S5 Ep. 21: Live from Unbound: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Sequoia Nagamatsu on Affirming and Subverting Pop Culture in Fiction

fiction/non/fiction

Fiction writers Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Sequoia Nagamatsu join hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell live from the Unbound Book Festival in Columbia, Missouri, where they talk about pop culture in the literary sphere, the blurring of the line between literary and popular fiction, and subverting tropes within their genres (plus, a bit of Frasier fanfiction). Nana reads from his short story collection Friday Black, and Sequoia reads from his novel How High We Go in the Dark. The two also take questions from the live audience at Unbound.

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, Carter Groves, Brooke Spalding-Ford, Shannon Moran, Maria Starns, and Kayla Wiltfong.

Selected readings for the episode:

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• Friday Black

Sequoia Nagamatsu

• How High We Go in the Dark
• Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone
• "Elegy Hotel" by Sequoia Nagamatsu, print and audio, The Southern Review

Others

• Race in American Science Fiction
• Star Trek
• Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra T-shirt
• Sony Aibo
• Servant Trailer
• Star Trek: The Chase Monologue
• “The Origins of Directed Panspermia” | Scientific American
• 2K Games
• Final Fantasy
• Madden
• Deathloop
• Panic! at the Disco
• Pearl Jam
• Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol
• The Orville
• Blade Runner
• Big Hero 6: The Series
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Frasier
• Groundhog Day
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Attack on Titan
• Bel-Air
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
• Palm Springs
• Dragon Ball Z
• Viet Thanh Nguyen
• TVtropes.org
• George and Paula Saunders Talk Empathy and the 2020 Democratic Candidates Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 16
• Marlon James and Daniel José Older: Against Genre Snobbery Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 2, Episode 17

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