fiction/non/fiction

In this engaging conversation, novelist Alex Higley, author of True Failure, delves into the absurdities of modern capitalism through the lens of his protagonist's misguided ambition to impress on a Shark Tank-style show. He explores the emotional refuge of lying, especially in today's political climate, while critiquing the myth of individual success. Higley’s insights on authenticity in reality TV reflect larger societal issues, making this a thought-provoking discussion on truth, deception, and the pressures of visibility.

Novelist, memoirist and biographer Edmund White joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about his recent book, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir. White talks about the changes he has witnessed the LGBTQ+ community go through over the years and the hostility the transgender population faces under the Trump-Vance regime. He discusses a general concern older members of the community have about losing Social Security and health coverage should gay marriage become Trump’s next target, as well as this administration's attempt to erase queer language from governmental archives. White previews his forthcoming novel about Louis XIV’s gay brother titled Monsieur and reads from The Loves of My 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 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, Ian Johnson, Hunter Murray, and Vanessa Watkins. Selected Readings:Edmund White  The Loves of My Life (2025) The Humble Lover (2025) Nocturnes for the King of Naples (2024) A Previous Life (2023) A Saint from Texas (2022) The Unpunished Vice (2018) The Flaneur (2015) Inside a Pearl (2015) Jack Holmes & His Friend (2012) City Boy (2010) A Boy Story (2009) Marcel Proust - A Life (2009) Anthologies, Foreword & Others: The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame (2022) A Luminous Republic (2020) The Stonewall Reader (2019) Such Small Hands (2017) The Violet Quill Club, 40 Years On - The Gay & Lesbian Review by David Bergman, January-February 2021 Felice Picano, Champion of Gay Literature, Is Dead at 81 - The New York Times Edmund White and Emily Temple on Literary Feuds, Social Media, and Our Appetite for Drama Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling fiction writer Curtis Sittenfeld joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her new collection of stories, Show Don’t Tell. Sittenfeld discusses the title story, which depicts graduate students in creative writing competing for funding, and its connections to her time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, when that practice was common. She also considers how President Trump’s attacks on DEI reveal some people’s true natures, and what it means to write about “the hypocrisy of being a person.” Finally, she explains why she thinks of time as a plot twist, and reflects on returning to the protagonist of her debut novel, Prep, Lee Fiora, who reappears in the new collection’s final story, which features her thirtieth high school reunion. Sittenfeld reads from Show Don’t Tell.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 Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.Selected Readings:Curtis Sittenfeld Show Don’t Tell (2025) Romantic Comedy (2023) Rodham (2021) The Best American Short Stories 2020 (ed. with Heidi Pitlor) You Think It, I’ll Say It (2019) Eligible (2016) Sisterland (2013) American Wife (2008) The Man of My Dreams (2006) Prep (2005) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Karen Weingarten joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about a new anthology she has edited, Abortion Stories: American Literature Before Roe v. Wade. Weingarten reflects on the complicated history of abortion, the varied use of abortifacients, abortion’s ties to eugenics and state control of bodies, and the rise of the anti-abortion movement. She discusses how access to abortion facilitates other kinds of resistance, and explains how the book came to include authors like Maria Sybilla Merian, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Lucille Clifton, and Eugene O’Neill alongside oral histories from formerly enslaved persons and groundbreaking politicians like Shirley Chisholm. She talks about the stories she hopes to see represented in post-Dobbs writing and reads from her foreword to the anthology.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 Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.Selected Readings:Karen Weingarten Abortion Stories: American Literature Before Roe v. Wade Pregnancy Test Abortion in the American Imagination: Before Life and Choice, 1880-1940 Others Dirty Dancing Fast Times at Ridgemont High The Cider House Rules The Mothers The Art of Subtext Jessica Valenti Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win Peyton Place Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway (which includes “Hills Like White Elephants” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canadian authors Suzette Mayr and Kai Thomas join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the repercussions of President Trump’s recent threats to annex and tax Canada. They talk about the possible empowerment of the Canadian right as a result of Trump’s extreme remarks, as well as measures their communities are taking to unify in the current political environment. Mayr and Thomas read from their recent novels, The Sleeping Car Porter and In the Upper Country. 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 Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.Selected Readings:Suzette Mayr The Sleeping Car Porter  Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall Monoceros Venous Hum The Windows Moon Honey  Kai ThomasIn the Upper CountryOthers: 2025 4 Nations Face Off | NHL.com | NHL Justin Trudeau's speech in response to Trump's tariffs | CBC News The Last Black Town in the West |The Daily Yonder Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters  | Library of Congress There's only one winner in a trade war... | This Hour Has 22 Minutes (YouTube) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times reporter Nicholas Fandos, author of a recent article titled “An Emboldened Trump Seeks to Bend New York City to His Will,” joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about why President Trump wants to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Officials in Trump’s Department of Justice say they want Adams to be free to aid Trump’s immigration crackdown in the Big Apple, which since 2014 has been a sanctuary city. But conservative federal prosecutors like Danielle Sassoon and Hagen Scotten say this amounts to a quid pro quo and have resigned rather than drop the case against Adams. Fandos reflects on what might happen next and the larger implications for the Department of Justice.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 Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.Selected Readings:Nicholas Fandos An Emboldened Trump Seeks to Bend New York City to His Will  Eric Adams Discussed Possible Republican Primary Run with G.O.P. Leader  Jeffries Works With N.Y. Democrats to Weaken G.O.P. Control of the House Others: Who Is Danielle Sassoon, the Prosecutor Who Quit Over Eric Adams’s Corruption Case? | New York Times  Danielle Sassoon’s Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Annotated | New York Times  Here Are the Charges Eric Adams Faces, Annotated | New York Times | September 26, 2024 Read the Resignation Letter From Hagan Scotten | New York Times  Read The Letter From Emil Bove Accepting Danielle Sassoon’s Resignation, Annotated | New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Atlantic staff writers Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, authors of a recent article called “The Tech Oligarchy Arrives,” join host Whitney Terrell to talk about tech oligarchs’ influence over President Trump’s administration. They discuss the significance of prominent billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos attending Trump’s inauguration as visible supporters, how these tech leaders have changed their opinion of Trump over time, and the regulatory and legal benefits they may gain from their close association with the new administration. They also discuss Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the fallout from that group’s efforts to access Treasury data and dismantle USAID.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 Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.Selected Readings:Ashley Parker & Michael Scherer The Tech Oligarchy Arrives |The Atlantic |January 20, 2025 Trump Advisers Stopped Musk From Hiring a Noncitizen at DOGE |The Atlantic |February 4, 2025 Trump Takes Over the Kennedy Center |The Atlantic | February 7, 2025 Trump’s Conquest of the Kennedy Center Is Accelerating |The Atlantic | February 8, 2025 Ashley Parker The Memo That Shocked the White House |The Atlantic | January 29, 2025Michael Scherer Why Meta Is Paying $25 Million to Settle a Trump Lawsuit |The Atlantic | January 29, 2025Others: DOGE task force gains access to U.S. Treasury Department data, payment systems |CBS News |February 3, 2025 Doge v USAid: how Elon Musk helped his acolytes infiltrate world’s biggest aid agency |The Guardian |February 5, 2025 Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity – The White House |The White House |January 21, 2025 Meta Goes Full MAGA as it Kills Off DEI Programs |Daily Beast|January 10, 2025 The Tech Oligarchy Arrives |The Atlantic |January 20, 2025 Trump, a populist president, is flanked by tech billionaires at his inauguration | AP News | January 20, 2025 Zuckerberg Turns Facebook Full MAGA and Smears California Staff |Yahoo! News |January 7, 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Essayist Thomas Dai joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new collection, Take My Name But Say It Slow, in which he writes about place and identity. Dai talks about the imperialist impulse behind Trump’s attempt to turn the Gulf of Mexico into the “Gulf of America,” the power of naming, and the appeal and uncertainty of mapping. He also reflects on the surprising history of border policing, queer cartographies, and the sometimes paradoxical relationship between inner self and physical space. Dai reads from Take My Name But Say It Slow.  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 Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.Selected Readings:Thomas DaiTake My Name But Say It SlowOthers National Archives, The Chinese Exclusion Act  “Queering the Map” Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon Peter Ho Davies, The Fortunes “Think There’s Nothing You Can Do to Stop ICE? Think Again.” | The Nation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed novelist and Director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Lan Samantha Chang joins Fiction/Non/Fiction hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the role that literary personas may–or may not–have played in recent revelations about Alice Munro, Neil Gaiman, and Cormac McCarthy. Chang discusses how writers often develop literary personas as their public profiles grow. Chang also discusses how personas can be both protective and damaging when they no longer align with the writer's true self, the impact of personas on writers' privacy and the industry's role in shaping and maintaining these personas. She reads from her novel All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost.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 Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.Selected Readings:Lan Samantha Chang The Family Chao Hunger Inheritance All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost  Writers, Protect Your Inner Life |Lit Hub|August 7, 2017 Others: A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway Erasure, Percival Everett Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6 Episode 40: “In Memory of Cormac McCarthy: Oscar Villalon on an Iconic Writer’s Life, Work, and Legacy” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7 Episode 19: “Jacinda Townsend and James Bernard Short on American Fiction”  James Alan McPherson Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7 Episode 35: “Jonny Diamond on His Mother and Alice Munro”  The Dark Secrets Behind the Neil Gaiman Abuse Accusations|Vulture | January 13, 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist and former Huffington Post climate reporter Sarah S. Grossman joins Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about the Los Angeles wildfires. Grossman, who lives in Los Angeles and whose 2024 novel A Fire So Wild centers on a wildfire in Northern California, discusses how communities are coming together to support each other in the wake of the devastation. She reflects on the damage to the historically Black neighborhood of Altadena; the fact that people are differently affected by climate change, even as wealth cannot completely shield anyone; the factors that contributed to the wildfires; and what it is like to prepare to evacuate, or, alternatively, to offer shelter to others. Grossman reads from A Fire So Wild.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 Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.Selected Readings:Sarah S. Grossman A Fire So Wild The Antidote To Climate Dread | HuffPost Impact | The Huffington Post | Aug 25, 2021 More Americans Than Ever Understand Climate Change Is Real And Harmful | HuffPost Impact | The Huffington Post | Nov 18, 2021 Nearly 30% Of Americans Aren't Worried 'At All' About The Deadly Climate Crisis | The Huffington Post | April 19, 2022 Others: What happened on Friday, Jan. 17 Crews improved containment of the fires; some residents allowed to return | Los Angeles Times L.A. fires upend hard-won stability for the area’s homeless population | The Washington Post Mutual Aid LA Network (@mutualaidla) • Instagram Displaced Black Families GoFundMe Directory Safe Place for Youth  How Wildfires Came for City Streets | The New York Times Over 170,000 People Under Evacuation In LA County Wildfires | Inkl New wildfire concerns in Los Angeles: Strong winds could return next week. | USA Today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices