fiction/non/fiction

Novelist and nonfiction writer Beth Nguyen joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about her new memoir, Owner of a Lonely Heart, which is about her separation from and connection to her mother. Nguyen explains how when she came to the U.S. as a refugee, her mother was left behind in Vietnam. She discusses how returning to scenes depicted in her previous memoir, Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, prompted her to reassess and revise her memories of her mother, including their eventual reunion. She also reflects on how becoming a parent herself has shifted her perspectives. She reads from Owner of a Lonely Heart, speaks about the rise in anti-Asian racism, and, finally, turns to the intersection between poetry and nonfiction.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Rachel Layton and Anne Kniggendorf.Beth Nguyen Owner of a Lonely Heart Stealing Buddha’s Dinner Pioneer Girl Short Girls: A Novel Others: Phillip Lopate “Tracing a tragedy: How hundreds of migrants drowned on Greece’s watch,” The Washington Post “Missing Titanic Submersible ‘Catastrophic Implosion’ Likely Killed 5 Aboard Submersible,” The New York Times “Trump Defends Using ‘Chinese Virus’ Label, Ignoring Growing Criticism,” The New York Times, March 18, 2020 “How violence against Asian Americans has grown and how to stop it, according to activists,” by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, April 11, 2022, PBS NewsHour Asian American Month Miss Saigon by Claude-Michel Shöenberg and Alain Boublil The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber Platoon, directed by Oliver Stone Full Metal Jacket, directed by Stanley Kubrick The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton “America Ruined My Name For Me: So I Chose A New One” by Beth Nguyen, The New Yorker  Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 7: Bich Minh Nguyen on the Refugee Experience of Holiday Narratives Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Editor and literary critic Oscar Villalon joins V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to celebrate the life and legacy of the novelist Cormac McCarthy, who died last month. The hosts and Villalon reflect on McCarthy’s vast vocabulary and cinematic descriptions, in which he juxtaposed lyrical prose with graphic violence. Villalon considers McCarthy’s use of regionally accurate Spanish in the Border Trilogy as evidence of the author’s broad understanding of the U.S.’s multilingual diversity. Villalon also reads and discusses a passage from McCarthy’s 1994 novel The Crossing, the second book in the trilogy.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Todd Loughran.Oscar Villalon ZYZZYVA LitHub “Barbarians at the Wall,” by Oscar Villalon, from Virginia Quarterly Review Oscar Villalon (@ovillalon) · Twitter Cormac McCarthy The Orchard Keeper (1965) Outer Dark (1968) Child of God (1974) Suttree (1979) Blood Meridian, Or the Evening Redness in the West (1985) All the Pretty Horses (1992) The Crossing (1994) Cities of the Plain (1998) No Country for Old Men (2005) The Road (2006) The Passenger (2022) Stella Maris (2022) Others: “Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89,” by Dwight Garner, The New York Times “Cormac McCarthy Had a Remarkable Literary Career. It Could Never Happen Now,” by Dan Sinykin, The New York Times “Albert R. Erskine, 81, an Editor For Faulkner and Other Authors,” by Bruce Lambert, The New York Times Paul Yamazaki on Fifty Years of Bookselling at City Lights, by Mitchell Kaplan, Literary Hub “Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History,” by Bennett Parten, Los Angeles Review of Books Oprah's Exclusive Interview with Cormac McCarthy - Video - June 1, 2008 Oprah on Cormac McCarthy’s Life In Books Oprah’s Book Club William Faulkner Cormac McCarthy, MacArthur Foundation Grant City Lights Booksellers and Publishers The Crystal Frontier by Carlos Fuentes Roberto Bolaño Larry McMurtry King James Version of the Bible/Old Testament/Apostle Paul Saul Bellow Ernest Hemingway Caroline Casey Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 7: What Was It Like to Care About Books 20 Years Ago? Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 24: Oscar Villalon and Arthur Phillips on Getting That Big, Fat Writer’s Advance Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, Episode 10: ‘How on Earth Do You Judge Books?’: Susan Choi and Oscar Villalon on the Real Story Behind Literary Awards Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Jean Kwok joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss recent changes to child labor laws in the U.S., as more than 10 states have proposed or enacted legislation that would loosen restrictions on minors working. The three talk about what the shift means in relation to labor shortages and consider migrant children’s unique vulnerability to exploitation. Kwok describes working in a New York factory from kindergarten through high school and how that experience continues to affect her life. She also reads from her novel Girl in Translation, which is based on her years as a child worker.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Jean Kwok The Leftover Woman Searching for Sylvie Lee Mambo in Chinatown Girl in Translation Others: Adrian Dickey ‘Dumb and dangerous’: US sees surge in efforts to weaken child labor regulations, by Michael Sainato, The Guardian “Iowa Governor Signs Law to Loosen Child Labor Regulations” by Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio “Iowa Senate Republicans Pass Bill to Relax Some Child Labor Laws” by Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio ‘It’s just crazy’: Republicans attack US child labor laws as violations rise” by Michael Sainato, The Guardian “Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.” by Hannah Dreier, The New York Times. “Republicans and Democrats have different top priorities for U.S. immigration policy” by J. Baxter Oliphant and Andy Cerda, Pew Research Center “House G.O.P., Divided Over Immigration, Advances Border Crackdown Plan,” by Karoun Demirjian, The New York Times “Jean Kwok, Author of Girl in Translation” by Jen Chung, The Gothamist “Children as young as 12 work legally on farms, despite years of efforts to change law” by Andrea Hsu, NPR ‘We give our blood so they live comfortably’: Sri Lanka’s tea pickers say they go hungry and live in squalor,” by Jeevan Ravindran, The Guardian “Meet the urban sharecroppers,” by Tanis Taylor, The Guardian China’s One-Child Policy - The New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Jacinda Townsend joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss Joe Biden’s stubbornly low poll numbers among Democrats, which persist despite his legislative accomplishments. Townsend talks about the administration’s struggles to communicate its goals and achievements and explains why Biden’s policy decisions—past and present—have often disappointed Black and younger voters. Townsend reads from her novel Mother Country and reflects on the aftermath of the Biden administration’s plan to forgive student debt.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Jacinda Townsend Saint Monkey Mother Country “Why More Single Women Should Run for Office” Others: Affordable Care Act “Did William Henry Harrison Really Die From Pneumonia?” by Christopher Klein Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign “SOTU: Joe Biden’s Economy By the Numbers” by Tim Smart “Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces New Clean Energy Projects” “President Biden Announces Student Loan Relief for Borrowers Who Need It Most” “President Biden to Sign Executive Order Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services” “Biden picks Ketanji Brown Jackson as historic U.S. Supreme Court nominee” by Jeff Mason, Jarrett Renshaw, and Lawrence Hurley Harvard CAPS Harris Poll  “Former President Donald Trump's second indictment, annotated” by Zachary B. Wolf and Curt Merrill Biden’s Numbers, January 2023 Update Biden-Harris Administration Launches First CHIPS for America Funding Opportunity Inflation Reduction Act Guidebook “Biden signs bipartisan bill that suspends debt limit until 2025, cuts spending” by Chris Megerian Biden-Harris Administration Announces $502 Million for High-Speed Internet in Rural Communities “Network Free K.C.” by Whitney Terrell “Biden Administration Announces Savings on 43 Prescription Drugs as Part of Cost-Saving Measures Under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act”  “Biden Supported A Constitutional Amendment To End Mandated Busing In 1975” by Domenico Montanaro “Did Joe Biden Say He Didn't Want His Kids Growing Up in a 'Racial Jungle'?” by Bethania Palma Jesse Helms “Did the 1994 crime bill cause mass incarceration?” by Rashawn Ray and William A. Galston “New Process to Discharge Student Loans in Bankruptcy” by John Rao “Student Loan Debt by Gender” by Melanie Hanson Reaganomics Jimmy Carter “Biden Job Approval, Direction Of Country: IBD/TIPP Poll” “Joe Biden’s 1975 comments slamming slavery reparations, school busing resurfaced by Washington Post” by Jessica Chasmar  “Young Voters Not Excited About Joe Biden” by Lauren Camera Chris Christie Ron DeSantis Mike Pence “It took 15 rounds of voting, but Ann Arbor School Board finally picks president” by Martin Slagter Moms of Liberty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Matt Quirk joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss what makes the White House such a popular place to set stories—including scenes in his newest thriller, Inside Threat, as well as a previous book, The Night Agent, which is now a hit Netflix series. Quirk suggests that the White House is a unique space where the domestic sphere intersects with the seat of world power. He examines the idea that readers desire a “classic president” character, particularly in times when the real commander in chief falls short. He also reads from Inside Threat and reflects on shifting settings from the White House to Raven Rock, a real-life government doomsday bunker. Finally, he talks about what it’s been like to see The Night Agent adapted for the screen.