ScribdChat - Episode 5: Colson Whitehead on History, Literary Theory, and Race Relations

Episode 5: Colson Whitehead on History, Literary Theory, and Race Relations

02/06/18 • 33 min

Just after the release of “The Underground Railroad” in 2016, we had author Colson Whitehead in for one of our very first ScribdChats. The novel became an instant success, picked for Oprah’s Book Club, praised by President Obama, and then going on to win the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. In this episode, Whitehead sits down with Michael Cohen, a professor of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, to talk about this ambitious, expansive, and important novel.

“The Underground Railroad” is available now on Scribd.

Previous Episode

Episode 4: Lisa Ko on Her Award-Winning Debut Novel, The Leavers

In today’s episode, author Lisa Ko discusses her debut novel, “The Leavers,” which chronicles the powerful and intertwining stories of Deming Guo and his mother, Polly, as both embark on their own search for identity. Early on, Polly is separated from Deming, and shortly thereafter Deming is adopted by a couple of loving — if not somewhat misinformed — American professors. He is then forced to navigate the memory of family and culture he left behind in tandem with his adoptive parent’s desire to raise him as a modern, middle-class American. As such, Ko’s novel explores the themes of identity, culture, and the definition of family.

“The Leavers” was shortlisted for the National Book Award in addition to winning the Pen/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and also named a one of the best books from 2017 by NPR, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed, and Bustle.

In today’s episode, Ko discusses the real-life stories that inspired “The Leavers,” why she felt the story in her book was worth telling, and what she learned while writing her debut novel. We talk about pacing, prose, the importance of listening to a killer soundtrack while writing, and, of course, the many nicknames that Ko as earned throughout her career.

You can read Lisa Ko’s “The Leavers” on Scribd.

Next Episode

Episode 6: Jeff VanderMeer on Adapting ‘Annihilation’ to Film

Do you already have tickets to see Annihilation? Have you already reread the novel in anticipation of the movie adaptation? If not, our ScribdChat with author Jeff VanderMeer, who wrote the Nebula Award–winning Annihilation, will surely change your mind. VanderMeer has won many of speculative fiction’s most preeminent awards for his strange science fiction. On this episode, he discusses the environmental themes present in many of his novels, his love for film as a medium, and how he manages working on so many projects at once.

Annihilation and the rest of the Southern Reach trilogy can be read on Scribd.

Follow Scribd on Twitter or Instagram for the latest ScribdChat updates and news about hot new books.