fiction/non/fiction

Author and journalist Putsata Reang joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the dangers faced by foreign correspondents and local journalists during times of violent crisis. Reang talks about the dangers reporters are facing in Ukraine, recalls training journalists in Afghanistan, and reads from her forthcoming book Ma and Me: A Memoir. She also reflects on how her experiences in journalism connect to her history as a Cambodian refugee and her identity as a gay woman.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 Anne Kniggendorf.Selected readings for the episode:Putsata Reang Ma and Me: A Memoir Opinion | My Family Fled Cambodia as the Americans Evacuated. Here's What I Hope for Afghan Refugees.- POLITICO At Sea, and Seeking a Safe Harbor - The New York Times Full Circle: Two journalists return to their native countries to help other journalists express dissent — Oregon Humanities (with Kim Oanh Nguyen) Others When the War is Over: Cambodia And The Khmer Rouge Revolution by Elizabeth Becker “Iraq War and News Media: A Look Inside the Death Toll” by Frank Smyth, Committee to Protect Journalists, March 18, 2013 "The Iraq War: The Heaviest Death Toll for the Media" Since World War II, March 2003 – August 2010 by Reporters Without Borders’ Middle East Desk, September 7, 2010 - Updated on January 20, 2016 “Ukrainian Family’s Dash for Safety Ends in Death” by Lynsey Addario and Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times, March 7, 2022 “American veterans train Ukrainian volunteers in combat” CNN Excerpt of interview with NYT's Lynsey Addario by Norah O'Donnell of CBS Evening News (via Twitter) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author and former Guantánamo detainee Mansoor Adayfi joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his 14 years of systematic torture in the military prison. Adayfi reads from his memoir, Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo; recalls being ambushed, kidnapped, and sold to the U.S. by warlords; and explains the hunger strikes and protests he and other detainees participated in in defense of their lives and rights. Adayfi, who was ultimately found innocent and released, urges President Biden to work toward closing Guantánamo, which he describes as a place of lawlessness, oppression and injustice.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 Anne Kniggendorf.Selected readings for the episode:Mansoor Adayfi Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo "An Open Letter to President Biden About Guantánamo" by Mansoor Adayfi, et al., The New York Review of Books, Jan. 29, 2021  Opinion | In Our Prison on the Sea - The New York Times, Sept. 15, 2017 Others Guantanamo Reports (Seton Hall University) Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp | American Civil Liberties Union  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veteran war correspondent Scott Anderson joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his time reporting in Chechnya. Anderson compares the First and Second Chechen Wars to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He also reads from his nonfiction book, The Man Who Tried to Save the World, and talks about how he overcame efforts to quash a magazine article he wrote that was critical of Putin, as well as why Chechnya’s conflict was scary enough to leave him with a streak of white hair. 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 Anne Kniggendorf.Selected readings for the episode: Scott Anderson The Man Who Tried to Save the World Midnight Hotel Triage The Four O’Clock Murders Fractured Lands The Quiet Americans  None Dare Call It a Conspiracy Lawrence in Arabia  Others A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra Raiders of the Lost Ark  “Death of the Tiger,” by Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, Jan. 17, 2011. No Innocents Abroad: Scott Anderson and Andrew Altschul on the CIA and U.S. Provocateurs in Foreign Politics, Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 3, Episode 25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katya Soldak, Forbes editorial director and documentary filmmaker, joins hosts Whitney Terrell and V. V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the evolving conflict between Ukraine and Russia. As Russian President Vladimir Putin continues his invasion of Ukraine, Soldak, who grew up in the country, shares insight into the bleak realities faced by citizens in cities like Kharkiv and Kherson, Russian misinformation, and the Ukrainian will to fight.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 Anne Kniggendorf.Selected readings:Katya Soldak Monday, February 28. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine The Long Breakup (Vimeo) Others:'I Screwed Up': Sean Spicer Says He Regrets Comments on Inauguration Crowd Size and Hitler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed writer and professor Farah Jasmine Griffin joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about why book bans so often target the power of Black literature. Griffin discusses the censorship of Black authors like Toni Morrison as well as communities’ efforts to preserve and share Black stories when schools won’t. Author of Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature, Griffin discusses how her own exposure to Black authors like Morrison and James Baldwin came largely from her own father, outside of the classroom. 