Fiction writers Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the newly published essay collection Letters to a Writer of Color, which they co-edited. The book features 17 pieces by authors of color from all over the world reflecting on aspects of craft and the writing life. Anappara and Soomro talk about how experiences in their MFA program led them to collaborate on the book. Contributors include Kiese Laymon on the second person, Ingrid Rojas Contreras on trauma, Myriam Gurba on art and activism, Sharlene Teo on reception and resilience, Amitava Kumar on authenticity, Mohammed Hanif on political fiction, and Femi Kayode on crime fiction. Soomro reads from his essay about origin stories and Anappara reads from her essay on the ideal conditions for writing. They also discuss other themes in the book: isolation in the writing world, non-Western storytelling, questions of translation, ongoing violence against people of color, and literature as a mode of social education. #literature #podcasts #writers ____________________________________________________________ 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 versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf. ____________________________________________________________ Visit Our Show page at LitHub ➜ https://lithub.com/category/lithubradio/fiction-non-fiction-lithubradio/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Podcast) Website ➜ fnfpodcast.net Twitter ➜ twitter.com/fnftalk?lang=en Instagram ➜ instagram.com/fiction.non.fiction.podcast Facebook ➜ facebook.com/FNFpod/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Hosts) V.V. Ganeshananthan: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/V_V_G Instagram ➜ instagram.com/v_v_ganeshananthan Whitney Terrell: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/Wsterrell Instagram ➜ instagram.com/wsterrell9

Journalist Will Sommer joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new book Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America, a history of the rise of the cultish right-wing group. Sommer, a reporter for The Daily Beast, has covered QAnon since its inception and explains its origins, what—and who—drives it now, and how he handles interviewing people who believe the world is controlled by a satanic cabal of celebrity pedophiles. He also reads an excerpt from the book. #nonfiction #literature #podcasts #novel #conspiracy #trusttheplan #interview #celebrities #journalist ____________________________________________________________ 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 versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf. ____________________________________________________________ Visit Our Showpage at Lit Hub ➜ https://lithub.com/category/lithubrad... ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Podcast) Website ➜ fnfpodcast.net Twitter ➜ twitter.com/fnftalk?lang=en Instagram ➜ instagram.com/fiction.non.fiction.podcast Facebook ➜ facebook.com/FNFpod/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Hosts) V.V. Ganeshananthan: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/V_V_G Instagram ➜ instagram.com/v_v_ganeshananthan Whitney Terrell: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/Wsterrell Instagram ➜ instagram.com/wsterrell9

Prize-winning Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new book A Stranger in Your Own City, which features Iraqi perspectives on the United States’ invasion and occupation of Iraq. Abdul-Ahad talks about what Western media missed and also considers the early stages of the war and how resentment built over time. He reflects on the fall of Saddam Hussein, the ensuing Iraqi civil conflict, Western misconceptions of the country, and how the U.S. occupation planted the seeds of the Islamic State. #literature #nonfiction #Iraqwar #GhaithAbdul-Ahad #Iraqperspective #USinvasionIraq #Islamicstate ____________________________________________________________ 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 versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ ____________________________________________________________ Visit Our Show page at LitHub ➜ https://lithub.com/category/lithubradio/fiction-non-fiction-lithubradio/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Podcast) Website ➜ fnfpodcast.net Twitter ➜ twitter.com/fnftalk?lang=en Instagram ➜ instagram.com/fiction.non.fiction.podcast Facebook ➜ facebook.com/FNFpod/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Hosts) V.V. Ganeshananthan: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/V_V_G Instagram ➜ instagram.com/v_v_ganeshananthan Whitney Terrell: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/Wsterrell Instagram ➜ instagram.com/wsterrell9

Acclaimed fiction writer Ann Beattie joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her recent LitHub essay about Donald Barthelme’s short story “The Balloon” and the Chinese spy balloon. She also talks about her recently published first collection of essays, More to Say: Essays and Appreciations, in which she writes about the work of authors, photographers, and artists she admires, including Elmore Leonard, Sally Mann, John Loengard, and her own husband, visual artist Lincoln Perry. Beattie explains why as a nonfiction writer, she prefers close looking and reading; considers defamiliarization in the hands of Barthelme and Alice Munro; analyzes former visual artist John Updike’s depiction of the natural world; and reflects on developing increased comfort with writing about visual art. She also reads excerpts from both her LitHub piece and the essay collection. #LiteraryHub #podcast #WomenWriters #baloons ____________________________________________________________ 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 versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ ____________________________________________________________ Visit Our Show page at LitHub ➜ https://lithub.com/category/lithubradio/fiction-non-fiction-lithubradio/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Podcast) Website ➜ fnfpodcast.net Twitter ➜ twitter.com/fnftalk?lang=en Instagram ➜ instagram.com/fiction.non.fiction.podcast Facebook ➜ facebook.com/FNFpod/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Hosts) V.V. Ganeshananthan: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/V_V_G Instagram ➜ instagram.com/v_v_ganeshananthan Whitney Terrell: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/Wsterrell Instagram ➜ instagram.com/wsterrell9

Following a gutsy, thrilling 2023 Super Bowl win by the Kansas City Chiefs, sportswriters Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd join co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss their forthcoming book Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin’ Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback. Dent and Dodd map out the relationship between race and football in Kansas City from the Chiefs’ move to the city in the early 1960s to the activism and engagement of players like Mahomes in the Black Lives Matter era. #podcasts #literature #writing #patrickmahomes #chiefs #kansascity #fiction #fnfpod #literaryhub ____________________________________________________________ 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 versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ ____________________________________________________________ Visit Our Show Page➜ https://lithub.com/category/lithubradio/fiction-non-fiction-lithubradio/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Podcast) Website ➜ fnfpodcast.net Twitter ➜ twitter.com/fnftalk?lang=en Instagram ➜ instagram.com/fiction.non.fiction.podcast Facebook ➜ facebook.com/FNFpod/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Hosts) V.V. Ganeshananthan: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/V_V_G Instagram ➜ instagram.com/v_v_ganeshananthan Whitney Terrell: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/Wsterrell Instagram ➜ instagram.com/wsterrell9

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the history of an integrated community in Maine and how it inspired his new novel, This Other Eden. Harding talks about where he drew the line in his research; his ekphrastic habits; the ever-present human tendency to create “Others”; and what it means to say “never again” in the face of injustice that repeats itself. He also reads from the novel. #writer #podcasts #maine ____________________________________________________________ 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 versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf. ____________________________________________________________ Visit Our Showpage at Lit Hub ➜ https://lithub.com/category/lithubrad... ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Podcast) Website ➜ fnfpodcast.net Twitter ➜ twitter.com/fnftalk?lang=en Instagram ➜ instagram.com/fiction.non.fiction.podcast Facebook ➜ facebook.com/FNFpod/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Hosts) V.V. Ganeshananthan: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/V_V_G Instagram ➜ instagram.com/v_v_ganeshananthan Whitney Terrell: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/Wsterrell Instagram ➜ instagram.com/wsterrell9

James Alan McPherson is famous as the first Black writer to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction; a new book aims to bring fresh attention to his masterful nonfiction. The volume’s editor, poet and writer Anthony Walton, joins V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss On Becoming an American Writer, a collection of McPherson’s essays. Walton explains McPherson’s moral vision for the U.S. and how this shaped the book’s curation. He highlights how the theme of ancestors connects various pieces, notes the impact of McPherson’s legal training on his writing, reflects on McPherson’s take on the middle class, and considers how McPherson’s work speaks to society today. He also reads from the book’s first essay, “Junior and John Doe.” #BlackWriters #fiction #literature #essays #InMemorial ____________________________________________________________ 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 versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf. ____________________________________________________________ Visit Our Show page at Lit Hub ➜https://lithub.com/category/lithubradio/fiction-non-fiction-lithubradio/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Podcast) Website ➜ fnfpodcast.net Twitter ➜ twitter.com/fnftalk?lang=en Instagram ➜ instagram.com/fiction.non.fiction.podcast Facebook ➜ facebook.com/FNFpod/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Hosts) V.V. Ganeshananthan: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/V_V_G Instagram ➜ instagram.com/v_v_ganeshananthan Whitney Terrell: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/Wsterrell Instagram ➜ instagram.com/wsterrell9

Literary critic Carmela Ciuraru joins V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new book The Lives of the Wives, which looks at five literary marriages, including pairings like Elizabeth Jane Howard and Kingsley Amis. She examines the dynamics of such relationships, particularly when one partner declares their time more valuable. She explains why the stories of historic couples like Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall remain relevant today, and highlights the experiences of lesser-known partners, some of whom were artists and writers themselves. She also reads an excerpt about the early days of Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl’s courtship. #nonfiction #literature #podcasts #novel #wives #roalddahl #marriage #relationships ____________________________________________________________ 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 versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf. ____________________________________________________________ Visit Our Showpage at Lit Hub ➜ https://lithub.com/category/lithubradio/fiction-non-fiction-lithubradio/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Podcast) Website ➜ fnfpodcast.net Twitter ➜ twitter.com/fnftalk?lang=en Instagram ➜ instagram.com/fiction.non.fiction.podcast Facebook ➜ facebook.com/FNFpod/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Hosts) V.V. Ganeshananthan: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/V_V_G Instagram ➜ instagram.com/v_v_ganeshananthan Whitney Terrell: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/Wsterrell Instagram ➜ instagram.com/wsterrell9

Novelist and journalist Vauhini Vara joins V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss how ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, may—or may not—impact publishing, education, journalism, and the humanities in general. Vara explains differences between ChatGPT and another OpenAI tool, GPT-3, which she used as a way into writing about the death of her sister, a topic she had previously found unapproachable. She reads from the resulting essay, “Ghosts,” which was published by The Believer and anthologized in Best American Essays 2022. #VauhiniVara #artificialintelligence #chatgpt #grief #nonfiction ____________________________________________________________ Visit Our Show page at LitHub ➜ https://lithub.com/category/lithubradio/fiction-non-fiction-lithubradio/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Podcast) Website ➜ fnfpodcast.net Twitter ➜ twitter.com/fnftalk?lang=en Instagram ➜ instagram.com/fiction.non.fiction.podcast Facebook ➜ facebook.com/FNFpod/ ____________________________________________________________ Social Media (Hosts) V.V. Ganeshananthan: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/V_V_G Instagram ➜ instagram.com/v_v_ganeshananthan Whitney Terrell: Twitter ➜ twitter.com/Wsterrell Instagram ➜ instagram.com/wsterrell9