Ben Fountain’s work has received the Los Angeles Book Prize for Fiction, and a Whiting Writers Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.  His books include Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for Fiction, and the novel Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award.  His non-fiction book is Beautiful Country Burn Again.  His latest novel is Devil Makes Three.

We talked about Ben's early exposure to social justice and politics, his history as a traveler to Haiti, protagonists who may or may not stake their claim on their own agency, writing from a female Haitian's point of view, his creative writing process, and Robert Stone.

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