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 Anne Kniggendorf.Selected Readings:Farah Jasmine Griffin Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature  “Banning Toni Morrison’s books doesn’t protect kids. It just sanitizes racism.” | The Washington Post Who Set You Flowin?: The African American Migration Narrative Others: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison “Missouri school district bans Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’” | Today Ralph Ellison “The Little Man at Chehaw Station” and “The Novel as a Function of American Democracy” by Ralph Ellison from Going to the Territory Beloved by Toni Morrison Toni Morrison James Baldwin If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones Adam Serwer on Critical Race Theory and the Very American Fear of Owning Up to Our Racist Past and Present Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4, Episode 20 Angela Davis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed novelist Garth Greenwell joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about book banning, writing about sex, and the different (and often coded) reasons people talk about limits to reading. A former high school teacher, Greenwell discusses the ideological roots of book bans targeting Black and LGBTQIA+ writers and describes how books like Giovanni’s Room gave him hope and inspiration as an isolated queer teenager in the South. Finally, he talks about the need for generosity and patience in this debate and why we should all be willing to have hard conversations about what is, and is not, appropriate reading material for students.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 Anne Kniggendorf.Selected Readings:Garth Greenwell Kink, edited with R.O. Kwon Cleanness What Belongs to You Others: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison All Boys Aren’t Blue by George Matthew Johnson Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado 'Banning My Book Won’t Protect Your Child,' by Carmen Maria Machado, The New York Times  Carmen Maria Machado Edinburgh by Alexander Chee Another Country by James Baldwin Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin Just Above My Head by James Baldwin Anonymous Sex eds. Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters Skinned Alive by Edmund White Edmund White and Emily Temple on Literary Feuds, Social Media, and Our Appetite for Drama Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 4 R.O. Kwon and Paul Harding Talk God and Faith in American Fiction Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 9 A Streetcar Named Desire dir. Elia Kazan Judy Blume: 'I thought, this is America: we don't ban books. But then we did' Children and teenagers, The Guardian Brontez Purnell Ocean Vuong “Why book banning is back” | Vox “A Texas lawmaker is targeting 850 books that he says could make students feel uneasy” | NPR Cleanness | Work in Progress Garth Greenwell & Mitzi Angel on Writing About Sex Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Poet Randall Mann, a winner of the Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry, joins Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to continue last week’s conversation about the significance of literary awards. Mann talks about how poets use prizes to seek publication, the increasingly diverse winners, and why he loves frank: sonnets, by Diane Seuss. He also reads the poem “Beginning & Ending with a Line by Michelle Boisseau,” from his most recent collection, A Better Life.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 excerpts from 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 Anne Kniggendorf.Selected Readings:Randall Mann●    "Beginning & Ending with a Line by Michelle Boisseau"●    A Better Life●    Complaint in the Garden●    Breakfast with Thom Gunn●    Straight Razor●    The Illusion of Intimacy: On PoetryOthers:●    “How on Earth Do You Judge Books?” Susan Choi and Oscar Villalon on the Story Behind Literary Awards ‹ Literary Hub (Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, Episode 10)●    Announcing the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists●    Announcing the Finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards●    Yellow Rain: Poems by Mai Der Vang●    Sho by Douglas Kearney●    Heard-Hoard by Atsuro Riley●    frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss●    Mutiny by Phillip B Williams●    Ceive by B.K. Fisher●    The Renunciations by Donika Kelly●    Cutlish by Rajiv Mohabir●    The Rinehart Frames by Cheswayo Mphanza●    "Among the Gorgons" by Michelle Boisseau●    Poet wins first Maya Angelou Book Award from MU, other Missouri schools Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

