fiction/non/fiction

Novelist SJ Sindu joins host V.V. Ganeshananthan live from the Tamil Worlds Initiative at the University of Toronto-Scarborough to discuss her new novel, Blue-Skinned Gods, and its protagonist, Kalki, a blue-skinned boy raised in an ashram as the tenth human incarnation of Vishnu. Sindu talks about depicting caste, gender, and heteronormative privilege within a rigid community; the destructive intersection of spirituality and capitalism; and how the age of digital misinformation has aided the Hindu right’s attempt to redefine South Asian history. 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 and Hannah Ward. Selected readings for the episode: SJ Sindu Dominant Genes Blue-Skinned Gods Marriage of a Thousand Lies I Once Met You But You Were Dead Others Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai Tamil Worlds Initiative at the University of Toronto-Scarborough “Where Countries are Tinderboxes and Facebook is a Match,” New York Times, April 21, 2018 The Awakening by Kate Chopin Marrying for a Future by Sidharthan Maunaguru The marriages in-between - Himal Southasian A review of Sidharthan Maunaguru’s Marrying for a Future: Transnational Sri Lankan Tamil Marriages in the Shadow of War by V.V. Ganeshananthan | Jan 29, 2020 Garrard Conley and SJ Sindu on the Mainstreaming of Queer Identity, Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Award-winning actor and LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS activist Alexandra Billings joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the spate of recent anti-Trans bills and American misogyny. Billings reads from her new memoir, This Time for Me, and talks about her life as a Trans woman, her career as a teacher, and her experiences on the show Transparent.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, Hayley Brown, Zoë Harper, America Fontenot, and Ross Whitehead.Selected readings for the episode: Alexandra Billings This Time For Me  Transparent Wicked The Nap Transparent The Connors How To Get Away With Murder Others Track Trans Legislation The Phil Donahue Show Vladimir Putin: J.K. Rowling and Russia Are Victims of Western “Cancel Culture” Arizona governor signs bills limiting transgender rights, abortion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiction writer and former Tor assistant editor Molly McGhee joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss details of her recent resignation from a position she’d fought for in the industry she loves. She also talks about what’s behind #PublishingBurnout for junior employees and what that means for the future of publishing.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:  Molly McGhee https://twitter.com/mollymcghee/status/1502343597676548099 https://twitter.com/mollymcghee/status/1510959170585047053 The Paris Review - America's Dead Souls Others: When Will Publishing Stop Starving Its Young? - The New York Times Editorial Resignations At Big Houses Spark Reckoning - Publishers Lunch https://twitter.com/ZakiyaNJamal/status/1502386226367664130 Episode 147—Publishing's Great Resignation (Print Run podcast) A Woman's Life in Publishing - JSTOR Daily Where Is the Diversity in Publishing? The 2019 Diversity Baseline Survey Results | Lee & Low Blog Women in The Gentleman's Career of Publishing | Princeton University Press Literary Color Lines: On Inclusion in Publishing https://twitter.com/bryonq/status/1502436599061258243 https://twitter.com/slipperyredhead/status/1495417527224176641 F/N/F Season 5 Episode 10: “How on Earth Do You Judge Books?” Susan Choi and Oscar Villalon on the Story Behind Literary Awards Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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