S4 Ep. 3: Monsters for President: Maria Dahvana Headley on Modern Myth-Making

In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan talk to #1 New York Times best-selling author Maria Dahvana Headley about the modern-day relevance of the epic poem Beowulf. She talks about her new translation of the ancient text, and illuminates how the “shit-talking” masculinity of the heroes of old can help us understand our current so-called leaders.

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:

Maria Dahvana Headley 

• Beowulf: A New Translation 
• The Mere Wife 
• Arie 
• Queen of Kings
• The Year of Yes
• The End of the Sentence, Kat Howard and Maria Dahvana Headley
• Unnatural Creatures, Neil Gaiman (Editor), Briony Morrow-Cribbs (Illustrator), Maria Dahvana Headley

Others:

• Transcript: Donald Trump’s Taped Comments About Women, The New York Times
• Sarah Cooper and Helen Mirren Recreate Donald Trump’s Infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape, HuffPost
• A “Beowulf” for Our Moment, Ruth Franklin, The New Yorker
• George Conway (Twitter)
• Walter Shaub (Twitter)
• Earth Abides, George R. Stewart 
• Circe, Madeline Miller
• The Odyssey, (translated by) Emily Wilson
• Beowulf, Seamus Heaney

Television:

• The Wire (HBO)

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