thumbtack Creates Work By Giving The Yellow Pages An AI Twist,” features Thumbtack founder Marco Zappacosta ’07 in a piece exploring how the company plans to turn a profit with new features.