fiction/non/fiction

In this episode, alumni and staff from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop join Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to honor the retirement of the unmatched Connie Brothers, the Workshop’s administrator for 45 years. Our guests recall their days as students, and the many times Connie provided guidance, encouragement, and compassion to emerging and established writers.To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (make sure to include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below.Guests:●     Chris Adrian●     Josh Barkan●     Marcus Burke●     Lan Samantha Chang●     Tameka Cage Conley●     Danielle Evans●     Tom Grimes●     Diane Louie●     Deb West●     Antoine Wilson●     many moreReadings for the Episode:●     Tom Grimes○     Mentor: A Memoir○     The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers Workshop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, novelist and editor Rakesh Satyal and Dead Rabbits Books founders Brian Birnbaum and M.K. Rainey talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about editing and being edited. Satyal discusses the ins and outs of big publishing houses, how he revises, and the simple but revealing question he heard another editor ask an author. Birnbaum and Rainey share what it took for them to start Dead Rabbits Books, how they give each other feedback, and why they appreciate fresh eyes on their work.Guests:Rakesh SatyalBrian BirnbaumM.K. (Katie) RaineyReadings for the Episode:Rakesh SatyalNo One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal Rakesh Satyal on the pick up line that changed his life LitHub, Nov. 7, 2018No One Can Pronounce My Name' Is A Charming Take On Loneliness And Connection by Maureen Corrigan, NPR, May 10, 2017 Brian BirnbaumEmerald City by Brian Birnbaum Dead Rabbits Podcast Dead Rabbits Episode 33: Vulnerable Discovering an iconic literary character was based on your grandfather LitHub, May 16, 2019M.K. (Katie) RaineyReading Your Work in Public: 12 Tips from Dead Rabbits Reading Series Founder by M.K. Rainey, Writer’s Digest, July 15, 2019Citizen Uncensored: The Power of Student Centered Learning by M.K. Rainey, Writer’s Chronicle, July 2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, New York Times reporter Javier C. Hernández and fiction writer and essayist Xu Xi talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about Hong Kong, current and past protests, and the powers that have sought to gain control of the city. Hernández talks about the practical realities of covering potentially violent situations and the unique collectivism of current activism. Xu Xi discusses the challenges the movement faces as well as the historical dissonance that makes finding progress difficult.Guests:Javier C. HernándezXu XiReadings for the Episode:Javier C. Hernández The Peacemaker at the Centre of Hong Kong's Turbulent Protests, July 4, 2019When Trump Tweets, the Editor of, "China's Fox News," Hits Back, July 31, 2019China Calls Hong Kong Protestors who Stormed Legislature ‘Extreme Radicals’, July 2, 2019, with Alexandra Stevenson Protests Put Hong Kong on Collision Course With China’s Communist Party, August 12, 2019, with Amy QinWith Hymns and Prayers, Christians Help Drive Hong Kong’s Protests, June 19, 2019Xu Xi This Fish is Fowl: Essays of Being The Unwalled CityInsignificance: Hong Kong Stories Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy for a City  Founder of CityU creative writing programme questions decision to cancel it, South China Morning Post, May 4, 2015 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, poet Deborah Landau and novelist Mathangi Subramanian talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about their writing lives as Americans abroad. From exploring Paris's rich expat literary history to witnessing the diversity of slums in India, Landau and Subramanian discuss what they found when they began writing in unfamiliar places.Guests:Deborah LandauMathangi SubramanianReadings for the Episode:Deborah LandauOrchideliriumThe Last Usable HourThe Uses of the BodySoft TargetsMathangi SubramanianA People’s History of HeavenThe Day My Outrage Went Viral, Zora Magazine, Aug. 2Picturing Change photography project (Greeshma Patel)Others:A Moveable Feast by Ernest HemingwayBehind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine BooHow To Write About Africa by Binyavanga Wainaina, Granta Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second half of a special two-part episode, novelist and critic Jess Row and poet and critic Tim Yu talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about writing about whiteness in America. Who gets to participate in cultural criticism, and why? Who gets reviewed by and compared to whom, and why? How can white writers render and challenge their communities’ part in the country’s history of racism? Row and Yu also share their responses to Bob Hicok’s recent essay about diversity in poetry. (Find Part I here.)Guests:Jess RowTim YuReadings for the Episode:Jess RowWhite FlightsYour Face in Mine“What Are White Writers For?” in The New Republic, Sept. 30, 2016“Native Sons: A straight white American man on loving James Baldwin and learning to write about race” in Guernica, Aug. 13, 2013“A Safe Space for Racism,” in The New Republic, Nov. 23, 2016Tim Yu"The Case of the 'Disappearing' Poet: Why did a white poet see the success of writers of color as a signal of his own demise?" The New Republic, August 7, 2019White Poets Want Chinese Culture Without Chinese People Calvin Trillin's "Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" is the latest in a long artistic tradition. The New Republic, April 8, 2016, 100 Chinese SilencesWhitney TerrellThe King of Kings CountyOthers:White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (book)"The Authentic Outsider: Bill Cheng, Anthony Marra, and the freedom to write what you don’t know," by V.V. Ganeshananthan“The Dominance of the White Male Critic,” by Elizabeth Méndez Berry and Chi-hui Yang, The New York Times, July 5, 2019"The Promise of American Poetry," by Bob Hicok, Utne Reader, Summer 2019 (originally appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter 2018)Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development: The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2010 by Kevin Fox GothamPlaying in the Dark: Whiteness in the literary imagination by Toni MorrisonWhite People by Allan GurganusLiterary Color Lines: On Inclusion in Publishing Fiction/Non/Fiction #8: Dhonielle Clayton and Ayesha Pande Talk Sensitivity Reading January 11, 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the first half of a special two-part episode, novelist and critic Jess Row and poet and critic Tim Yu talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about writing about whiteness in America. How can white writers render their communities’ part in the country’s history of racism, and also challenge them? Row and Yu also share their responses to Bob Hicok’s recent Utne Reader essay about diversity in poetry.To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (make sure to include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below.Guests:Jess RowTim YuReadings for the Episode:Jess RowWhite FlightsYour Face in Mine“What Are White Writers For?” in The New Republic, Sept. 30, 2016“Native Sons: A straight white American man on loving James Baldwin and learning to write about race” in Guernica, Aug. 13, 2013Tim Yu "The Case of the 'Disappearing' Poet: Why did a white poet see the success of writers of color as a signal of his own demise?" The New Republic, August 7, 2019White Poets Want Chinese Culture Without Chinese People Calvin Trillin's "Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" is the latest in a long artistic tradition. The New Republic, April 8, 2016, 100 Chinese SilencesWhitney TerrellThe King of Kings CountyThe HuntsmanOthers:White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (book)"White Fragility," by Robin DiAngelo (article)"The Authentic Outsider: Bill Cheng, Anthony Marra, and the freedom to write what you don’t know," by V.V. Ganeshananthan“The Dominance of the White Male Critic: Conversations about our monuments, museums, screens and stages have the same blind spots as our political discourse,” by Elizabeth Méndez Berry and Chi-hui Yang, The New York Times, July 5, 2019"The Promise of American Poetry," by Bob Hicok, Utne Reader, Summer 2019 (originally appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter 2018)"Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" by Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker, March 28, 2016Orientalism by Edward SaidMapping Prejudice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast, Iranian-American novelists and memoirists Jasmin Darznik and Dina Nayeri talk to hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. How has the country changed in four decades, and what is it like to write about the preceding and subsequent history?Guests:Jasmin DarznikDina NayeriReadings for the Episode:Jasmin DarznikThe Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden LifeSong of a Captive Bird***Dina NayeriA Teaspoon of Earth and SeaRefugeThe Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell YouThe ungrateful refugee: ‘We have no debt to repay’, April 4, 2017, The Guardian Others: Forugh Forrokhzad  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast, author and illustrator Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and science fiction writer Mary Anne Mohanraj talk to hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and how space exploration has been rendered in images, nonfiction, and fiction. What has been erased from the history of space exploration, and what might the future hold?Guests:Jonathan Fetter-VormMary Anne MohanrajReadings for the Episode:By Jonathan Fetter-VormMoonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of SpaceflightTrinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic BombBattle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War“To the Moon, but Not Back: You might be surprised what humans left behind on the lunar surface,” The New York Times, July 19, 2019By Mary Anne MohanrajLinks to Mary Anne Mohanraj’s Jump Space stories, minus The Stars Change:The Stars ChangeOthers:Carrying the Fire by Michael CollinsHidden Figures by Margot ShetterlyThe Right Stuffby Tom WolfeApollo 13 (film)Apollo 13 by James Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger“To Make It to the Moon, Women Have to Escape Earth’s Gender Bias,” by Mary Robinette KowalMary Robinette Kowal on Twitter about peeing in space“Captain Marvel,” (film)“Star Wars (A New Hope)” (film) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast, novelist Elliot Ackerman and memoirist Anuradha Bhagwati talk about how the military has—and hasn’t—changed during Donald Trump’s time as Commander in Chief. They also discuss their own experiences as Marines, the history of the American military, and how its future may affect the country and the world.To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (make sure to include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below.Guests:Elliot AckermanAnuradha BhagwatiReadings for the Episode:Waiting for Eden: a novel, by Elliot Ackerman Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning, by Elliot Ackerman Dark at the Crossing: A Novel, by Elliot Ackerman Green on Blue: A Novel, by Elliot Ackerman Unbecoming: A Memoir of Disobedience, by Anuradha Bhagwati “What to Make of Military Endorsements,” by Elliot Ackerman, The New Yorker, Sept. 8, 2016 “A Former Marine Looks Back on Her Life in a Male-Dominated Military,” by V. V. Ganeshananthan, The New York Times, April 21, 2019 The Good Lieutenant, by Whitney Terrell“Donald Trump’s ‘Salute to America’ Was Not a Complete Authoritarian Nightmare,” by Joshua Keating, July 4, 2019, Slate.comFields of Fire by Jim WebbThe Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast, New York Magazine senior correspondent Irin Carmon (co-author of Notorious RBG) and novelist and Boston University law professor Jay Wexler (author of Tuttle in the Balance) talk about news coverage and fictional depictions of the Supreme Court. How partisan is the Court becoming? Why use humor to write fiction about the nine Justices? Ruth Bader Ginsburg was Vladimir Nabokov’s student—what effect has this had on her writing, and how are she and other liberal justices contending with their Trump-appointed colleagues?Guests:●   Irin Carmon●   Jay WexlerReadings for the Episode:●   Irin Carmon’s archive at New York Magazine●   “Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas Are Officially at War Over Abortion,” The Cut, May 28, 2019, by Irin Carmon●   “The big cases: Here are the U.S. Supreme Court’s most consequential cases in its current term, which runs from Oct. 2018 to June 2019.” By Han Huang, Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung, Reuters Graphics●   Tuttle in the Balance, by Jay Wexler●   The Adventures of Ed Tuttle, Associate Justice, and Other Stories, by Jay Wexler●   Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburgby Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik●   Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley●   Our Non-Christian Nation: How Atheists, Satanists, Pagans, and Others Are Demanding Their Rightful Place in Public Lifeby Jay Wexler●   Ari Richter, artist●   “The Census Case Is Shaping Up to Be the Biggest Travesty Since Bush v. Gore,” by Richard L. Hasen, Slate, June 25, 2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices