20 min listen
Azar Nafisi, author of Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times
FromWriters on Writing: A Weekly Podcast for Writers, Readers, & Book Lovers
Azar Nafisi, author of Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times
FromWriters on Writing: A Weekly Podcast for Writers, Readers, & Book Lovers
ratings:
Length:
62 minutes
Released:
Nov 21, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
When Reading Lolita in Tehran was published 20 years ago, Azar Nafisi had only lived in the United States for six years. Since then, she has watched the subtle and not-so-subtle signs of totalitarianism take root in America.
Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times is Nafisi’s latest book. It’s an epistolary piece written to her father about the writers who Nafisi believe inform what our country, and world, are facing. From Plato to Baldwin, Atwood to Coates, Nafisi draws parallels between the treatment of women in Iran and the treatment of African Americans in the U.S. Since its release last March, the book has grown only more relevant with the Dobbs decision, the attack on Rushdie, the rising protests in her home country of Iran.
Nafisi joins Marrie Stone to talk about her decision to write this book. She discusses why governments are so threatened by writers, small acts everyday readers and writers can do, the responsibilities of the artist, how to avoid being didactic in fiction, the power of the epistolary structure and much more.
Nafisi comes to the podcast from the Miami Book Fair. For more information, visit their website here. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.
(Recorded in October 2022)
Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett
Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times is Nafisi’s latest book. It’s an epistolary piece written to her father about the writers who Nafisi believe inform what our country, and world, are facing. From Plato to Baldwin, Atwood to Coates, Nafisi draws parallels between the treatment of women in Iran and the treatment of African Americans in the U.S. Since its release last March, the book has grown only more relevant with the Dobbs decision, the attack on Rushdie, the rising protests in her home country of Iran.
Nafisi joins Marrie Stone to talk about her decision to write this book. She discusses why governments are so threatened by writers, small acts everyday readers and writers can do, the responsibilities of the artist, how to avoid being didactic in fiction, the power of the epistolary structure and much more.
Nafisi comes to the podcast from the Miami Book Fair. For more information, visit their website here. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website.
(Recorded in October 2022)
Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett
Released:
Nov 21, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Novelist Erica Ferencik, Girl in Ice: Erica Ferencik, author of Girl in Ice, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about her new novel, creatures that can freeze and thaw out alive, why she's a plotter, writing the book she wished existed, and more. Erica Ferencik is an award-winning novelist who writes adventure novels featuring women who brave not only internal struggles but face extreme challenges in their environment: remote forests, steaming jungles, and desolated ice scapes. To research GIRL IN ICE, (Scout Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster), she explored the desolate iceberg-packed fjords of Greenland. Download audio. (Recorded in June 2022) Music and sound design by Travis Barrett Barbara DeMarco-Barrett: www.penonfire.com Marrie Stone: www.marriestone.com Travis Barrett: https://travisbarrett.mykajabi.com Visit our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/writersonwriting by Writers on Writing: A Weekly Podcast for Writers, Readers, & Book Lovers