Jon Stewart is honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center. The former host of The Daily Show was praised for revitalizing political satire and for his activism.

(Image credit: Scott Suchman)

Award-winning poet Ocean Vuong speaks about his new book Night Sky with Exit Wounds, which weaves growing up in America with his family's memories of a war-torn Vietnam.

(Image credit: Three Lions)

In 1875, Mark Twain wrote a letter to his 3-year-old daughter from Santa Claus. NPR's Scott Simon reflects on a father's love for his daughter at Christmas time.

Oscar Hijuelos' posthumously published novel chronicles the friendship between Mark Twain and explorer Henry Morton Stanley. Maureen Corrigan says the book lacks the magic of Hijuelos' best work.

In a ceremony that saw both icons and newcomers honored, it was a fiery speech by the science fiction legend that had attendees talking. Also: A Jonathan Safran Foer book gets adapted to ballet.

(Image credit: Robin Marchant)

Also: Mark Twain's advice to little girls; Benjamin Lytal on Vladimir Nabokov; and author and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has died.

(Image credit: Astrid Riecken)

Also: Bill O'Reilly has a new book; George Saunders g-chats The Paris Review; and Batwoman is getting married.

In the first hour of Talk of the Nation, the political junkie and the new congress.  In the second hour, the challenges and stigma of surrogacy, and the new edition of Huck Finn drops the "n-word."

For years, the book has been banned by some schools because of the "N" word. Those publishing the new edition hope this will get the classic story into more young students' hands.

(Image credit: Hulton Archive)