National Book Award-winning novelist Susan Choi and critic and editor Oscar Villalon talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the business, prestige and (hopefully) idealism of literary awards. Choi talks about critical reception versus award recognition, the roles of luck and taste, and how winning a major prize for her novel Trust Exercise changed her career. Villalon talks about making his way through stacks of nominated books, who can afford to judge book awards, diversity on judging panels, and his experience chairing the 2021 Pulitzer Prize fiction jury.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 excerpts from 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 Anne Kniggendorf.Selected Readings:Susan Choi Trust Exercise American Woman My Education The Foreign Student Oscar Villalon ZYZZYVA Letters from San Francisco: When the Shadow is Looming Future Shock Others: Fiction - The Pulitzer Prizes Announcing the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists  Announcing the Finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards  Augustus by John Williams Stoner by John Williams Is College Education a Right or a Privilege? Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 5 The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw Salvage The Bones - By Jesmyn Ward - Book Review - The New York Times Just How White is the Book Industry? Who Gets to Be a Writer? - Public Books Tinkers by Paul Harding All the President's Henchmen: Susan Choi and Garrett Graff on the Citizens of the Swamp Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 3, Episode 9 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times Moscow bureau chief Anton Troianovski and Yale historian Marci Shore join hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. Troianovski discusses his reporting on the recent talks between the U.S. and Russia, contextualizes Russia’s unusual demands, and considers the odds of a diplomatic solution. Shore lays out the Ukrainian political history that helped set the stage for current tensions, explains how Trump learned from Putin’s efforts to subvert Ukrainian elections, and recommends favorite Ukrainian writers. The episode also features Reginald Dwayne Betts reading Serhiy Zhadan’s poem “Headphones,” which he selected for inclusion in The New York Times Magazine.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 excerpts from our interviews at our Fiction/Non/Fiction Podcast Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Selected readings:Anton Troianovski U.S. and Russia Take More Measured Stance in Ukraine Talks - The New York Times Articles by Anton Troianovski in The New York Times Marci Shore Ukrainian Corruption Is Trump's Native Language | Foreign Policy The Bard of Eastern Ukraine, Where Things Are Falling Apart | The New Yorker The Poet Laureate of Hybrid War | Foreign Policy Others: Poem: Headphones - The New York Times Seven dillweeds | Eurozine Mondegreen — Volodymyr Rafeyenko | Harvard University Press Words for War Greetings from Novorossiya - University of Pittsburgh Press ​​​​Love Ukraine as You Would the Sun: 10 Ukrainian Books Worth Reading in English ‹ Literary Hub “We're All Russian, Now,” featuring Sana Krasikov and Charles Baxter (Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 4) Frank Foer Immanuel Kant The Orphanage by Serhiy Zhadan Reginald Dwayne Betts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Authors Paul Lisicky and Terese Marie Mailhot join hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the possible long-term mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, Lisicky discusses the situation in light of his experiences with the AIDS epidemic and through the lens of his memoir Later: My Life at the Edge of the World. In the second half of the show, Mailhot reads from her bestselling memoir Heart Berries and talks about how children’s futures may be shaped by the trauma they have experienced since early 2020.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 excerpts from our interviews at our Fiction/Non/Fiction Podcast Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Selected readings:Paul Lisicky Later: My Life at the Edge of the World The Narrow Door Unbuilt Projects Lawn Boy Famous Builder The Burning House Terese Marie MailhotHeart BerriesOthers: What if There's No Such Thing as Closure? - The New York Times Magazine, by Meg Bernhard Ambiguous Loss by Pauline Boss From the Mouths of Babes: Wayne Miller and Elizabeth Gaffney on Writing About Children in Uncertain Times ‹ Literary Hub (Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4, Episode 23) MacGyver In the Shadow of the Epidemic by Walt Odets Elizabeth McCracken Tara Haelle Ann Masten Martin Seligman The Sentence - Louise Erdrich The Simpsons CDC study of adverse childhood experiences “COVID is Driving a Children’s Mental Health Emergency” by Julia Hotz “U.S. Surgeon General Issues Advisory on Youth Mental Health Crisis Further Exposed by COVID-19 Pandemic” “A declaration from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Association” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices