The Greenlight Bookstore Podcast

Literary Hub senior editor Emily Temple launches her debut novel The Lightness—a meditation on adolescent desire, female friendship, belief, and the female body—with Téa Obreht, bestselling author of The Tiger’s Wife and Inland. The pair discuss the strangeness of writing and launching a debut novel in June 2020, their shared MFA program memories, writing from the perspectives of teens vs. adults, nostalgia, and Buddhism.

(Recorded June 12, 2020)Author Jia Lynn Yang and journalist Michael Luo take a whirlwind ride through the legal, political and cultural history of American immigration in their discussion of Yang's book One Mighty and Irresistible Tide. Bookended by major immigration laws passed in 1924 and 1965, the book and discussion work out the questions: Are we a country predicated on race and ethnicity, or on something else? And who is allowed full participation in democracy?

Palestinian-American writer Zaina Arafat presents her debut novel You Exist Too Much with Mallika Rao of the Atlantic.  In unfolding the novel's explorations of the longing for love, and a place to call home, they also discuss Arab stereotypes and queer stereotypes in media, the tension between generations and cultures in immigrant families. Recorded June 9, 2020. 

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz discusses his newest book People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent, with Roosevelt Institute president Felicia Wong.  Wong and Stiglitz expand on the book's analysis of the various and insidious ways in which contemporary capitalism is rigged against the average citizen and tilted in favor of big business and the wealthy, connecting Stiglitz's arguments to the current COVID-19 crisis and Black Lives Matter protests through the intersection of racial and economic injustice. (Recorded June 4, 2020)

Award-winning author and journalist Meredith Talusan’s talks about her memoir Fairest — a coming of age story about a precocious boy with albinism, a “sun child” from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America — with her friend (and former roommate), writer and performance artist Alok. Topics of conversation included combating the white cis gaze, different constellations of gender, and the multiplicity of truth, with plenty of warmth and humor in the mix. Recorded May 26, 2020.

Alexis Okeowo interviews Ishmael Beah (author of the memoir A Long Way Gone) about his new novel Little Family, a story of the connections we forge to survive the fate we’re dealt. The two discuss the novel's origins in several African nations and the US, the development of its characters, and its relation to African politics and corruption, as well as the experiences of people living on the margins, and how much we're all learning about how interconnected we all are. (Recorded May 7, 2020)

In the extraordinary days of early June 2020, Marie-Helene Bertino virtually launches her novel Parakeet in conversation with Alexandra Kleeman, co-hosted by BOMB Magazine.  Poet Angel Nafis opens the event with a meditation and poetry reading, setting the stage for an evening encompassing love and family, dark humor, discussions of craft, racial justice, and pure literary magic. (Recorded June 2, 2020)

Author and professor Imani Perry interviews novelist Nicole Dennis-Benn for the paperback launch of her novel Patsy, in an evening that grapples with intergenerational trauma as well as embracing Black joy.  The energetic and inspiring conversation delves into Black women's identity, oppression, and power; post-colonialism and racism; mental health and its stigmas; sexual identity and freedom; the intersection of language and class; literary influences; and much more. (Recorded May 28, 2020)

Poet, essayist and editor John Freeman talks with novelist Julia Alvarez about his poetry collection The Park and her novel Afterlife.  A beautiful cross-genre conversation ensues about public space, strangers, what we owe to our fellow humans, and the language and effects of poetry. (Recorded May 5, 2020)

Novelist Lidia Yuknavitch rejoins fellow author/actor/activist Amber Tamblyn for a passionate conversation centered around Yuknavitch's newest book Verge.   Their wide-ranging discussion circles around the intersection of feminine rage (regardless of gender) and a toxic political and the possibilities for art and love beyond binaries. (Recorded February 13, 2020)