fiction/non/fiction

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fiction/non/fiction episodes

February 11, 2021S4 Ep. 10: 'A Certain Kind of Hunger': Chang-rae Lee on Writing About Connection While We're Worlds Apart
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
My Year Abroad
On Such A Full Sea
The Surrendered
Native Speaker
A Gesture Life
Others:
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
“The Little Man at Chehaw Station” by Ralph Ellison

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42 min
January 28, 2021S4 Ep. 9: Making Good: Tracy K. Smith and Kawai Strong Washburn On Biden's Debts to His Base (Especially Black Women)
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
The Cancer Journals
Life On Mars: Poems
Wade In The Water: Poems
American Journal: Fifty Poems For Our Time
Ordinary Light: A Memoir
Duende: Poems
“Poet Tracy K. Smith Pays Tribute to Kamala Harris,” Vogue
Kawai Strong Washburn
Sharks in the Time of Saviors
“What the Ocean Eats,” McSweeney’s
Others:
“Biden's First 100 Days: Here's What To Expect” by Elena Moore, NPR
America Amplified: Election 2020, a six-episode national talk show from the CPB public media initiative America Amplified
“Portraits of Reconciliation: 20 years after the genocide in Rwanda, reconciliation still happens one encounter at a time,” by Pieter Hugo and Susan Dominus, New York Times
“Kama'āina: Kawai Strong Washburn Interviewed by Kathryn Savage,” BOMB Magazine
Malcolm X Biography
Senator Ted Cruz on Twitter: "By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he's more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh. This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans."
“The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare” by Nathaniel Rich, The New York Times Sunday Magazine

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1 hr 13 min
January 14, 2021S4 Ep. 8: Our Lies: Jenny Offill and James Plath on Conspiracy Theories in History and Literature
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
Weather
Last Things
Dept. of Speculation
James Plath
Critical Insights: Conspiracies
“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conspiracy”
Others:
“The American Abyss,” by Timothy Snyder, The New York Times Magazine
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
Hannah Arendt
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Three Days of the Condor (film) by Sydney Pollack
Utopia (TV series) by Gillian Flynn
“Stop Making Sense, or How to Write in the Age of Trump” by Aleksandar Hemon, The Village Voice
“Jenny Offill: 'I don't miss the world as much as, perhaps, I should'” by Alex Preston, The Guardian
JFK (film) by Oliver Stone
Libra by Don DeLillo
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
V (TV series)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
“The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories” by Brielle A. Marino, Psychology Today
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
“The Hull Case” by Peter Ho Davies
“Teen Names Family Who Harassed A Black Woman On Video,” Buzzfeed

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1 hr 12 min
December 31, 2020S4 Ep. 7: The Facts of Life: Claire Messud and Brendan O'Meara on Creative Nonfiction in an Era of 'Fake News'
In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by novelist and essayist Claire Messud and journalist Brendan O’Meara. First, Messud discusses her new book of essays, Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write, and the difficulties of grasping the facts when we’re bombarded with so much information daily. Then, O’Meara shares craft insights from his interviews for The Creative Nonfiction podcast and discusses the connections between newsrooms and literary nonfiction. He also previews his memoir-in-progress about his father.
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:
Claire Messud
Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write
The Emperor’s Children
The Burning Girl
When the World Was Steady
The Woman Upstairs
The Hunters
The Last Life
Brendan O’Meara
Six Weeks in Saratoga: How Three-Year-Old Filly Rachel Alexandra Beat the Boys and Became Horse of the Year
The Creative Nonfiction Podcast
Episode 60—The Godfather of Creative Nonfiction: Lee Gutkind
Episode 99—David Grann on 'The Killers of the Flower Moon' and Why Every Story is a Struggle
Episode 121—Susan Orlean on Pacing, Structure, and 'The Library Book'
Episode 227: The Futility of Reassurance and Being on the Hook with Seth Godin
“Isolation,” audio magazine
Others:
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
The Plague by Albert Camus
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Selected Writings of Paul Valéry
Continental Drift by Russell Banks
NW by Zadie Smith
Another Country by James Baldwin
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Company You Keep by Neil Gordon
Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates
Bronwen Dickey
David Carr
Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby
The Living and the Dead: War, Friendship and the Battles That Never End by Brian Mockenhaupt
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
The Heart and Other Monsters by Rose Andersen
Jean Guerrero
“Host of ‘The Daily’ Clouds ‘N.Y. Times’ Effort To Restore Trust After ‘Caliphate’” by David Folkenflik, NPR

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1 hr 17 min
December 17, 2020S4 Ep. 6: Hope on the Horizon: Charles Baxter and Mike Alberti on Despair and Renewal in Fiction
In this special live episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, presented by Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, acclaimed novelist and teacher Charles Baxter and his former student, short story writer Mike Alberti, join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss their new books. Upon the release of his seventeenth book, the much-anticipated The Sun Collective, Baxter reflects on how time and place factor into his work and talks about writing about politics in his hometown. Then Alberti discusses his searing debut short story collection Some People Let You Down, and how he finds inspiration and hope in teaching incarcerated writers through the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. The two also provide a rare window into their ongoing conversations about teaching and the craft of fiction, and answer questions from audience members and readers, including incarcerated writers.
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:
Charles Baxter:
The Sun Collective
The Feast of Love
First Light
Saul and Patsy
Shadow Play
The Soul Thief
Believers
Gryphon
Harmony of the World
A Relative Stranger
There’s Something I Want You to Do
Through the Safety Net
Mike Alberti:
“Summer People,” Colorado Review
“Woods, Kansas,” Crazyhorse
“Destiny,” Gulf Coast
“Pestilence,” Indiana Review
“Prairie Fire, 1899,” One Story
Some People Let You Down
Others:
Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop
Dubliners, James Joyce
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
Lost in the City, Edward P. Jones
Wright Morris
George Ault, American painter
Annie, Broadway musical
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Cornel West
Alice Munro
ZZ Packer
Denis Johnson

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1 hr 2 min
December 03, 2020S4 Ep. 5: Disability in America: Molly McCully Brown and Rebekah Taussig On Living and Writing Thirty Years After the Americans with Disabilities Act
In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan mark the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act by talking to two writers who have made important contributions to the way we talk about disability in America. First, poet and essayist Molly McCully Brown discusses her new essay collection Places I’ve Taken my Body, and reflects on the threat a global pandemic poses to populations who are already seen by society as less valuable. Then Rebekah Taussig talks about her memoir Sitting Pretty, as well as pervasive and tired ableist tropes in films and literature.
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 episode was produced by Mary Henn, Emily Standlee, and Andrea Tudhope.
Selected readings:
Molly McCully Brown
Places I’ve Taken my Body
The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics and Feebleminded
In The Field Between Us
On Books and Their Harbors
Rebekah Taussig
Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body
“I've Been Paralyzed Since I Was 3. Here's Why Kindness Toward Disabled People Is More Complicated Than You Think,” Time
“I Called Mine Beautiful,” The Florida Review
Others:
If You Really Love Me Throw Me off the Mountain, by Erin Clark
“10 Body Positive Instagrammers With Disabilities You Should Follow Immediately” by Nina Matti, Bustle
Special, Netflix series
“Sia’s Trailer For ‘Music’ Struck A Nerve With The Disabled Community. Her Tweets Only Made Things Worse.” By Allison Norlian, Forbes
The Golden Girls, TV series
“Texas Lt. Governor: Old People Should Volunteer to Die to Save the Economy” by Bess Levin, Vanity Fair

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1 hr 8 min
November 19, 2020S4 Ep. 4: Life After Trump: Jess Walter and Jerald Walker on the Aftermath of Election 2020
In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan talk to acclaimed novelist Jess Walter and award-winning essayist Jerald Walker. First, Walter unravels the literary elements of the Trump administration and discusses how his newest book, The Cold Millions, a historical novel touching on unions and feminism at the turn of the century, has many parallels to today’s politics. Then, Walker talks about centering Black courage vs. white cruelty, both in literature and this election, and how he works to find common ground in his writing, including his newest collection of essays, How to Make a Slave, which is a finalist for the National Book Award.
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:
Jess Walter
The Cold Millions
Beautiful Ruins
We Live in Water
The Financial Lives of the Poets
‘The Ponz’: Michael Cohen's Prison Memoir
Jerald Walker
How to Make a Slave and Other Essays
The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult
Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption
Once More to the Ghetto and Other Essays
“Dragon Slayers”
Others:
King Lear by William Shakespeare
Elmore Leonard
Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare
“Did the pandemic sink Trump’s chances? Not as much as his opponents expected,” by Alex Roarty, McClatchy
“'You are no longer my mother': A divided America will struggle to heal after Trump era,” by Tim Reid, Gabriella Borter, Michael Martina, Reuters
Hue and Cry, by James Alan McPherson
James Alan McPherson
Albert Murray
Stanley Crouch
“The Little Man at Chehaw Station” by Ralph Ellison
Self Help by Lorrie Moore

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1 hr 13 min
November 05, 2020S4 Ep. 3: Monsters for President: Maria Dahvana Headley on Modern Myth-Making
In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan talk to #1 New York Times best-selling author Maria Dahvana Headley about the modern-day relevance of the epic poem Beowulf. She talks about her new translation of the ancient text, and illuminates how the “shit-talking” masculinity of the heroes of old can help us understand our current so-called leaders.
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:
Maria Dahvana Headley
Beowulf: A New Translation
The Mere Wife
Arie
Queen of Kings
The Year of Yes
The End of the Sentence, Kat Howard and Maria Dahvana Headley
Unnatural Creatures, Neil Gaiman (Editor), Briony Morrow-Cribbs (Illustrator), Maria Dahvana Headley
Others:
Transcript: Donald Trump’s Taped Comments About Women, The New York Times
Sarah Cooper and Helen Mirren Recreate Donald Trump’s Infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape, HuffPost
A “Beowulf” for Our Moment, Ruth Franklin, The New Yorker
George Conway (Twitter)
Walter Shaub (Twitter)
Earth Abides, George R. Stewart
Circe, Madeline Miller
The Odyssey, (translated by) Emily Wilson
Beowulf, Seamus Heaney
Television:
The Wire (HBO)

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53 min
October 22, 2020S4 Ep. 2: We're in a Scary Movie, and It's Called 2020: emily m. danforth and Laura van den Berg Discuss Literary Horror and Our Upcoming Election
In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan talk to novelist emily m. danforth and short story writer Laura van den Berg. danforth discusses her newly released sapphic-gothic horror comedy Plain Bad Heroines and how she reclaims negative and othering portrayals of lesbian vampires and queer monsters in the novel. Then, van den Berg shares her acclaimed new story collection I Hold a Wolf by the Ears and talks about how the pandemic and the Trump presidency has inspired her fiction.
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 episode was produced by Andrea Tudhope, Emily Standlee and Mary Henn.
Selected readings:
emily m. danforth
Plain Bad Heroines
The Miseducation Of Cameron Post
Laura van den Berg
I Hold a Wolf by the Ears
The Isle of Youth
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us
Find Me
The Third Hotel
Others:
The Story of Mary MacLane by Mary MacLane
Rebecca by Dame Daphne du Maurier
Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay
Stephen King
The Elementals by Michael McDowell
Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix
Television:
Get Out, film
Lovecraft Country (HBO)
Carmilla, the Lesbian Vampire, film
The Ring, film
Beetlejuice, film
The Others, film

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1 hr 7 min
October 08, 2020S4 Ep. 1: Fifteen Years After Katrina: Kristina Kay Robinson and Tom Piazza Discuss How the Hurricane Shaped Our Past and Predicted Our Future
In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan talk to writer, curator and visual artist Kristina Kay Robinson and novelist and television writer Tom Piazza in the wake of the 15-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Robinson describes the shifting narrative of her hometown, and explains how the U.S. is only now experiencing the full implications of Katrina. Then, Piazza reflects on how the disaster foretold a series of 21st century catastrophes that would affect the most vulnerable among us.
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 episode was produced by Andrea Tudhope and Emily Standlee.

Selected readings:
Kristina Kay Robinson
Republica: Temple of Color and Sound, art exhibition
“Contemplating Extinction as Theme in Basquiat’s ‘Pez Dispenser, 1984,’” poets.org
“The Darkroom in the Attic: Blackness and Visibility,” Burnaway
“Ten Years Since: A Meditation on New Orleans,” The Nation
“Rhythm, Water, and Global Blackness,” The Nation
“10 Questions for Kristina Kay Robinson,” The Massachusetts Review
Letter from New Orleans: Down River Road, Burnaway
The New Orleans African American Museum
“Spiritually Uncensored,” Sugarcane Magazine
Tom Piazza
“Incontinental Drift,” The Huffington Post
City of Refuge
Why New Orleans Matters
Devil Sent the Rain
A Free State
“Living in the Present with John Prine,” The Oxford American
Writers:
The Control of Nature by John McPhee
José Saramago
Leo Tolstoy
Maurice Carlos Ruffin
A.L. Steiner
Television:
Treme (HBO)
Lovecraft Country (HBO)

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1 hr 12 min

About fiction/non/fiction

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Hosted by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan, fiction/non/fiction interprets current events through the lens of literature, and features conversations with writers of all stripes, from…