fiction/non/fiction

Latest Episodes:

S3 Ep. 25: No Innocents Abroad: Scott Anderson and Andrew Altschul on the CIA and U.S. Provocateurs in Foreign Politics Sep 10, 2020

Show notes

In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by veteran war correspondent and bestselling author Scott Anderson and prize-winning novelist Andrew Altschul. Anderson shares what led him to the four spies featured in his new book The Quiet Americans. Then Altschul talks about decentering the narrative of the American abroad in his new novel The Gringa, which takes inspiration from the real-life case of Lori Berenson.

To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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. And check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Scott Anderson

Andrew Altschul

Others:

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S3 Ep. 24: Summer Books Extravaganza: Margot Livesey and Jaswinder Bolinda on Beach Reading When the Beach is Closed Aug 27, 2020

Show notes

In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by novelist Margot Livesey and poet and essayist Jaswinder Bolina. Livesey discusses an excerpt from her fantastic new novel, The Boy in the Field, and challenges the traditional idea that that beach reads shouldn’t, or can’t, be “political.” Then Bolina discusses how the most popular books in this historic summer of protest and pandemic – including his own brilliant new collection of essays, Of Color – have engaged with themes of race and anti-racism.

This episode was produced by Dylan Miettinen and Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Margot Livesey

Jaswinder Bolina

Others:

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S3 Ep. 23: We've Been Here Before: Kaitlyn Greenidge and Russell Banks on the Past and Present of Protest and White Backlash Aug 13, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by acclaimed fiction writer and essayist Kaitlyn Greenidge and poet and novelist Russell Banks. Greenidge challenges traditional framings of “white backlash” and argues that white privilege in the U.S. has shifted to a false narrative of victimhood. Then, Banks discusses his experiences of protest in the ’60s and ’70s, highlighting similarities in the tactics of – and governmental responses to – today’s #BLM activists.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

Kaitlyn Greenidge

Russell Banks

Others:

Fiction/Non/Fiction interview with Thomas Frank
Conflict is Not Abuse by Sarah Schulman
“The Pandemic is a Portal” by Arundhati Roy
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
“Waking Up in the Middle of Some American Dreams,” by June Jordan

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S3 Ep. 22: The Unpopular Tale of Populism: Thomas Frank on the Real History of an American Mass Movement Jul 30, 2020

Show notes

In this special live episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, political commentator and historian Thomas Frank joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his newest book, The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism. Presented by the Kansas City Public Library and Rainy Day Books, this conversation delves into the complicated history of populism, as Frank argues that the Trump administration and right-wing authoritarian governments in Hungary and Brazil — characterized by many as examples of populist movements — are in fact anything but.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Guests:

Thomas Frank

Selected readings for the episode:

Thomas Frank

The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism
Listen, Liberal
What’s the Matter with Kansas?
The Conquest of Cool
Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society
The Wrecking Crew
Pity the Billionaire
Commodify Your Dissent
One Market Under God
The Return of Socialism in America? Dana Goldstein and Thomas Frank on Season 1, Episode 17 of the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast

Others:

“How Americans Politics Went Insane” by Jonathan Rauch
“It’s Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses” by James Traub
“How Long, Not Long” Speech by Martin Luther King Jr.
Fiction/Non/Fiction Interview with James Traub
“The Fight Over the Future of the Democratic Party” by James Traub

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S3 Ep. 21: Breaking the Mold: Christopher Buckley and Sara Paretsky on Reinventing Genre Jul 16, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, acclaimed modern crime writer Sara Paretsky and political satirist and novelist Christopher Buckley join Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about pushing against the boundaries of genre writing. Buckley discusses how political satire has been redefined in the era of reality-television-star-turned-president Trump, and why his new novel Make Russia Great Again is a faux memoir. Then, Paretsky speaks about making the male-dominated detective fiction genre her own with the best-selling V.I. Warshawski series, and reflects on her recent collection Love & Other Crimes, which also features the iconic character.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

Christopher Buckley

Sara Paretsky

V.I. Warshawski novels
Indemnity only
Fallout
Fire Sale
Hardball
Love & Other Crimes
“Acid Test”
“Miss Bianca”
“Flash Point”
Anatomy of Innocence

Others:

“Christopher Buckley’s ‘Make Russia Great Again’ is the Trump satire we’ve been waiting for” by Ron Charles
“Sarah Cooper Doesn’t Mimic Trump. She Exposes Him.” by ZZ Packer
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
“Fawlty Towers” - Television series
“‘Art of the Deal’ co-author: Trump ‘couldn’t care less tens of thousands are people are dying’” - MSNBC interview with Donald Trump’s ghostwriter Tony Schwartz
“This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin
Hilary Mantel
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump
Fiction/Non/Fiction interview with Curtis Sittenfeld
Fiction/Non/Fiction interview with Jabari Asim
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
Anna Katherine Green
S.J. Rozan
Raymond Chandler
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Dorothy L. Sayers
Raymond Chandler
John D. MacDonald
Rex Stout
Jabari Asim
John Conroy
Lee Child

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S3 Ep. 20: Aiming to Heal When There Is No Cure: Daniela Lamas and C. Dale Young on Doctoring and Our Pandemic Future Jul 02, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, acclaimed author and pulmonary and critical care specialist Daniela Lamas and celebrated poet and radiation oncologist C. Dale Young join Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the sustained trauma the COVID-19 pandemic has already inflicted, as well as what is to come. Lamas reflects on providing end of life care to coronavirus patients, and reads from a New York Times piece about the varied difficulties some survivors face on long journeys to recovery. Young reads from The Affliction: A Novel in Stories, as well as his recent poem “Adrenaline,” in which he describes wanting relief from being on constant alert; he also talks about watching Americans fail to consider the public good.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

Daniela Lamas

C. Dale Young

Others:

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
“The Resident” - Television series

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S3 Ep. 19: Black Stories Matter: Terrion Williamson and Jabari Asim on Narrative During the George Floyd Protests Jun 18, 2020

Show notes

The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis has sparked nationwide protests and a reckoning with racism and police brutality. In this episode, University of Minnesota professor and author Terrion Williamson talks with Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about her recent Belt Magazine essay, in which she writes about the parallels between George Floyd’s killing and the 2010 death of David Cornelius Smith, a Black man who moved from her hometown to the Twin Cities. Then, poet and writer Jabari Asim breaks down the dangerous fallout of the criminalization of Black communities and favorable portrayals of police in literature and the media, which he tackles in his newest collection, “Stop and Frisk.”

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

Jabari Asim

Terrion Williamson

Others:

Minneapolis Had This Coming by Justin Ellis
Why Minneapolis Was the Breaking Pointby Wesley Lowery
Revealing the Divisive History of Minneapolis by Sarah Holder
Century after Minnesota lynchings, black man convicted of rape ‘because of his race’ up for pardon by Meagan Flynn
Their Minneapolis Restaurant Burned, but They Back the Protest by Amelia Nierenberg
Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police by Mariame Kaba
The tiny media collective that is delivering some of the most vital reporting from Minneapolis by Troy Patterson
Amy Cooper Is Fired After Calling Police on Black Birder in Central Park
All Fiction is Crime Fiction: Mat Johnson on the Origins of Modern Mystery
The Crisis Magazine - NAACP’s Magazine
Chester Himes
Barbara Neely
Grace Edwards
Attica Locke
Nichelle Tramble
Walter Mosley
Watchmen (television series)
BlackKklansman

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S3 Ep 18: On Feminism and Fictionalized Histories: Curtis Sittenfeld Tackles Centrism, Clintonism, and All Things ‘Hillary Rodham' Jun 04, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Curtis Sittenfeld discusses the mix of historical context and fictionalized character development—as well as the double standards every professional woman faces—in her new novel, Rodham. Sittenfeld joins Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to ask the question no one else has dared to: what would the world look like had Hillary Rodham never accepted Bill Clinton’s marriage proposal?

This episode was produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Guests:

Curtis Sittenfeld

Selected readings for the episode:

Curtis Sittenfeld
Rodham
You Think It, I’ll Say It
Sisterland
American Wife
Prep: A Novel
“White Women LOL” from Oprah Magazine
Others
Chasing Hillary: On the Trail of the First Woman President Who Wasn’t by Amy Chozick
The President’s Daughter by Ellen Emerson White
Philip Roth
John Updike
Ulysses by James Joyce
Wellesley, 1969 from “With Her,” a podcast by Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 1969 Commencement Speech

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S3 Ep. 17: Poetry, Prose, and the Climate Crisis: John Freeman and Tahmima Anam on Public Space and Global Inequality May 21, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, poet and editor John Freeman talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about his second collection of poetry, The Park. Freeman discusses who finds public space a source of connection, relaxation, and recreation, and who is excluded. Then Ganeshananthan, Terrell, and Freeman are joined by acclaimed Bangladeshi writer Tahmima Anam, who has written extensively about climate change and whose fable appears in Freeman’s new anthology, Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World. The four discuss global inequality, the climate crisis, and resilience.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

John Freeman

Freeman’s
The Park
Maps
Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World
Selections: “Unfinished,” “The Sacrifice,” “Open All Night”
Tales of Two Cities: The Best and Worst of Times in Today’s New York
Tales of Two Americas: Stories in of Inequality in a Divided Nation

Tahmima Anam

“The Unfortunate Place” in Tales of Two Planets
Tahmima Anam on how Bangladesh is succumbing to global warming in The Guardian (2007)
A Burst of Energy in Bangladesh in the New York Times (2016)
A Golden Age
The Good Muslim
The Bones of Grace

Others:

The Recovering by Leslie Jamison
“The Funniest Shit You Ever Heard” by Lina Mounzer in Tales of Two Planets
Jennifer 8. Lee's post on Instagram showing "circular human parking spots at Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn"
Bill McKibben
Gold Fame Citrus: A Novel by Claire Vaye Watkins
Fiction/Non/Fiction interview with Emily Raboteau and Omar El Akkad
Fiction/Non/Fiction interview with Juliana Spahr and Nathaniel Rich

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S3 Ep. 16: Solitude Versus Sociability: David Means and Candace Bushnell on Being Alone and Making Connections May 07, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, acclaimed fiction writer David Means and Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell share their experiences with solitude and sociability in quarantine. Means, author of the recent short story collection Instructions for a Funeral, talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about how writers use solitude to their advantage. Bushnell discusses the crucial role social life and friendship plays in Sex and the City and in the lives of New Yorkers. She also speaks about her new novel Rules for Being a Girl.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

David Means

Candace Bushnell