fiction/non/fiction

In this episode, poet Rigoberto González and novelist Deb Olin Unferth discuss how literary life has altered under COVID-19. González, director of the MFA program at Rutgers University-Newark, talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the struggles universities face in the transition to online classes, and also reads from his latest collection, The Book of Ruin; Unferth speaks about her new novel, Barn 8, its disrupted book tour, and what we can learn from animals and nature as we navigate a global pandemic. To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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. And this episode, for the first time, we feature video excerpts of our interviews. See LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel for more.Guests: Rigoberto González Deb Olin Unferth Selected readings for the episode:Rigoberto González The Book of Ruin from "Apocalipsixtlán" [5. Signs of the End of the World] by Rigoberto González - Poems Butterfly Boy Deb Olin Unferth Barn 8: A Novel Deb Olin Unferth Didn’t Expect to Be Writing From the Point of View of a Chicken (LitHub) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit reflects on her new memoir Recollections of My Nonexistence. Solnit talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the deep impact of gendered violence on daily life and what it means to be treated as unreliable witnesses to our own individual and collective experiences, as well as how her activism arose out of a deep love and what she calls “a positive engagement with uncertainty.” She also reminisces about her earliest writing spaces and formative experiences in political and artistic communities.To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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.Guests:Rebecca SolnitSelected readings for the episode:Rebecca Solnit Recollections of My Nonexistence Hope in the Dark Men Explain Things To Me Other books My dream candidate exists – and her name is Elizabeth Warren (The Guardian) Rebecca Solnit: When the Hero is the Problem (LitHub) Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump (LitHub) How Rebecca Solnit Became the Voice of the Resistance (New York Times) Others  The Walk by William deBuys Jia Tolentino and Claire Vaye Watkins Talk Abuse, Harassment, and Harvey Weinstein (Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast Season 1, Episode 2) Roxane Gay narrates an ad for Elizabeth Warren The Public Voice of Women by Mary Beard The Odyssey by Homer On the Road by Jack Kerouac Opinion | Elizabeth Warren Has a Poet on Her Team. Here’s Why That’s a Good Idea. (New York Times) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, author and activist Bill Fletcher, Jr. and author Chavisa Woods discuss Bernie Sanders’ frontrunner status in the Democratic primary, the campaign’s efforts to build a diverse coalition in 2020, and whether or not those efforts have worked. Fletcher talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about how Sanders has altered his approach to reaching out to black voters; Woods compares the Sanders and Warren campaigns, reflects on their appeal to women, and analyzes how voters talk politics online.To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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.Guests: Bill Fletcher, Jr. Chavisa Woods Selected readings for the episode:Bill Fletcher, Jr. Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Toward Social Justice “They’re Bankrupting Us!” And 20 Other Myths about Unions The Man Who Fell from the Sky Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral (co-editor) To the Point (The Progressive Magazine, February 3, 2014) Chavisa Woods 100 Times: A Memoir of Sexism The Albino Album: A Novel Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country The Memoir I Never Wanted to Write (LitHub, June 26, 2019) Others The Autobiography of Malcolm X Marx Engels Dream Defenders’ endorsement of Bernie Sanders Hey, Obama boys: Back off already! (Rebecca Traister in Salon, April 14, 2008) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, South China Morning Post reporter Laurie Chen and bestselling science writer Richard Preston talk about the global panic over coronavirus, China’s response, and how societies defend themselves against viral outbreaks like Ebola. Chen talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about how misinformation about coronaviruses spreads on social media; Preston discusses his nonfiction books The Hot Zone and Crisis in the Red Zone.To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching).Guests: Laurie Chen Richard Preston Selected readings for the episode:Laurie Chen Outbreak has stoked a rise in xenophobia, Chinese living abroad say Will China’s city lockdowns stop the spread of the coronavirus? Wuhan doctors beaten up, overworked, under supplied Left at home disabled boy dies after carer isolated for virus checks China’s ‘demon’ virus leaves experts at odds on when infection rate will slow China coronavirus: YouTube and Twitter show realities of life in lockdown Live from Wuhan: millions tune in to watch China build hospitals China sends in military doctors to help fight coronavirus outbreak Wuhan coronavirus confirmed in 29 of China's 31 provinces China coronavirus: rush is on in Wuhan to build treatment centre for up to 1,000 patients Scientists debate whether China coronavirus came from bats or snakes Debunking the myths around China’s deadly coronavirus outbreak How Taiwan Strait tensions could hamper efforts to fight Wuhan virus Richard Preston Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus The Hot Zone: a six-part National Geographic mini-series Others To Be Asian With a Face Mask During the Coronavirus Outbreak (KQED) A Virus's Journey Across China (The Daily podcast) "Wuhan coronavirus" and the racist art of naming a virus by Marie Myung-Ok Lee (Salon) South China Morning Post coverage and interviews Coronavirus: Everything you need to know in a visual explainer (updated daily)  Coronavirus: A View From China Coronavirus outbreak Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, novelist Susan Choi and journalist Garrett Graff talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about henchmen in political headlines and political literature. Graff talks about the word’s mob connotations, as well as its connections to the Trump and Nixon administrations; Choi talks about degrees of loyalty, and henchmen in literature, from Falstaff to Trust Exercise and American Woman. To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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.Guests: Garrett Graff Susan Choi Selected readings for the episode:Garrett Graff The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11   The Threat Matrix: Inside Robert Mueller's FBI and the War on Global Terror  Susan Choi Trust Exercise: A Novel American Woman: A Novel Camp Tiger Others Trouble Is My Business by Raymond Chandler, including the story “Finger Man” Thumb-headed henchman | LRC Presents: All the President's Lawyers Rudy Giuliani's Ukraine Henchman Lev Parnas Roped in Everybody, But the Funniest Is Devin Nunes The Godfather: 50th Anniversary Edition All the President's Men Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, journalists Rohini Mohan and Praveen Donthi talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the recent widespread protests in India over the Modi government’s Citizenship Amendment Act and why many see the act as a threat to India’s secular nature and constitution. Donthi talks about his time reporting in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, and the abrupt change in its autonomous status, announced in August; Mohan speaks about covering Assam, a state in India’s northeast where the debates over who belongs have a longer history. To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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.Guests: Rohini Mohan Praveen Donthi Selected readings for the episode:Rohini Mohan Inside India’s Sham Trials That Could Strip Millions of Citizenship, Vice, July 29, 2019  India’s Immigration Crackdown Could Make Millions Stateless, Time, August 14, 2018 Prove your grandfather is Indian: People who lack flawless paperwork cannot just be jailed as illegal migrants, August 2, 2019  Prove your Grandfather is Indian: Ground Reportage on NRC / Bangalore International Centre video interview Seasons of Trouble: Life Amid the Ruins of Sri Lanka's Civil War (Verso) Praveen Donthi (all pieces from The Caravan) Modiʼs war: Dispatches from a seething Kashmir September 22, 2019 “One Solution, Gun Solution”: Ground report: Kashmir in shock and anger, August 16, 2019 The liberals who loved Modi May 16, 2019 OthersBooks Basharat Peer Curfewed Night Mirza Waheed (multiple novels) Under Siege: Mirza Waheed on Kashmir (LitHub, September 10, 2019) Karan Mahajan The Association of Small Bombs: A Novel Madhuri Vijay, The Far Field: a novel Articles Ground report: On a cold night in the new year, JNU attacked by a masked mob; Delhi Police watched, The Caravan, January 5, 2020 India’s first-time protesters: Mothers and grandmothers stage weeks-long sit-in against citizenship law, By Niha Masih, The Washington Post, Jan. 13, 2020 Reading the Signs: The protest poster is where art meets agitation, poetry meets politics. In India, it was born during the freedom struggle, and grew up through post-Independence struggles against inequality. With the anti-CAA protests, it embraces a new digital life. by Benita Fernando, The Indian Express, January 5, 2020 Blood and Soil in Narendra Modi's India, by Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, Dec. 9, 2019 ‘Hum Dekhenge’: Singer and writer Ali Sethi explains how to read (and interpret) Faiz’s poem, Scroll, Jan. 9, 2020 Why the National Population Register is more dangerous than the Assam NRC, by Harsh Mander & Mohsin Alam Bhat, Scroll, Jan 12, 2020 Pankaj Mishra and Mirza Waheed on the Death of India's Liberal Self-Image, Scroll, Jan. 5, 2020 Behind Campus Attack in India, Some See a Far-Right Agenda, By Kai Schultz and Suhasini Raj, The New York Times, Jan. 10, 2020 Earlier attacks on students: Attack on art, by Anupama Katakam, Frontline Magazine, May-June 2007 Earlier, Rohini Mohan on Kashmir in The Wire: In Kashmir, Doctors Bear Witness, Sept. 5, 2016 Earlier, Praveen Donthi on Assam in The Caravan: How Assam's Supreme Court-mandated NRC project is targeting and detaining Bengali Muslims, breaking families, July 1, 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, taped live at the Miami Book Fair, writer T.C. Boyle talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about writing his latest novel, Outside Looking In. The novel looks at the history of LSD, and tracks the marriage of a Harvard graduate student who works with psychologist and LSD researcher Timothy Leary. Boyle offers candid insights into his research process, his own experiences with drugs, his relationship with nature, and how he writes and revises.To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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.Guests:T.C. BoyleReadings for the Episode:T.C. Boyle Outside Looking In Road to Wellville The Women Drop City The Tortilla Curtain The Inner Circle Michael PollanHow to Change Your Mind Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We'll be back with a new episode, featuring T.C. Boyle, on January 2. Until then, please enjoy this holiday re-broadcast of our April 4, 2019 episode of the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast. In this episode, editors Brigid Hughes of A Public Space and Jennifer Baker of Electric Literature and the Minorities in Publishing podcast discuss the world of literary journals with hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell. What gets an editor’s attention? How much editing do they really do? And where was the AWP hotel bar in Portland? This episode, recorded during the annual AWP conference, has the answers.Readings for the Episode: ·    A Public Space, Issue 27, ed. Brigid Hughes·    Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage by Bette Howland (forthcoming, APS Books)·    Everyday People: The Color of Lifeed. Jennifer Baker·    Acentos Review·    As/Us·    Kweli Journal·    Callaloo·    Lambda Literary·    Papercuts·    Paper Darts·    Tayo Literary Magazine·    Tin House·    Copper Nickel·    The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling·    The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon·    Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans·    The Bible of Dirty Jokes by Eileen PollackGuests: ·    Brigid Hughes·    Jennifer BakerLive from the FSG Originals Party  ·   Jessica Eckerstorfer·   Danielle Evans·   Lydia Kiesling·   Dan Kois·   R.O. Kwon·   Wayne Miller·   Eileen Pollack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, writers Rene Denfeld and Megan Phelps-Roper talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about how the private language of abuse has infected the political rhetoric of the Trump era. Denfeld discusses her work as a licensed investigator and talks about writing about verbal abuse, as well as the difference between investing in mass incarceration and investing in justice; Phelps-Roper recounts how she thought about language and audience as a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, and how she considers the same thing now that she has left it.To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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.Guests: Rene Denfeld Megan Phelps-Roper Readings for the Episode:Rene Denfeld The Butterfly Girl The Child Finder The Enchanted Megan Phelps-Roper Unfollow I grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church. Here's why I left, TEDNYC Talk, February 2017 Others Sonia Sotomayor Raises the Alarm Over Border Patrol’s Lawless Brutality: The Supreme Court is poised to remove all constitutional limits on border agents’ ability to kill. by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate.com, Nov. 13, 2019 Rape is rampant at this women’s prison. Anyone who complains is punished, lawsuit says. by Romy Ellenbogen, The Miami Herald, Dec. 4, 2019 The 25 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, by Eliza Reiman, Business Insider, Oct. 9, 2019 The Language of the Trump Administration Is the Language of Domestic Violence, by Jessica Winter, NewYorker.com, June 11, 2018 Men in Power and the Lies They Tell: On Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, and the Malleability of Truth, by Lacy Johnson, LitHub, Oct. 2, 2019 Topeka Church Protests at Bethesda's Walt Whitman School Over Poet's Sexuality, by Daniel de Vise, The Washington Post, April 25, 2009 "A Humanist View," by Toni Morrison, speech given at Portland State University, May 30, 1975. Transcribed by Keisha E. McKenzie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, taped live at the Miami Book Fair, writer Jeff VanderMeer and editor Ann VanderMeer talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about editing The Big Book of Classic Fantasy anthology, historical understandings of fantasy, editing beyond Anglocentrism, and the significance of animals in fantasy compared to literary fiction. Jeff VanderMeer also talks about his newly launched novel Dead Astronauts, the future of genetic editing, and how to write about animals.To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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.Guests: Ann VanderMeer Jeff VanderMeer Readings for the Episode:Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, eds. The Big Book of Classic Fantasy The Big Book of Science Fiction The Time Traveler’s Almanac Jeff VanderMeer Dead Astronauts Borne Acceptance Authority Annihilation Ann VanderMeer, editor The Bestiary The Sisters of Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories Others Jeff VanderMeer's Borne and Dead Astronauts Are Heading to TV, Tor.com, Dec. 3, 2019 Hans-my-Hedgehog: A Tale from the Brothers, Brothers Grimm Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices