fiction/non/fiction

Translator Ottilie Mulzet joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her award-winning translations of Nobel Prize winner László Krasznahorkai’s work. Mulzet, who was born in Canada and now lives in the Czech Republic, discusses how she learned Hungarian and began working with Krasznahorkai. She explains the humor in his novels and how his background in music shapes his prose. Mulzet also reflects on the timeliness of his writing and the breadth of his influences, including Europe and Asia more broadly. She considers its political context, including the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán’s recent Kulturkampf, or efforts to control Hungarian cultural production. Mulzet reads an excerpt from Herscht 07769, which takes its title from the protagonist’s decision to write German Chancellor Angela Merkel a letter using only his name and postcode as a return address. To hear the full episode, subscribe 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. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Amelia Fisher, Victoria Freisner, Wil Lasater, and S E Walker. Ottilie Mulzet's Translations of László Krasznahorkai Herscht 07769 A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East Seiobo There Below Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens: Reportage Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming The World Goes On Animalinside Others: Under a Pannonian Sky: Ten Women Poets from Hungary edited by Ottilie Mulzet Satantango George Szirtes "An Angel Passed Above Us" | The Yale Review  Hungarian Translators House "Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai review – sinister cosmic visions" | The Guardian  "Laszlo Krasznahorkai’s Novels Find a U.S. Audience" | The New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiction writer Max Delsohn joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his debut short story collection, Crawl, which features a number of transmasculine characters. Delsohn addresses the Trump administration’s broad and vicious assault on transgender Americans, from advertising misinformation to attacks on higher education. Given pending legislation, he considers how shifting dynamics at the state level affect the decisions trans people and their families are making to find safety. Delsohn also reflects on intra-community violence and trans men’s position as minorities within the queer community. He considers how those with trans identities navigate misinterpretation, explanation, and other social pressures from cisgender people. He recounts how his experiences with the queer community in 2010’s Seattle, where many of his stories are set, have influenced his work. Delsohn talks about the importance of access to gender-affirming care and reads a related excerpt of “The Machine,” from Crawl.  To hear the full episode, subscribe 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. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, MaryClaire Dunagan, Emani Guerin, and Sarah Feldmann. Max Delsohn Crawl.  “18 or 34 Miles From Perennial Square,” “We Do Not Belong Everywhere,” “Thinking Like The Knight,” Others: The Tragedy of Heterosexuality  by Jane Ward On Liking Women by Andrea Long Chu Federal Agreement FAQs: Brown’s Sex and Gender Policies and Gender-Affirming Care Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Graphic novelist Ben Passmore joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new graphic novel Black Arms To Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance. Passmore explains the mix of personal reflection and historical storytelling in the book which follows the main character, a version of himself, time-traveling through a century of the Black radical tradition. Passmore talks about imagining a fictional self visiting Black historical figures and spotlights Assata Shakur, a well known member of the Black Liberation Army, who passed away last month. Passmore reflects on Shakur’s life and considers how her story highlights the broader struggles and resilience of Black activists whose work is marginalized in mainstream histories. He emphasizes that the book focuses on less prominent figures within the Black radical tradition, providing a corrective to previous whitewashed narratives. He talks about activists and thinkers interested in goals ranging from liberation to reform, as well as community-based forms of resistance and education. Passmore reads from Black Arms To Hold You Up. To hear the full episode, subscribe 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. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Bri Wilson, Emma Baxley, Hope Wampler, and Elly Meman. Ben Passmore Black Arms to Hold You Up Sports is Hell Your Black Friend and Other Strangers Others: We Will Return In The Whirlwind Black Radical Organizations 1960-1975 by Muhammad Ahmad — Charles H. Kerr Publishing Going to the Territory Assata Assata Shakur, an icon of Black liberation who was exiled to Cuba, dies aged 78 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new essay collection, Three or More is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025. Cobb recalls how he began the project by trying to understand how George Zimmerman’s killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 set the tone for the era to come. Cobb considers how history’s exceptions skew narratives, so that writers miss the bigger picture. He reflects on how discourse about race shifted between the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations and considers the juxtaposition of Martin’s murder with Obama’s presidency. Cobb also speaks on the significance of transparency in journalism, calling for reporters to show their work to reinforce public trust. He explains his preference for a lowercase “b” in “black” as a racial term, given that the word is not a proper noun, does not designate a nationality, and that capitalization may perpetuate inaccurate racial ideologies. Cobb reads from Three or More Is a Riot. To hear the full episode, subscribe 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. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Bri Wilson, Emma Baxley, Hope Wampler, and Elly Meman. Jelani Cobb Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025 The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker, edited with David Remnick The Essential Kerner Commission Report, edited with Matthew Guariglia The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress The Devil and Dave Chappelle and Other Essays To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic "Lessons of Later-in-Life Fatherhood" | The New Yorker, June 14, 2025 Full text of Jelani Cobb's 2025 Reuters Memorial Lecture: Trust Issues. Credibility, Credulity and Journalism in a Time of Crisis  Others: Lincoln  Django Unchained Gwen Ifill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed fiction writer and essayist Edwidge Danticat joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her new essay collection We’re Alone. Danticat reflects on misinformation and xenophobic rhetoric, such as Trump’s false 2024 debate claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, and how that type of language and propaganda has broadened during Trump’s second term to include even more immigrant communities. She recounts what she has learned about conditions in prisons and detention centers during her visits there and also considers today’s immigration policies, including the Trump administration’s attempts to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants and how deliberately humiliating immigrants not only hurts them, but also deters others considering crossing borders. Danticat describes her connection to Haiti and the ways natural disasters can unexpectedly bring people together as well as how these disasters are tied to migration. She reflects on political instability in Haiti, the meaning behind the title of her new book, and how writers like Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Jean Rhys and Paule Marshall shaped her thinking and writing process. Danticat reads from We’re Alone.  To hear the full episode, subscribe 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. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Amelia Fisher, Victoria Freisner, Wil Lasater, and S E Walker. Edwidge Danticat We're Alone Create Dangerously Breath, Eyes, Memory Brother, I'm Dying Others: Jamaica kincaid (@virtuouspomona) • Instagram photos and videos Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation | Black Women Writers (1950-1980) The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde Dany Laferrière Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Immigrants can have ponies | Seinfeld (1989) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiction writer Yiming Ma joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new novel These Memories Do Not Belong To Us. Ma, who was born in Shanghai and visited China frequently after immigrating to the U.S. and Canada, talks about how terrifyingly easy it can be to live in a society in which censorship is the default, and the dangers of self-censorship. Ma, who has an MBA, also reflects on the gap between how the tech and business worlds discuss artificial intelligence versus his peers in the arts. He explains how he developed the protagonist of his novel, a young man who struggles to decide what to do with an inheritance of forbidden memories; reflects on how his book’s structure, which moves between those memories, works as a “constellation novel,” in the tradition of Olga Tokarczuk; and considers how his characters demonstrate survival as a form of resistance. He reads from These Memories Do Not Belong To Us. To hear the full episode, subscribe 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. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Moss Terrell. Yiming Ma These Memories Do Not Belong to Us "When fear silences the writer" - The Globe and Mail  Others: Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind by Hans Moravec Flights by Olga Tokarczuk “The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allan Poe "Mirrors, Memories, Rebellions: An Interview with Yiming Ma” Chicago Review of Books  Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 8, Episode 51: Omar El Akkad on Gaza and Western Empire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Caleb Gayle joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new book Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State, which recounts the efforts of Edward McCabe, a Black settler who became a prominent politician in the late 1800s and spearheaded a mission to establish a majority-Black state in the American West. Gayle sets the scene of McCabe’s upbringing as a free Black man on the East Coast and his move across the country to majority-Black towns in Kansas and Oklahoma. Gayle also talks about how Black settlers navigated the challenges of the supposed promised land, including bleak weather and the machinations of white politicians. Despite great difficulties, Gayle explains, McCabe persisted, and while his dreamed-of state never came to fruition, his legacy is visible in some Western towns even today. Gayle reads from Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State.  To hear the full episode, subscribe 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. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Moss Terrell. Caleb Gayle Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power What Was the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921? Others: Victor LaValle’s Lone Women Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 25: "Alone on the Range: Victor LaValle on Lone Women’s Homesteaders, History, and Horror" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad as he delves into the powerful themes of his National Book Award-nominated work. He shares his emotional disconnection from the West and critiques the Democratic Party's response to Gaza. El Akkad discusses practical resistance to capitalism and how to engage children in understanding global atrocities, emphasizing compassion over indifference. His personal journey from Egypt through various countries informs his insights, making for a thought-provoking conversation on ethics in today’s political landscape.

Novelist Jessica Francis Kane joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss her new novel Fonseca, which fictionalizes writer Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1952 trip to Mexico. Kane talks about imagining Fitzgerald in her mid-thirties, before she had become a novelist, when she was living a financially precarious life and editing a journal with her husband Desmond. Kane reflects on Fitzgerald’s decision to travel to Mexico with her son Valpy, a prospective heir for sisters there who are distantly connected to their family. Kane explains how she came to correspond with Fitzgerald’s children and the choice to use those letters as part of the book; her belief that the trip had a formative effect on Fitzgerald; “following the plot” based on the available facts; and introducing historical speculation, like an acquaintance with painter Edward Hopper, into the storyline. Kane reads from Fonseca.  To hear the full episode, subscribe 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. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Moss Terrell. Jessica Francis Kane Fonseca Rules for Visiting This Close The Report Bending Heaven Penelope Fitzgerald: "Following the plot" | Penelope Fitzgerald | London Review of Books Our Lives are Only Lent to Us | Penelope Fitzgerald | Granta Magazine The Means Of Escape Offshore The Blue Flower Others: Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee "The Peripatetic Penelope Fitzgerald" | Lucy Scholes | Granta Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiction writer and editor Patrick Ryan joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his debut novel, Buckeye, which traces two generations of two Midwestern families connected by a secret. Ryan recalls the coincidental conversation that informed his portrayal of one character’s experiences with disability in World War II-era Ohio, and reflects on taking Ann Patchett’s advice to keep the point of view very close when depicting experiences one hasn’t personally had. He explains how a spiritualist character became “the good heart of the book,” as well as his favorite fiction writing experience of all time. He also talks about troubling two fictional marriages and leaving his characters few paths through their woes. Ryan reads from Buckeye.  To hear the full episode, subscribe 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. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, and Moss Terrell. Patrick Ryan Buckeye The Dream Life of Astronauts Send Me Saints of Augustine In Mike We Trust Gemini Bites Others: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett The Gilded Age Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices