fiction/non/fiction

Novelist Jacinda Townsend and writer James Bernard Short join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the movie American Fiction, which is based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett. Townsend and Short discuss how the film addresses race in the publishing industry via its central character, Black author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, who tries to make an ironic point by writing a book exploiting Black stereotypes and finds, to his dismay, that it’s received in earnest and a bestseller. Townsend and Short analyze director Cord Jefferson’s approach and the film’s themes of family dysfunction, freedom in storytelling, and the importance of portraying the complexity of Black lives. 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.Jacinda Townsend Mother Country Saint Monkey James Bernard Short “Aqua Boogie” | Blood Orange Review “Rootwork” | Blood Orange Review “Flash, Back: Langston Hughes’ The Simple Shorts” | SmokeLong Quarterly Others: American Fiction (movie) | Official Trailer Erasure by Percival Everett An American Marriage by Tayari Jones Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward The Color Purple by Alice Walker Thelonious Monk Ralph Ellison Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison “The Little Man at Chehaw Station” by Ralph Ellison | The American Scholar, 1978 The Tuskegee Institute White Negroes by Lauren Michele Jackson “The White Negro” by Norman Mailer | Dissent, 1957 “Dragon Slayers” by Jerald Walker | The Iowa Review, 2006 “The Hidden Lesson of ‘American Fiction’” by John McWhorter | The New York Times Origin (movie) | Official Trailer Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1, Episode 11, “Annihilation, Adaptation: What's It Really Like to Have Your Book Made Into a Movie” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 11, “Brit Bennett and Emily Halpern on Screenwriting’s Tips for Fiction” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 33, “The Stakes of the Writers’ Strike: Benjamin Percy on the WGA Walkout, Streaming, and the Survival of Screenwriting” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 38, “Jacinda Townsend on Why Democrats Are Skeptical of President Biden—and How He Can Win Them Back” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With AWP’s annual conference headed to Kansas City next week, poet and activist Glenn North joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to tell incoming writers where to find the best food and coolest hangouts in the city. North discusses Kansas City’s diversity, its history of racial covenants, and its newly rejuvenated Crossroads Arts District, which is near the convention site. North and Terrell, who also lives in Kansas City, highlight a variety of spots to check out, including the Green Lady Lounge, Swordfish Tom’s, The Blue Room, the American Jazz Museum, and Kansas City’s not-to-miss barbeque scene. North reads his poem, “Harmony on the Vine,” about the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District, where he is the current poet laureate, as well as an excerpt from his poem for the 25th anniversary of the American Jazz Museum.  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.Glenn North City of Song Check Cashing Day Love, Loss, and Violence: A Visual Dialogue on War Others: American Jazz Museum Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Kansas City Museum The Arabia Steamboat Museum World War I Museum Union Station Kansas City Public Library BLK + BRWN Bliss Books & Wine Rainy Day Books Wise Blood Booksellers Writer’s Place Green Lady Lounge Afterword The Mutual Musicians Foundation 21c Corvino Farina Extra Virgin Anton’s Soriée Lulu’s Jarocho Prime Social Earl’s Premier River Market Country Club Plaza Gates Bar-B-Q Jack Stack Barbeque Bryant’s Barbeque Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que Q39 LC’s Bar-B-Q Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Ed Park joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the role of alternate histories and counternarratives in popular culture, public record, and the general consciousness, via his new novel, Same Bed Different Dreams. Park talks about depicting and reimagining well known events and eras, including the Japanese occupation of Korea between 1910-1945; Korean resistance to that occupation in the form of the Korean Provisional Government; the post-World War II division of Korea into North and South, which became sovereign nations in 1948; and the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to until 1953. He reflects on writing about more recent history, as well as his hometown of Buffalo, New York. The conversation suggests that positive alternate timelines, like the one Park creates, invite readers to learn more about actual events, whereas a more pernicious spin on the past may edit for the benefit of a particular group. Park 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.Ed Park Same Bed Different Dreams Personal Days Weird Menace Others: Charlie Kaufman Philip Roth Richard E. Kim Jack London on Korea Thomas Pynchon BTS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Nate Rawlings, who spent a stint as a speechwriter for then-Vice President Joe Biden, joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the politics (and nuances) of plagiarism. Rawlings discusses how plagiarism accusations derailed Joe Biden’s presidential run in 1987. He examines how the right-wing activist-led plagiarism accusations against former Harvard President Claudine Gay fit into the context of prior plagiarism scandals, and considers the possibility that new technologies like AI will intensify future politically motivated attacks. He also reflects on why some plagiarism allegations stick and shift opinion, and others don’t.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.Nate RawlingsNate Rawlings | TIME.comOthers:"The North’s Jim Crow" by Andrew W. Kahrl|The New York Times, May 27, 2018"How We Squeezed Harvard to Push Claudine Gay Out" by Christopher Rufo | Wall Street JournalGrace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America by Cody Keenan  What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer"Plagiarism charges downed Harvard’s president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage" by Collin Binkley and Moriah Balingit | APElise StefanikClaudine Gay“Echoes of Biden’s 1987 plagiarism scandal continue to reverberate” by Neena Satija | The Washington Post, June 5, 2019Democratic Primary Debate, August 23, 1987Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 46, “Samuel G. Freedman on What Hubert Humphrey’s Fight for Civil Rights Can Teach Us Today”Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 16, “Chatbot vs. Writer: Vauhini Vara on the Perils and Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence”Nadia Schadlow, Small Wars JournalPeggy Noonan“Boys of Pont du Hoc” speech by Peggy Noonan for Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984“I see the boys of summer,” by Dylan Thomas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Lauren Groff joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the new independent bookstore she and her husband are planning in Gainesville, Florida. The Lynx, which Groff aims to open this spring, will feature banned books, an act of resistance in a state where more than half of school districts have seen book banning activity over the past two years. Groff reads from her recent novel, The Vaster Wilds.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.Lauren GroffThe Monsters of Templeton Arcadia Fates and Furies MatrixThe Vaster WildsDelicate Edible BirdsFloridaThe Lynx, A Bookstore in Gainesville, FL | IndiegogoOthers:"Gainesville author Lauren Groff hopes new downtown bookstore will 'link' community together” by Lillian Lawson | The Gainesville Sun"A new report shows how corrosive book banning is. Novelist Lauren Groff is fighting back" by Emily St. Martin | Los Angeles Times"A Look Ahead to 2024: Laws and Book Bans in Florida, Iowa, and Illinois | Censorship News" | School Library Journal"Spineless Shelves: Two Years of Book Banning" | PEN America"Thousands of books were banned in Central Florida in 2023. Here's what to expect in 2024" by Danielle Prieur | NPR"Nearly 700 books, including celebrity bestsellers, banned in Orange County, Florida" | PEN America“Why Toni Morrison’s Books Are So Often the Target of Book Bans” by Olivia Waxman |Time |January 31, 2022“Florida County Bans 673 Books, Including ‘Paradise Lost,’ ‘The Color Purple’ to Comply With State Law” by Alec Dent | The Messenger“Book Bans Are Rising Sharply in Public Libraries” by Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter | The New York TimesFlorida Freedom to Read ProjectHernan DiazFiction/Non/Fiction Season 5, Episode 12: “Intimate Contact: Garth Greenwell on Book Bans and Writing About Sex”Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 52: “Brooklyn Public Library’s Leigh Hurwitz on Helping Young People Resist Censorship” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Indian American reporter and memoirist Prachi Gupta joins the podcast hosts to discuss the rise of Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy as Republican presidential candidates. They explore the myth of Indian American exceptionalism, the role of class and caste in immigration, and the impact of gender on diaspora politics. Gupta also reads from her memoir, They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies that Raised Us.

In this holiday re-broadcast of an episode from April 23, 2020, acclaimed poet Danez Smith discusses the role friendship plays in their most recent collection of poetry, Homie. Smith talks to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the isolating effect COVID-19 has had on black communities, using space on the page inventively, and writing about money. This episode is presented in conjunction with the Loft Literary Center’s literary festival, Wordplay, which in 2020 was a virtual event. To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fictionpodcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favoritepodcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listenby streaming from the player below. This episode was produced by Andrea Tudhope. Guests:●     Danez SmithSelectedreadings for the episode:●    Danez Smith○    Homie○    Don’t Call Us Dead○    TwoPoems○    what was said on the bus stop: a new poem by Danez Smith○    my president○    VS podcast, from the Poetry Foundation, hosted by Danez Smith and Franny Choi●    Others ○    Corona Correspondences: #28 by Danielle Evans (The Sewanee Review)○    Review: ‘Homie,’ a Book of Poems That Produces Shocking New Vibrations by PahrulSehgal○    Frank O’Hara○    As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner○    Angel Nafis○    Hieu Minh Nguyen○    Douglas Kearney○    1977:Poem for Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer by June Jordan○    Recordings of June Jordan from the RadcliffeInstitute for Advanced Study, Harvard University Digitized recordings and moredigitized recordings○    ‘Feet’ and ‘Spoon’ from Catalogof Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay○    Mirrors: Stories ofAlmost Everyone by Eduardo Galeano Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist and critic Lydia Kiesling joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the creation and the spirit of year-end book lists. She talks about list culture getting its start at the small, online literary magazine, The Millions, and its eventual spread to seemingly every media outlet. The three grapple with the significance of inclusion on these lists, whether they really sell more books, and the ethics of their construction. Kiesling reads from her new novel, Mobility.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.Lydia Kiesling:The Golden StateMobilityOthers:Books We Love | NPRA Year in Reading: 2023 | The Millions100 Notable Books of 2023 | New York Times​​The 10 Best Books Through Time | New York TimesA Year in Reading: 2023 | The Millions“Crime,” by Marilyn Stasio, August 19, 2001| New York Times “‘Terrorist’ – to Whom? V.V. Ganeshananthan’s novel ‘Brotherless Night’ reveals the moral nuances of violence, ever belied by black-an-white terminology” by Omar El Akkad, Jan. 1, 2023 | New York TimesMolly SternThe Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr SolzhenitsynBridget Jones’s Diary by Helen FieldingThe Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael PollanBlink by Malcolm GladwellThe Collected Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald The Stand by Stephen KingA Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryThe Joy Luck Club by Amy TanAnna Karenina by Leo TolstoyAli & Nino by Kurban SaidThe Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel HawthorneHeart of Darkness by Joseph ConradThings Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeThe Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway1984 by George OrwellPod Save America (podcast) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Tracy K. Smith joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the difference between being “free” and being “freed.” She suggests that citizens of the United States fall into one category or the other. The first appear to have descended from those who were always free. The second descend from those who were acted upon by those in the first category. Smith talks about the research she’s done to understand the roles her forefathers played in this country’s armed conflicts and the connections between the military and our historical understanding of freedom. She reads from her new collection of essays, To Free the Captives.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.Tracy K. Smith To Free the Captives Life on Mars Such Color Ordinary Light Wade in the Water My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love The Body’s Question Duende American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Times (Ed.) Others: Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 4 Episode 9: “Tracy K. Smith and Kawai Strong Washburn on Biden’s Debts to His Base (Especially Black Women)” The 1619 Project Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture W.E.B. Du Bois “The Glaring Contradiction of Republicans’ Rhetoric of Freedom” by Ronald Brownstein |The Atlantic, July 8, 2022 “Trump’s Second-Term Plans: Anti-‘Woke’ University, ‘Freedom Cities’” by Andrew Restuccia | The Wall Street Journal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Poet Taylor Byas joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss writing about Chicago, which she does in her Maya Angelou Book Award-winning collection of poetry, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times. She talks about growing up in the country’s most segregated city, and considers its long traditions of Black, working-class, and ethnic literature, including writers like Nate Marshall, Lorraine Hansberry, Patricia Smith, and Jose Olivarez. She explains how moving away has given her a new perspective on Chicago’s politics, history, crime, and beauty. She reads a poem (“You from “Chiraq”?”) addressing how outsiders view the city, as well as from a crown of sonnets about the South Side.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.Taylor Byas I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times Bloodwarm Poemhood: Our Black Revival: History, Folklore & the Black Experience: A Young Adult Poetry Anthology (Ed.) Others: Richard Wright Saul Bellow Gwendolyn Brooks  A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Nelson Algren  Stuart Dybek The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros  Nate Marshall  1919 — Eve L. Ewing Patricia Smith Promises of Gold by Jose Olivarez Carl Sandburg Chi-Raq (film, dir. Spike Lee) Gordon Parks Brandon Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices