Mohanraj and Rosenbaum Are Humans

In movies, shows, and books, the aliens often invade the biggest, most iconic cities in our world. But what if the aliens chose to inhabit a place like the US Virgin Islands? In this episode, Mary Anne and Ben interview Cadwell Turnbull on his sci-fi book, The Lesson, and what its representations of aliens, violence, language, and culture says about our own troubled history with colonialism.

For show notes visit: https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-18-show-notes/

If you enjoy this podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon.

You can follow us on Twitter @mrahpodcast.

Join Mary Anne as she interviews Nalo Hopkinson about the exceptional use of language and vernacular in her work.

To view or read the interview, you can visit the episode's show notes at https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-17-show-notes/

Stranded in the Swiss Alps, Ben reminisces with Mary Anne about their early writing in what is a sequel to the "Gamifying the Rejection" episode. The two also discuss the importance of magazines in their lives, and how starting Strange Horizons impacted budding and established writers alike in the field.

For show notes visit: https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-16-show-notes/

If you enjoy this podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon.

You can follow us on Twitter @mrahpodcast.

Join Mary Anne as she interviews Farah Mendlesohn about international science fiction and her latest book, The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein.

For show notes visit: https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-15-show-notes/

Trapped in quarantine during the early stages of the pandemic, Mary Anne and Ben delve into their family structures through a lens of domesticity. Ben introduces and explains his chore chart, which was created earlier in his life and has developed into a well running machine. And Mary Anne asks the question of whether or not you should get a cookie for doing the right thing.

For show notes visit: https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-14-show-notes/

If you enjoy this podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon.

You can follow us on Twitter @mrahpodcast.

This time around, the impetus for this discussion is Mary Anne's new cookbook, Vegan Serendib, a companion piece to her previous A Feast of Serendib, an Amazon bestseller. Friends of the show, writers V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan and Nayomi Munaweera are invited to the podcast to talk Sri-Lankan history, writers, and food in anticipation of Mary Anne's newest cookbook.

If you want to find out more about Vegan Serendib, or support it, you can visit the Kickstarter Mary Anne is running at https://bit.ly/3vI4bTX.

For show notes visit: https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-13-show-notes/

If you enjoy this podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon.

You can follow us on Twitter @mrahpodcast.

Stepping down momentarily from being a co-host, Ben is interviewed by Mary Anne and Jed about his newest book, The Unraveling, a tale of social unrest in a far future society. The trio explore the themes of gender, pronouns, societal structure, parenting, and even surveillance that are brought up in Ben's story.

You can find out more about Ben's book on the Erewhon Books website, where you can find links to purchase the Unraveling as well.

For show notes visit: https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-12-show-notes/

If you enjoy this podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon.

You can follow us on Twitter @mrahpodcast.

Friend of the podcast Liz Gorinsky arrives to share her experiences as an editor, from her early days of reading comic books, to her work at Tor.com, and finally starting Erewhon Books. Mary Anne and Ben inquire about the technical and career aspects of editing, as well as the importance of grappling with their internal editor in their own writing process.

Note: Ben and Liz refer to The Unravelling releasing in May, but the date has been moved to June 8.

You can find out more about Erewhon Books and Liz by going to www.erewhonbooks.com and http://lizgorinsky.com/.

For show notes visit: https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-11-show-notes/

If you enjoy this podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon.

Our Twitter handle is @mrahpodcast.

In this episode, Mary Anne and Ben ruminate on the intricacies of writing for submission. Based on their own personal publishing experiences, the two give advice to writers young and old on how best to go about preparing for success and rejection in the field, even if it means gamifying the process.

For show notes visit: https://speculativeliterature.org/ep-10-show-notes/

If you enjoy this podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon.

Our Twitter handle is @mrahpodcast.

Mary Anne interviews Paolo Bacigalupi about how to write fiction with a message, especially one as urgent as the ecological fate of our world and how it can impact humanity.

To watch this interview and others like it at the Speculative Literature Foundation visit: https://speculativeliterature.org/portolan-project/interviews/