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Matthew Quirk Inside Threat Red Warning  Hour of the Assassin The 500 The Directive Cold Barrel Zero Dead Man Switch The Night Agent Others: How Shawn Ryan Adapted 'The Night Agent' from the Page to the Screen By Jean Bentley The West Wing White House Down  Olympus Has Fallen  Murder at 1600 Scandal Seven Days in May Commander in Chief The American President  Max 2: White House Hero William Faulkner King Kong James Bond Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 3 Episode 9: “All the President’s Henchmen: Susan Choi and Garrett Graff on the Citizens of the Swamp” Raven Rock by Garrett Graff Agatha Christie Die Hard The Pelican Brief by John Grisham Law & Order “More secret service agents expected to lose jobs over Colombia scandal” “Secret Service agents sent home after one found passed out in Amsterdam” by Evan Perez “Reports: Secret Service agent on Pence detail consorted with prostitute” By Melanie Eversley Clint Eastwood Air Force One First Daughter Chasing Liberty Curtis Sittenfeld Ellen Emerson White Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Matt Bell joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the eerily familiar run-up to the 2024 presidential race, as well as his latest novel, Appleseed. Referencing his recent craft book, Refuse to Be Done, Bell talks about how literature frequently uses repetition and non-linear chronology to mimic the experience of trauma. He also explains how expanding Appleseed’s timeline helped him to consider the possibility of redemption after disaster.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Matt Bell Appleseed Refuse to Be Done A Tree or a Person or a Wall Scrapper In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods Others: The Dark Tower by Stephen King Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer Losing Music by John Cotter Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Beloved by Toni Morrison The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula Le Guin The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone and Michael Smolli “Rhyming Action” by Charles Baxter Hyperobjects by Timothy Morton The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry Eleutheria by Allegra Hyde The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins Trump Town Hall Shows His Second-Term Plan: Shattering Even More Norms - The New York Times Pod Save America | Crooked Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Jane Roper joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss cancel culture and her new book, The Society of Shame. Roper teases out some of the similarities and differences between the group in her novel and the real-life “Gathering of Thought Criminals” as recently covered in the New Yorker. She discusses what social and moral offenses can and cannot be forgiven. She reads from her book as well as the New Yorker article by Emma Green. 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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Jane Roper The Society of Shame Double Time Eden Lake Others: “The Party is Cancelled” by Emma Green, The New Yorker “‘Central Park Karen’ Amy Cooper Loses Lawsuit Against Former Employer” by Patrick Reilly “Florida Women Plead Guilty in Sex Sting Involving Patriots Owner Robert Kraft” Associated Press Thomas Sowell Tyler Fischer “‘Nobody imagined it would go on this long’: Bud Light sales continue to plummet over Mulvaney backlash” by Rob Wile Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 1, Episode 2: “Jia Tolentino and Claire Vaye Watkins Talk Abuse, Harassment, and Harvey Weinstein” Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 4, Episode 13: Cancellation or Consequences? Meredith Talusan and Matt Gallagher on Accountability in Literature ‹ Literary Hub “Uber’s Diversity Chief Put on Leave After Complaints of Insensitivity” by Kellen Browning Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Financial correspondent and podcast host Felix Salmon joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the debt ceiling crisis and his new book The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New Not Normal. Salmon unpacks the political and financial ramifications of our current debt ceiling crisis—and compares the present impasse to prior debt ceiling fights. He also discusses the underappreciated and unexpected economic effects of the COVID pandemic, including an increase in the financial health of lower income Americans and a redistribution of population away from major cities. Salmon reads from The Phoenix Economy, and explains how the pandemic will continue to change our economic lives.