fiction/non/fiction

Latest Episodes:

S6 Ep. 27: Manufacturing Lies: Dina Nayeri on How Our Cultural and Bureaucratic Norms Often Betray the Truth Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

Writer Dina Nayeri joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new nonfiction book, Who Gets Believed?: When the Truth Isn’t Enough, an examination of whose narratives are considered trustworthy and why, with a focus on refugees and asylum seekers. Nayeri, who was born in Iran and granted asylum to the U.S. when she was 10, talks about the case of a Sri Lankan Tamil man who sought asylum in the U.K. in 2011, and how British officials failed to believe his story of torture. She also describes her childhood feeling of performing a role in her new American home, as well as the origins of her own skepticism—and how a personal tragedy led her to reassess how much she could trust even herself. She reads from her new book.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Thomas White and Anne Kniggendorf.

Dina Nayeri

Others:

The Iranian Revolution at 40: Jasmin Darznik and Dina Nayeri On the Anniversary of the Republic Fiction/Non/Fiction Podcast
The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi
“In the Penal Colony” by Franz Kafka
Freedom from Torture
Innocence Project
Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 1 Episode 23: Jasmin Darznik and Dina Nayeri on the 40th Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution

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S6 Ep. 26: The Literature of QAnon: From 4chan to January 6, Will Sommer on Reading the Authors of Conspiracy Theories Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

Journalist Will Sommer joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new book Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America, a history of the rise of the cultish right-wing group. Sommer, a reporter for The Daily Beast, has covered QAnon since its inception and explains its origins, what—and who—drives it now, and how he handles interviewing people who believe the world is controlled by a satanic cabal of celebrity pedophiles. He also reads an excerpt from the book.

This episode of the podcast was produced by Cheri Brisendine and Anne Kniggendorf.

Will Sommer

Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America
“Fever Dreams” (The Daily Beast)

Others:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
“What is QAnon, the Viral, Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory?” by Kevin Roose
Thomas Pynchon
George Soros
T.S. Eliot
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
Ezra Pound
Wallace Stevens
Q by Luther Blissett
Bhagavad Gita
Wu Ming Foundation
“Who is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints” by David D. Kirkpatrick
Clerks
Army of Darkness
Franklin Leonard
Slumdog Millionaire
Ron Paul
“The only guide to Gamergate you’ll ever need to read,” by Caitlin Dewey, The Washington Post
David A. Fahrenthold at The Washington Post; David A. Fahrenthold at The New York Times

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S6 Ep. 25: Alone on the Range: Victor LaValle on Lone Women’s Homesteaders, History, and Horror Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

Fiction writer Victor LaValle joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new novel Lone Women, which tells the suspenseful story of Adelaide Henry, a Black woman with a mysterious trunk who heads from California to Montana to become a solo homesteader in 1915. LaValle talks about the inspiration for the novel’s incendiary opening, how the story merges horror and history, and Adelaide’s unconventional baggage. He also reflects on the tradition of lone women homesteaders, considers the eclectic cast of characters that Adelaide meets, and reads an excerpt of the novel.

This episode of the podcast was produced by Rachel Layton and Anne Kniggendorf.

Victor LaValle

Others:

Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 3 Episode 3: “Creepy Stories (and More) from Victor LaValle and Benjamin Percy”
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1 Episode 15: “Emily Raboteau and Omar El Akkad Tell a Different Kind of Climate Change Story”
Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart
Montana Women Homesteaders: A Field of One’s Own by Sarah Carter
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older
Mattie T. Cramer
The Bear Paw Mountaineer
The Color Purple (film)

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S6 Ep. 24: Iraq 20 Years After the U.S. Invasion: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad on Iraqi Perspectives on the War and What Western Media Missed Mar 16, 2023

Show notes

Prize-winning Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new book A Stranger in Your Own City, which features Iraqi perspectives on the United States’ invasion and occupation of Iraq. Abdul-Ahad talks aboutwhat Western media missed and also considers the early stages of the war and how resentment built over time. He reflects on the fall of Saddam Hussein, the ensuing Iraqi civil conflict, Western misconceptions of the country, and how the U.S. occupation planted the seeds of the Islamic State.

This episode of the podcast was produced by Ryan Reed.

Selected readings:

Ghath Abdul-Ahad

A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East’s Long War
Unembedded: Four Photojournalists on the Iraq War
“Baghdad Memories: what the first months of U.S. occupation felt like to an Iraqi” The Guardian
The Battle for Syria, FRONTLINE (documentary)

Others

Hans Fallada
“Bullshit Saviors: Helen Benedict and Nadia Hashimi on Depictions of the American Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4, Episode 26
“The Legacy of ISIS: Dunya Mikhail on Yazidi Women Captives in Iraq,” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 12

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S6 Ep. 23: Letters to a Writer of Color: Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro on Finding Community With Each Other Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

Fiction writers Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the newly published essay collection Letters to a Writer of Color, which they co-edited. The book features 17 pieces by authors of color from all over the world reflecting on aspects of craft and the writing life. Anappara and Soomro talk about how experiences in their MFA program led them to collaborate on the book. Contributors include Kiese Laymon on the second person, Ingrid Rojas Contreras on trauma, Myriam Gurba on art and activism, Sharlene Teo on reception and resilience, Amitava Kumar on authenticity, Mohammed Hanif on political fiction, and Femi Kayode on crime fiction. Soomro reads from his essay about origin stories and Anappara reads from her essay on the ideal conditions for writing. They also discuss other themes in the book: isolation in the writing world, non-Western storytelling, questions of translation, ongoing violence against people of color, and literature as a mode of social education.

This episode of the podcast was produced by Amanda Trout and Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

Letters to a Writer of Color, co-edited by Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro

Deepa Anappara

Taymour Soomro

Other Names for Love
“Philosophy of the Foot” in The New Yorker
Essays and stories

Others

“On ‘Oprah’s Book Club,’ ‘American Dirt’ Author Faces Criticism” by Concepción de León - New York Times (2020)

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S6 Ep. 22: More to Say: Ann Beattie on Her New Collection of Essays, Donald Barthelme, and the Chinese Spy Balloon Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

Acclaimed fiction writer Ann Beattie joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her recent LitHub essay about Donald Barthelme’s short story “The Balloon” and the Chinese spy balloon. She also talks about her recently published first collection of essays, More to Say: Essays and Appreciations, in which she writes about the work of authors, photographers, and artists she admires, including Elmore Leonard, Sally Mann, John Loengard, and her own husband, visual artist Lincoln Perry. Beattie explains why as a nonfiction writer, she prefers close looking and reading; considers defamiliarization in the hands of Barthelme and Alice Munro; analyzes former visual artist John Updike’s depiction of the natural world; and reflects on developing increased comfort with writing about visual art. She also reads excerpts from both her LitHub piece and the essay collection.

This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

Ann Beattie

More to Say (Moon Palace Books)
More to Say (Godine)
The State We’re In (Moon Palace Books)
“Richard Rew's Sculpture,” by Ann Beattie | The New Yorker
“John Updike’s Sense of Wonder,” by Ann Beattie
“Ann Beattie Wonders What Donald Barthelme Would Have Made of the Spy Balloon” | Literary Hub

Others:

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S6 Ep. 21: Kingdom Quarterback: Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd on Race, Kansas City Football, and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

Following a gutsy, thrilling 2023 Super Bowl win by the Kansas City Chiefs, sportswriters Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss their forthcoming book Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin' Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback. Dent and Dodd map out the relationship between race and football in Kansas City from the Chiefs’ move to the city in the early 1960s to the activism and engagement of players like Mahomes in the Black Lives Matter era.

This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd

Others:

America's Game: The Epic Story Of How Pro Football Captured A Nation by Michael MacCambridge
Kansas City (as 'K.C. Loving') written by Leiber and Stoller, recorded by Little Willie Littlefield (1953)
The history behind J.C. Nichols’ development, restrictive covenants in Kansas City
The King of Kings County by Whitney Terrell
Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development by Kevin Fox Gotham

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S6 Ep. 20: Remembering an American Writer: Anthony Walton on James Alan McPherson’s Essays and Legacy Feb 16, 2023

Show notes

James Alan McPherson is famous as the first Black writer to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction; a new book aims to bring fresh attention to his masterful nonfiction. The volume’s editor, poet and writer Anthony Walton, joins V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss On Becoming an American Writer, a collection of McPherson’s essays. Walton explains McPherson’s moral vision for the U.S. and how this shaped the book’s curation. He highlights how the theme of ancestors connects various pieces, notes the impact of McPherson’s legal training on his writing, reflects on McPherson’s take on the middle class, and considers how McPherson’s work speaks to society today. He also reads from the book’s first essay, “Junior and John Doe.”

This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

Anthony Walton

On Becoming an American Writer (ed.)
Mississippi: An American Journey
Brothers in Arms (with Kareem Abdul-Jabar)
Cricket Weather

Others:

The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang
“Trump Criticized for Dining with Far-Right Activist Nick Fuentes and Rapper Ye,” – The Washington Post
Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 11: The Best and Worst Dinner Parties in Literature: Mar-a-Lago Edition, Featuring Michael Knight
Clarence Thomas
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Shadow and Act by Ralph Ellison
Going to the Territory by Ralph Ellison
Hue and Cry by James Alan McPherson
Crabcakes by James Alan McPherson
Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
“On Becoming an American Writer,” by James Alan McPherson (essay)

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S6 Ep. 19: The Lives of the Wives: Carmela Ciuraru on Marriage, Writing, and Equity Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

Literary critic Carmela Ciuraru joins V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new book The Lives of the Wives, which looks at five literary marriages, including pairings like Elizabeth Jane Howard and Kingsley Amis. She examines the dynamics of such relationships, particularly when one partner declares their time more valuable. She explains why the stories of historic couples like Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall remain relevant today, and highlights the experiences of lesser-known partners, some of whom were artists and writers themselves. She also reads an excerpt about the early days of Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl’s courtship.

This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

Carmela Ciuraru

Others:

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S6 Ep. 18: This Other Eden: Paul Harding on Imagining Our Integrated Past Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the history of an integrated community in Maine and how it inspired his new novel, This Other Eden. Harding talks about where he drew the line in his research; his ekphrastic habits; the ever-present human tendency to create “Others”; and what it means to say “never again” in the face of injustice that repeats itself. He also reads from the novel.

This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

Paul Harding

Others: