fiction/non/fiction

Author Claire Messud joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about how the lines between autobiography and fiction blur, and the ways that families—real and imagined—hide their true histories. Messud’s new novel, This Strange Eventful History, out Tuesday, draws on her own family’s complex past, including their connections to French colonialism in Algeria. Messud talks about using her grandfather’s 1,500-page handwritten memoir as source material, creating a story that spans the globe, how ordinary lives intersect with history, and including a character interested in questioning, editing, translating, and transforming family tales into a story for a different audience, as writers often do. She reads from the novel.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Amanda Trout.Claire Messud This Strange Eventful History The Last Life The Woman Upstairs The Emperor’s Children The Burning Girl Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write A Dream Life The Hunters Others: France in Algeria The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter Elias Canetti Alice Munro Ulysses by James Joyce In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4, Episode 7, Claire Messud and Brendan O’Meara on Creative Nonfiction in an Era of ‘Fake News’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Authors and organizers Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the concept of solidarity, its reliance on relationship-building, and how it has been expressed in political movements, from recent pro-Palestine activism in the U.S. to the Polish organization Solidarność, a trade union founded in the 1980s. Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor, authors of a new book called Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea, also reflect on how solidarity relates to their own work. Hunt-Hendrix recalls her dissertation on solidarity, and Taylor discusses her role as a founder of the Debt Collective, a union of debtors. They interrogate two kinds of solidarity, transformative and reactionary, as they exist across the political spectrum, and read from Solidarity. 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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Llewyn Crum.Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor  Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor Capitalism Cries: Class Struggles in South Africa and the World by Leah Hunt-Hendrix, William K. Carroll, Vishwas Satgar The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart by Astra Taylor  Others: The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee There’s Going To Be Trouble by Jen Silverman The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, a Study in Religious Sociology by Emile Durkheim Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 7, Episode 29, “Jen Silverman on Generational Divides in American Politics” “Zibby Owens withdraws sponsorship for the National Book Awards over its ‘pro-Palestinian agenda,’” by Dan Sheehan | LitHub Solidarność “The Triumph and Tragedy of Poland’s Solidarity Movement,” by David Ost | Jacobin | August 24, 2020 A Land for All Standing Together Emory is Everywhere (via Twitter) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author and journalist Tracie McMillan joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the concept of the “white bonus” and how systemic bias generates white wealth not only in daily life but across generations. She references racial covenants, incarceration rates, and housing codes that continue to impact families, Black and white, to this day. She comments on the challenges of writing about her own experiences while also working as a journalist, and reads an excerpt from her new book, The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism in America.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Charlie Sheckells.Tracie McMillan The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism in America The American Way of Eating City Limits Others: Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva  "The Man Who Made the Suburbs White," by Mark Dent | Slate The King of Kings County by Whitney Terrell The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward Heavy by Kiese Layman Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 24, Part I: “Jess Row and Timothy Yu on Whiteness and Writing About Race” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 24, Part II: “Jess Row and Timothy Yu on Learning From Writers Who Write About Race” “What’s Your Bonus” | Thewhitebonus.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the presidential election heats up and President Joe Biden struggles to keep young voters’ support, novelist Jen Silverman joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss generational divides in U.S. politics. Silverman, whose new book, There’s Going to Be Trouble, follows the political and sexual awakenings of a father and daughter in different eras, talks about how young people’s involvement in politics now compares to previous generations’ engagement. They address the question of whether today’s 20-something voters are more likely to protest than vote, consider how social media and technology relate to in-person conversations and activism, and reflect on the need to name and engage with the failures of earlier generations. Silverman also explains why they chose to write about anti-Vietnam War protests at Harvard in 1968 and the gilet jaunes (Yellow Vest) protests in Paris fifty years later, and reads an excerpt from There’s Going to Be Trouble. 