In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by acclaimed novelist Maurice Carlos Ruffin and Pulitzer finalist in Biography Michael Gorra for a conversation about whether demographic changes are finally making the South new. We Cast a Shadow author Ruffin muses on what racial equality looks like in a futuristic South, and ponders whether political compromise can stabilize the oppositional nature of the United States. Then Gorra discusses his book, The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War; and considers the intricate set of limitations that come with writing from multiple fictional perspectives.

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:

Maurice Carlos Ruffin

We Cast a Shadow
The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You (forthcoming)

Michael Gorra

Books:

Writers:

Television:

Films:

Directors:

Others:

Justin Ward (journalist)
FiveThirtyEight (podcast)
Stacey Abrams (politician)
Newt Gingrich (politician)
James Meredith (civil rights activist)
Disunion (NYT column)

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S3 Ep. 26: The Past Is Never Dead: Maurice Carlos Ruffin and Michael Gorra on the 'New South' and Whether Faulkner Still Belongs There