fiction/non/fiction

Latest Episodes:

S3 Ep. 15: Poetry, Blackness, and Friendship: Danez Smith on Language, Connection, and 'Homie' Apr 23, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, acclaimed poet Danez Smith discusses the role friendship plays in their most recent collection of poetry, Homie. Smith talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the isolating effect COVID-19 has had on black communities, using space on the page inventively, and writing about money. This episode is presented in conjunction with the Loft Literary Center’s literary festival, Wordplay, which this year is a virtual event.

This episode was produced by Andrea Tudhope. This week's sponsor is the University of Colorado's Master of Arts in Journalism Entrepreneurship program. Learn more at ce.colorado.edu/tellthestory to invent your future in journalism today.

Poetry, Blackness, and Friendship: Danez Smith on Language, Connection, and ‘Homie’ from The Virtual Book Channel on Vimeo.

Guests:

Danez Smith

Selected readings for the episode:

Danez Smith

Homie
Don’t Call Us Dead
Two Poems
what was said on the bus stop: a new poem by Danez Smith
my president
VS podcast, from the Poetry Foundation, hosted by Danez Smith and Franny Choi

Others

Corona Correspondences: #28 by Danielle Evans (The Sewanee Review)
Review: ‘Homie,’ a Book of Poems That Produces Shocking New Vibrations by Pahrul Sehgal
Frank O’Hara
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Angel Nafis
Hieu Minh Nguyen
Douglas Kearney
1977: Poem for Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer by June Jordan
Recordings of June Jordan from Harvard Library Digitized recordings and more digitized recordings
‘Feet’ and ‘Spoon’ from Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay
Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone by Eduardo Galeano

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S3 Ep. 14: Alternate Histories and Silenced Women: Sue Monk Kidd on Her New Novel The Book of Longings Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, New York Times bestselling author Sue Monk Kidd discusses her upcoming novel The Book of Longings, which is from the point of view of Ana, the wife of Jesus. Kidd talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about how alternate histories can be vehicles for silenced voices of the past, and how our present might be different if Jesus being married was part of the Bible’s story. Kidd also talks about her research process and writing the character of Judas Iscariot.

Alternate Histories and Silenced Women: Sue Monk Kidd on her Novel The Book of Longings from The Virtual Book Channel on Vimeo.

Guests:

Sue Monk Kidd

Selected readings for the episode:

Sue Monk Kidd

The Book of Longings
The Secret Life of Bees
The Invention of Wings
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
Traveling With Pomegranates (with Ann Kidd Taylor)
Others

Others

The work and teachings of psychoanalyst Carl Jung
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Empire City by Matt Gallagher
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld (forthcoming)

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S3 Ep. 13: Literature in the Face of COVID-19: Rigoberto González and Deb Olin Unferth on Writing and Teaching in a Time of Crisis Mar 26, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, poet Rigoberto González and novelist Deb Olin Unferth discuss how literary life has altered under COVID-19. González, director of the MFA program at Rutgers University-Newark, talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the struggles universities face in the transition to online classes, and also reads from his latest collection, The Book of Ruin; Unferth speaks about her new novel, Barn 8, its disrupted book tour, and what we can learn from animals and nature as we navigate a global pandemic.

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 this episode, for the first time, we feature video excerpts of our interviews. See LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel for more.

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

Rigoberto González

Deb Olin Unferth

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S3 Ep. 12: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman: Rebecca Solnit on Her Memoir Recollections of My Nonexistence Mar 12, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit reflects on her new memoir Recollections of My Nonexistence. Solnit talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the deep impact of gendered violence on daily life and what it means to be treated as unreliable witnesses to our own individual and collective experiences, as well as how her activism arose out of a deep love and what she calls “a positive engagement with uncertainty.” She also reminisces about her earliest writing spaces and formative experiences in political and artistic communities.

Guests:

Rebecca Solnit

Selected readings for the episode:

Rebecca Solnit

Recollections of My Nonexistence
Hope in the Dark
Men Explain Things To Me
Other books
My dream candidate exists – and her name is Elizabeth Warren (The Guardian)
Rebecca Solnit: When the Hero is the Problem (LitHub)
Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump (LitHub)
How Rebecca Solnit Became the Voice of the Resistance (New York Times)

Others

The Walk by William deBuys
Jia Tolentino and Claire Vaye Watkins Talk Abuse, Harassment, and Harvey Weinstein (Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast Season 1, Episode 2)
Roxane Gay narrates an ad for Elizabeth Warren
The Public Voice of Women by Mary Beard
The Odyssey by Homer
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Opinion | Elizabeth Warren Has a Poet on Her Team. Here’s Why That’s a Good Idea. (New York Times)

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S3 Ep. 11: Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Chavisa Woods on the Sanders Campaign, Race, and Gender Feb 27, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, author and activist Bill Fletcher, Jr. and author Chavisa Woods discuss Bernie Sanders’ frontrunner status in the Democratic primary, the campaign’s efforts to build a diverse coalition in 2020, and whether or not those efforts have worked. Fletcher talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about how Sanders has altered his approach to reaching out to black voters; Woods compares the Sanders and Warren campaigns, reflects on their appeal to women, and analyzes how voters talk politics online.

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

Bill Fletcher, Jr.

Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Toward Social Justice
“They’re Bankrupting Us!” And 20 Other Myths about Unions
The Man Who Fell from the Sky
Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral (co-editor)
To the Point (The Progressive Magazine, February 3, 2014)

Chavisa Woods

100 Times: A Memoir of Sexism
The Albino Album: A Novel
Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country
The Memoir I Never Wanted to Write (LitHub, June 26, 2019)

Others

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Marx
Engels
Dream Defenders’ endorsement of Bernie Sanders
Hey, Obama boys: Back off already! (Rebecca Traister in Salon, April 14, 2008)

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S3 Ep 10: Coronavirus and Contagion: Laurie Chen and Richard Preston on Writing About the Spread of Disease Feb 13, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, South China Morning Post reporter Laurie Chen and bestselling science writer Richard Preston talk about the global panic over coronavirus, China’s response, and how societies defend themselves against viral outbreaks like Ebola. Chen talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about how misinformation about coronaviruses spreads on social media; Preston discusses his nonfiction books The Hot Zone and Crisis in the Red Zone.

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).

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

Laurie Chen

Richard Preston

Others

To Be Asian With a Face Mask During the Coronavirus Outbreak (KQED)
A Virus's Journey Across China (The Daily podcast)
"Wuhan coronavirus" and the racist art of naming a virus by Marie Myung-Ok Lee (Salon)

South China Morning Post coverage and interviews

Coronavirus: Everything you need to know in a visual explainer (updated daily)
Coronavirus: A View From China
Coronavirus outbreak

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S3 Ep. 9: All the President's Henchmen: Susan Choi and Garrett Graff on Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and the Long History of Henching in Politics and Literature Jan 30, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, novelist Susan Choi and journalist Garrett Graff talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about henchmen in political headlines and political literature. Graff talks about the word’s mob connotations, as well as its connections to the Trump and Nixon administrations; Choi talks about degrees of loyalty, and henchmen in literature, from Falstaff to Trust Exercise and American Woman.

Guests:

Selected readings for the episode:

Garrett Graff

Susan Choi

Others

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S3 Ep. 8: Who Can Be A Citizen?: Rohini Mohan and Praveen Donthi on Hindu Nationalism, Exclusion, and Belonging in Modi's India Jan 16, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, journalists Rohini Mohan and Praveen Donthi talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the recent widespread protests in India over the Modi government’s Citizenship Amendment Act and why many see the act as a threat to India’s secular nature and constitution. Donthi talks about his time reporting in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, and the abrupt change in its autonomous status, announced in August; Mohan speaks about covering Assam, a state in India’s northeast where the debates over who belongs have a longer history.

Guests:

Rohini Mohan
Praveen Donthi

Selected readings for the episode:

Rohini Mohan

Inside India’s Sham Trials That Could Strip Millions of Citizenship, Vice, July 29, 2019
India’s Immigration Crackdown Could Make Millions Stateless, Time, August 14, 2018
Prove your grandfather is Indian: People who lack flawless paperwork cannot just be jailed as illegal migrants, August 2, 2019
Prove your Grandfather is Indian: Ground Reportage on NRC / Bangalore International Centre video interview
Seasons of Trouble: Life Amid the Ruins of Sri Lanka's Civil War (Verso)

Praveen Donthi (all pieces from The Caravan)

Modiʼs war: Dispatches from a seething Kashmir September 22, 2019
“One Solution, Gun Solution”: Ground report: Kashmir in shock and anger, August 16, 2019
The liberals who loved Modi May 16, 2019

Others

Books

Basharat Peer Curfewed Night
Mirza Waheed (multiple novels)
Under Siege: Mirza Waheed on Kashmir (LitHub, September 10, 2019)
Karan Mahajan The Association of Small Bombs: A Novel
Madhuri Vijay, The Far Field: a novel

Articles

Ground report: On a cold night in the new year, JNU attacked by a masked mob; Delhi Police watched, The Caravan, January 5, 2020
India’s first-time protesters: Mothers and grandmothers stage weeks-long sit-in against citizenship law, By Niha Masih, The Washington Post, Jan. 13, 2020
Reading the Signs: The protest poster is where art meets agitation, poetry meets politics. In India, it was born during the freedom struggle, and grew up through post-Independence struggles against inequality. With the anti-CAA protests, it embraces a new digital life. by Benita Fernando, The Indian Express, January 5, 2020
Blood and Soil in Narendra Modi's India, by Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, Dec. 9, 2019
‘Hum Dekhenge’: Singer and writer Ali Sethi explains how to read (and interpret) Faiz’s poem, Scroll, Jan. 9, 2020
Why the National Population Register is more dangerous than the Assam NRC, by Harsh Mander & Mohsin Alam Bhat, Scroll, Jan 12, 2020
Pankaj Mishra and Mirza Waheed on the Death of India's Liberal Self-Image, Scroll, Jan. 5, 2020
Behind Campus Attack in India, Some See a Far-Right Agenda, By Kai Schultz and Suhasini Raj, The New York Times, Jan. 10, 2020
Earlier attacks on students: Attack on art, by Anupama Katakam, Frontline Magazine, May-June 2007
Earlier, Rohini Mohan on Kashmir in The Wire: In Kashmir, Doctors Bear Witness, Sept. 5, 2016
Earlier, Praveen Donthi on Assam in The Caravan: How Assam's Supreme Court-mandated NRC project is targeting and detaining Bengali Muslims, breaking families, July 1, 2018

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S3 Ep. 7: Live at the Miami Book Fair: T.C. Boyle on Writing About LSD and Outside Looking In Jan 02, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, taped live at the Miami Book Fair, writer T.C. Boyle talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about writing his latest novel, Outside Looking In. The novel looks at the history of LSD, and tracks the marriage of a Harvard graduate student who works with psychologist and LSD researcher Timothy Leary. Boyle offers candid insights into his research process, his own experiences with drugs, his relationship with nature, and how he writes and revises.

Guests:

T.C. Boyle

Readings for the Episode:

T.C. Boyle

Michael Pollan

How to Change Your Mind

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A Holiday Re-Broadcast Dec 26, 2019

Show notes

We'll be back with a new episode, featuring T.C. Boyle, on January 2. Until then, please enjoy this holiday re-broadcast of our April 4, 2019 episode of the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast. In this episode, editors Brigid Hughes of A Public Space and Jennifer Baker of Electric Literature and the Minorities in Publishing podcast discuss the world of literary journals with hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell. What gets an editor’s attention? How much editing do they really do? And where was the AWP hotel bar in Portland? This episode, recorded during the annual AWP conference, has the answers.

Readings for the Episode:

· A Public Space, Issue 27, ed. Brigid Hughes

· Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage by Bette Howland (forthcoming, APS Books)

· Everyday People: The Color of Lifeed. Jennifer Baker

· Acentos Review

· As/Us

· Kweli Journal

· Callaloo

· Lambda Literary

· Papercuts

· Paper Darts

· Tayo Literary Magazine