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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Alijah Smith.Jen Silverman There’s Going to Be Trouble We Play Ourselves The Island Dwellers Bath The Moors Others: Family Ties (television sitcom) Changing Partisan Coalitions in a Politically Divided Nation | Pew Research Center “Who Are France's Yellow Vest Protesters, And What Do They Want?” by Jake Cigainero | NPR, December 3, 2018. “The Generational Rift that Explains Democrats’ Angst over Israel” by Steven Shepard and Kelly Garrity | Politico, October 12, 2023 “Less than Half of Young Americans Plan to Vote in 2024, Harvard Poll Finds” by Joseph Konig | Spectrum News “Young Voters are Unenthusiastic about Biden, but He Will Need Them in 2024” by Dan Balz | The Washington Post “Climate Activists Target Jets, Yachts and Golf in a String of Global Protests Against Luxury” by David Brunat | AP News “The Weapons French police use During Protests” by Jean-Philippe Lefief and Marie Pouzadoux | Le Monde, April 6, 2023 Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 7, Episode 24: “Emily Raboteau on Mothering and Climate Change” The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume 5 by Virginia Woolf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of the news that Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, has cancer, author S.L. (Sandi) Wisenberg joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the control that public—and private—figures should have over the disclosure of their diagnoses. Wisenberg, who survived breast cancer, and Terrell, who was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, name books they have read that have helped them discover humor in their journey from testing to treatment, and reflect on the challenging nuances of what it means to have cancer. They talk about how and when they decided to tell their loved ones, friends, and students about their condition. Wisenberg reads from her 2009 book The Adventures of Cancer Bitch, which will be reissued in paperback in October.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Jasmine Shackleford.S.L. (Sandi) Wisenberg The Adventures of Cancer Bitch The Sweetheart Is In Holocaust Girls The Wandering Womb Others: “Princess of Wales Apologizes, Saying She Edited Image,” by Mark Landler and Lauren Leatherby | The New York Times Kate Middleton announces her cancer diagnosis | NBC News  Time on Fire: My Comedy of Terrors by Evan Handler Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics by Miriam Engelberg Memoir of a Debulked Woman by Susan Gubar Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book by Susan Love Señor Wences American Splendor Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje  Dick York Nora Ephron Carl Bernstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In anticipation of the total solar eclipse forecast for April 8, author and journalist David Baron joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his award-winning book, American Eclipse, which chronicles the remarkable solar eclipse of 1878. Baron, a self-proclaimed umbraphile, or eclipse chaser, explains why he chose to write about the Wild West-era event, which darkened skies from Montana to Texas. He also talks about what has driven him to see eight total solar eclipses across the globe. As the upcoming eclipse is forecast to affect a sizable swath of the U.S.—the last time this will happen until 2045—he reflects on why these rare occurrences captivate humanity and discusses how their lore has influenced famous writers, including Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson. He reads from American Eclipse.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Amanda Trout.David BaronAmerican Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the WorldBeast In The Garden: The True Story Of A Predator’s Deadly Return To Suburban AmericaTED Talk: "You owe it to yourself to experience a solar eclipse"Others:"It Sounded as if the Streets Were Running" by Emily DickinsonKing Lear by William Shakespeare The Eclipse by James Fenimore Cooper"Battle of the Eclipse in the Lydian and Median War of Ancient Greece" | GreekBoston.com A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark TwainTeaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters by Annie DillardSuperman IV: The Quest for PeaceLog Your Eclipse | Eclipse-Chasers.com“Eclipse Literature” by Lara Dodds | Northwestern UniversityThe Eclipse, or the Courtship of the Sun and the Moon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In anticipation of the total solar eclipse forecast for April 8, author and journalist David Baron joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his award-winning book, American Eclipse, which chronicles the remarkable solar eclipse of 1878. Baron, a self-proclaimed umbraphile, or eclipse chaser, explains why he chose to write about the Wild West-era event, which darkened skies from Montana to Texas. He also talks about what has driven him to see eight total solar eclipses across the globe. As the upcoming eclipse is forecast to affect a sizable swath of the U.S.—the last time this will happen until 2045—he reflects on why these rare occurrences captivate humanity and discusses how their lore has influenced famous writers, including Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson. He reads from American Eclipse.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Amanda Trout.David Baron American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World Beast In The Garden: The True Story Of A Predator’s Deadly Return To Suburban America TED Talk: "You owe it to yourself to experience a solar eclipse" Others: "It Sounded as if the Streets Were Running" by Emily Dickinson King Lear by William Shakespeare  The Eclipse by James Fenimore Cooper "Battle of the Eclipse in the Lydian and Median War of Ancient Greece" | GreekBoston.com  A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard Superman IV: The Quest for Peace Log Your Eclipse | Eclipse-Chasers.com “Eclipse Literature” by Lara Dodds | Northwestern University The Eclipse, or the Courtship of the Sun and the Moon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Sally Franson joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about Fashion Week 2024, the role fashion plays in characterization, and how stylish authors and characters have modeled and influenced tastes and trends. Franson reflects on her time working in the industry and discusses insiders’ perceptions of various Fashion Weeks around the globe. She discusses literary style icons including Isabel Archer, Nancy Mitford, James Baldwin, and Bridget Jones, and considers the influence of fashion in her first novel, A Lady’s Guide To Selling Out, which has just been reissued in paperback. She reads an excerpt from that book.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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Sally Franson A Lady’s Guide To Selling Out  Big In Sweden (forthcoming) "Shoe Obsession for the Ages: Prince’s Killer Collection of Custom Heels, Now on View" August 3, 2021 | The New York Times Others: "Top 10 best-dressed characters in fiction" by Amanda Craig, July 1, 2020 | The Guardian  “The Best Looks from New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2024” | Elle.com "Off the page: fashion in literature" by Helen Gordon, September 18, 2009 | The Guardian "Literature-inspired menswear collections for summer 2024" by Paschal Mourier| France24 "Anna Sui’s new collection is inspired by Agatha Christie, so obviously the runway was at the Strand." by Emily Temple | Literary Hub James Baldwin Joan Didion Not-Knowing by Donald Barthelme Rachel Comey and The New York Review of Books The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh   Little Women by Louisa May Alcott  The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following a record-smashing performance by University of Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark, now the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball, novelist and former professional squash player Ivy Pochoda joins host V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about portrayals of women athletes in media, literature, and film. Pochoda considers the gender binary that continues to divide most sports and how athletes from Serena Williams to Lynette Woodard to Clark have been treated differently due to systemic bias. She discusses the lack of adult literary fiction featuring women athletes, as well as her new favorite novel in this category, the Booker-nominated Western Lane. Pochoda also reflects on how her athletic training helps her as a writer and reads an excerpt from a middle grade fantasy book she wrote with Kobe Bryant, Epoca: The Tree of Ecrof, in which sports play a central role. 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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Ivy Pochoda Sing Her Down These Women Wonder Valley Visitation Street Epoca: The Tree of Ecrof (with Kobe Bryant) Others: “Caitlin Clark's record-setting night fuels No. 6 Iowa in 108-60 win at Minnesota,” by Marielle Mohs |CBS News “Fox Sports to Feature Caitlin Clark Solo Camera on Tiktok for Iowa-Maryland Game,” by Tim Capurso | Sports Illustrated “We did not help build women’s tennis for it to be exploited by Saudi Arabia,” by Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova |The Washington Post “Caitlin Clark passes Lynette Woodard for major-college record,” by Michael Voepel | ESPN Nyad |Official Trailer A League of Their Own | Official Trailer “‘Western Lane’ Finds Solace From Grief on the Squash Court,” by Ivy Pochoda |The New York Times Western Lane by Chetna Maroo "In This Satire, Televised Blood Baths Offer Prisoners a Path to Freedom|You can’t applaud Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s thrilling debut novel, 'Chain-Gang All-Stars,' without getting blood on your hands." by Giri Nathan, April 28, 2023 | The New York Times Borg vs. McEnroe | Official Trailer "R. R. Knudson, a Writer Whose Subject Was Sports, Dies at 75," by Dennis Hevesi, May 10, 2008 | The New York Times Ghost by Jason Reynolds The President’s Daughter by Ellen Emerson White Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Emily Raboteau joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about mothering in the face of climate change and systemic inequality. Raboteau discusses the difference between “resilience” and “trauma-informed growth,” and considers which one more realistically describes how people react to devastation. She also reflects on writing about Indigenous communities and histories, developing language to capture shifting environmental realities, and the intersections of climate and racial justice. Finally, she explains the influence of her late father, Albert Raboteau, a groundbreaking professor of African American religion, on her community-minded approach to these topics. She reads from Lessons for Survival, her new collection of essays about care and mothering in the climate crisis. 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 episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.Emily Raboteau Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “the Apocalypse” Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora The Professor’s Daughter “Climate Signs”|The New York Review of Books, February 1, 2019 “Lessons in Survival”|The New York Review of Books, November 21, 2019 “The Unequal Racial Burdens of Rising Seas”|The New York Times, April 10, 2023 “Gutbucket”|Orion Magazine Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction: Season 2, Episode 15: “Emily Raboteau and Omar El Akkad Tell a Different Kind of Climate Change Story” “Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5 ºC”|Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, October 2018 “UN Says Climate Genocide Is Coming. It’s Actually Worse Than That” by David Wallace-Wells|New York Magazine, October 10, 2018 The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells “Young Readers Ask: The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells” by Geronimo Lavalle|Orion Magazine, April 9, 2019 “In Pictures: New York Under a Haze of Wildfire Smoke|Le Monde, June 7, 2023 Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush “Why Indonesia Is Shifting Its Capital From Jakarta”|Bloomberg, August 24, 2019 “Sea Level Rise and Implications for Low-Lying Islands, Coasts and Communities”|Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, September 2019 “Managed Retreat through Voluntary Buyouts of Flood-Prone Properties” by Katherine J. Mach et. al.|Science Advances, October 9, 2019 “Climate Change Isn’t the First Existential Threat” by Mary Annaïse Heglar|ZORA, February 18, 2019 Anya Kamenetz “‘Culture Will Be Eroded’: Climate Crisis Threatens to Flood Harriet Tubman Park”|The Guardian, November 23, 2019 Charleston: Race, Water, and the Coming Storm by Susan Crawford and Annette Gordon-Reed Justin Brice Guariglia Albert Raboteau Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South by Albert Raboteau Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices