When Reading Lolita in Tehran was published 20 years ago, Azar Nafisi had only lived in the United States for six years. Since then, she has watched the subtle and not-so-subtle signs of totalitarianism take root in America.

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times is Nafisi’s latest book. It’s an epistolary piece written to her father about the writers who Nafisi believe inform what our country, and our world, are facing. From Plato to Baldwin, Atwood to Coates, Nafisi draws parallels between the treatment of women in Iran and the treatment of African Americans in the U.S. Since its release last March, the book has grown only more relevant with the Dobbs decision, the attack on Rushdie, the rising protests in her home country of Iran.

Nafisi joins Marrie Stone to talk about her decision to write this book. She discusses why governments are so threatened by writers, small acts everyday readers and writers can do, the responsibilities of the artist, how to avoid being didactic in fiction, the power of the epistolary structure and much more.

Nafisi comes to the podcast from the Miami Book Fair. For more information, visit their website here.

For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.

(Recorded in October 2022) 

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Co-Host: Marrie Stone
Music and sound design: Travis Barrett