Scholar Carolin Benack and novelist Sanjena Sathian join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss how literature and economics intersect. First, Benack talks about the theoretical storytelling that is economics, and reads from her article on the topic. Then, Sathian reads from her debut novel Gold Diggers and talks about the American obsession with excess, and how our fluctuating economy impacts our relationship with wealth and reinvention.

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 excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel, and don't miss our brand-new website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Carolin Benack

Sanjena Sathian

• Gold Diggers

Others:

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Poet Michael Kleber-Diggs and memoirist Kao Kalia Yang join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss Minnesota’s complex history with immigrants, as well as how the Twin Cities’ literary scene is responding in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. First, Kleber-Diggs reads from his forthcoming debut poetry collection, Worldly Things, and talks about being a Black poet in Minnesota. Then, Yang reflects on her experience entering the literary community as a Hmong refugee, and reads from her new book, Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir. 

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 excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel, and don't miss our brand-new website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Michael Kleber-Diggs

Kao Kalia Yang

Others:

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Bestselling novelist Matthew Salesses joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the politics, history, and context driving different modes of teaching fiction writing. After sharing an excerpt from his new book Craft in the Real World, Salesses explains how the traditional creative writing workshop model fails marginalized writers, and why examining craft questions through a range of lenses should matter to both writers and readers. He also reads from his new novel Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear, which is a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.

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 excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel, and don't miss our brand-new website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Matthew Salesses

Others:

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In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by acclaimed writer Gish Jen and novelist Peter Ho Davies to reflect on recent and historic violence against Asian Americans. First, Jen reads her recent New York Times op-ed about the generational differences in how Asian Americans see anti-Asian racism. She also imagines a way forward, explaining that we need to elevate and recognize stories of trauma as well as strength in Asian American experiences. Then, Davies talks about Asian representation in literature and films, and reads from his novel The Fortunes, and its section about the tragic 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, which prompted major shifts in Asian American political organizing. Davies also discusses his latest book, A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself.

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 check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Gish Jen

Peter Ho Davies



Others:

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In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by award-winning author and journalist Meredith Talusan and acclaimed writer Matt Gallagher. Talusan reads from her memoir Fairest, and talks about representation in literature, the intersections of their identity as an Asian and transgender woman, and why transphobia is a recurring theme in conversations about problematic faves. Then, Gallagher shares his take on “cancelling” problematic authors, and discusses his recent Intercept article about the new film Cherry, which is adapted from Nico Walker’s autobiographical novel. In the piece, Gallagher parses ethical storytelling and how the American romanticization of crime can depend on the perpetrator’s identity. He also reads from his most recent novel, Empire City.

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 check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Meredith Talusan

Matt Gallagher



Others:

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In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by author Lacy M. Johnson and novelist Natalia Sylvester. First, Johnson recalls her personal experience through the recent storm, and talks about the ongoing debate over deregulation and privatization of the Texas energy grid. Then, Sylvester unravels the whitewashed, exceptionalist myth of Texas, elevates its Mexican, Black and Indigenous history, and talks about what it means for her, a Latinx, Peruvian immigrant woman, to be a “Texas writer.” Johnson reads from the forthcoming edited volume, More City Than Water: A Houston Flood Atlas; Sylvester reads from her new YA novel, Running.

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 check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Lacy M. Johnson

Natalia Sylvester

Others:

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In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by author, medical doctor, and Africa Center CEO Uzodinma Iweala and Delhi-based journalists Bindu Shajan Perappadan and Suhasini Raj. First, Iweala unpacks flawed stereotypes about health and healthcare in Africa. Reading from his book, Our Kind of People, Iweala draws parallels between the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, and discusses how certain African countries, including Nigeria and Tanzania, have fared over the past year. Then Perappadan of The Hindu and Raj of The New York Times talk about their coronavirus coverage, and explain how past crises have influenced the response to COVID-19 in different Indian states. 

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 check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Uzodinma Iweala

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

• “Online Memorial to COVID-19 Victims Going Live on January 30,” The Hindu

Suhasini Raj

Others:

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In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by award-winning author Chang-rae Lee. Lee talks about the varied cast of characters in his new novel, My Year Abroad, writing about sensory and social experiences, and how he dove into his own growing feelings of isolation through the Trump administration and then the 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 check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Chang-rae Lee

Others:

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In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and novelist Kawai Strong Washburn, who talk about what the Biden administration owes the BIPOC and women voters who got them elected. First, Smith discusses building bridges as a nation, and shares excerpts of her award-winning collection, Wade in the Water. Then, Hawaii-born Washburn talks about the power of community organizing, and reads from his acclaimed debut, Sharks in the Time of Saviors.

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 check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Tracy K. Smith

Kawai Strong Washburn

Others:

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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by author Jenny Offill and literary and film critic James Plath. First Offill shares her reaction to the insurrection and attempted coup at the Capitol last week, and discusses her latest novel, Weather, out in paperback next week. Then, Plath explores the origins of conspiracy theories in history and literature and how right-wing extremists have weaponized them under Trump, and talks about editing Critical Insights: Conspiracies. 

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 check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Jenny Offill

James Plath

Others:

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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.