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Felix Salmon The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New Not Normal Slate Money podcast Others: “A Brief History of Debt Ceiling Crises” by Raymond Scheppach Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist, screenwriter, and Writers Guild of America member Benjamin Percy joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the Hollywood writers’ strike, which began May 2. Percy talks about several WGA contract proposals tied to streaming services’ rise in popularity, and reflects on how streaming has upended the traditional 22-episode television season, causing writers to scramble for work every 10 weeks. He explains how writers end up doing unpaid labor before shows are greenlit and highlights how a lack of transparency regarding streaming viewership numbers leads to writers being underpaid. He also analyzes why the WGA wants to limit the use of artificial intelligence on its projects. Finally, he talks about his own experiences writing screenplays, including his recent movie Summering. The group listens to the trailer and Percy recalls the genesis of the film, as well as how being on a set changed his understanding of the economics of movies.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Benjamin Percy Summering Trailer #1 (2022) | Movieclips Trailers The Sky Vault Red Moon  The Wilding  The Ninth Metal The Unfamiliar Garden Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction Others: WGA proposal "You're Not Making Jet Engines, You're Making Art" | The Distraction: A Defector Podcast "2023 Writers Guild of America Strike: What You Need to Know" - The New York Times Writers Guild of America West: Mini-Rooms Are Writers’ Rooms. Period. “These are the TV shows and films affected by the Hollywood writers' strike so far,” by Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz "Writers strike: What TV shows are being affected" by Brahmjot Kaur, NBC "WGA strike 2023: Hollywood’s writers walked off the job. What happens now?" - Vox "Conan lauded for his support of writers in old video amid new writers strike: 'Man is a legend,'" by Aditi Bora "The last writers’ strike, when streaming was new and Conan grew a beard" - By Sonia Rao and Michael Cavna, The Washington Post Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU | The American Reader by Carmen Maria Machado Story by Robert McKee Save the Cat by Blake Snyder Screenplay by Syd Field Near Dark, directed by Kathryn Bigelow Chinatown William Goldman The Princess Bride All the President’s Men Quentin Tarantino Drew’s Script-O-Rama Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 17: Chatbot vs. Writer: Vauhini Vara on the Perils and Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2 Episode 11: Brit Bennett and Emily Halpern on Screenwriting’s Tips for Fiction  Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1 Episode 11: What’s It Really Like to Have Your Book Made Into a Movie? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Kerri Arsenault joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the recent derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. Arsenault is the author of Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains, an investigative memoir about her hometown, Mexico, Maine, where a paper mill released dioxins into the environment for decades. Arsenault talks about the effect dioxins had on Mexico, which was nicknamed “Cancer Valley,” as well as the history of dioxin poisonings in America. She discusses how government and industry responses in East Palestine parallel the cover-up in her hometown. She also reads from the book.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Kerri ArsenaultMill Town: Reckoning with What RemainsOthers: “Texas to New Jersey: Tracking the Toxic Chemicals in the Ohio Train Inferno” by Hiroko Tabuchi “Whose Test Results Should East Palestine Believe?” by Gabrielle Gurley  “Leaked audio reveals U.S. rail workers were told to skip inspections as Ohio crash prompts scrutiny to industry” by Michael Sainato White Noise by Don DeLillo “Living and Breathing on the Front Line of a Toxic Chemical Zone” by Eric Lipton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices