Podcast appearances and mentions of Jess Row

On our season finale we examine “wildcards”, a term among futurists for seemingly improbable events that, were they to happen, would set the trajectory for the future. The episode features two of such possibilities: the elimination of race and of widespread racial reassignment. Featuring assistant professor of English at the State University of New York in Oneonta Sheena Mason, and writer Jess Row. Listen now.   Subscribe to journey with us into the future of Blackness.    Hosted by: Nigel Richard Special thanks: Sebabatso Manoeli-Lesame, Laetitia Nolwazi Mbuli, Yasmeen Rubidge, Modupeola Oyebolu, Lindokuhle Nkosi and Daryl Hannah    Apply to the 2024 Fellowship at Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity Produced by: The Good People at Between Productions Website: Moya Digital Magazine

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile's Alan Minskoff discuss this sprawling contemporary novel by Jess Row and how the cast narrates it brilliantly. Jim Meskimen takes the pivotal role of the narrator in this dazzling audiobook with a thoughtful tone. Robin Miles captures the angsty brilliance of matriarch Naomi, while Jason Culp portrays her estranged husband with eloquent restraint. The children in this Manhattan-based shattered family are voiced evocatively. Each narrator gives these heady, flawed, yet compelling characters individuality and grace. A fascinating portrait of a family in distress. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile's website. Published by Harper Audio. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com Support for AudioFile's Behind the Mic podcast comes from audiobooks.com. Visit www.audiobooks.com/freeoffer for three free audiobooks with a trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Is the criminal justice system fair? It turns out white and Black Americans often have very different answers for that question. In Episode 2, we look at how race affects our perceptions of crime – and punishment. Join host Samantha Laine Perfas with guests: race scholar Paula D. McClain, political scientist Spencer Piston, sociologist Yasser Payne, author Jess Row, criminologist Thaddeus Johnson, and exoneree Christopher Scott.

Novelist Jess Row talks with poet and educator Yahdon Israel about Row's book of literary criticism White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination, in a brilliant conversation and Q&A turning on privilege, space, and the hidden assumptions of the American literary canon.(Recorded at the Fort Greene store on August 14, 2019.) 

Novelist and critic Jess Row traces, through postwar American fiction, the movement of the white imagination away from urban spaces and into empty, isolated landscapes.

At the heart of White Flights, a meditation on whiteness in American fiction and culture, Jess Row ties “white flight”—the movement of white Americans into segregated communities, whether in suburbs or newly gentrified downtowns—to white writers setting their stories in isolated or emotionally insulated landscapes. Row uses brilliant close readings of work from well-known writers such as Don DeLillo, Annie Dillard, Richard Ford, and David Foster Wallace to examine the ways these and other writers have sought imaginative space for themselves at the expense of engaging with race.

Kurz nach dem Tod von Toni Morrison ist ein Buch in den USA erschienen, das eine ihrer zentralen Fragen aufnimmt und weiterdenkt: Wie behandeln weiße Schriftsteller in den USA Fragen der Rasse und des Rassismus in den eigenen Werken? In "White Flights" gibt der Autor und Kritiker Jess Row erhellende und selbstkritische Antworten auf diese und weitere Fragen. Wir haben ihn in New York getroffen. Außerdem ein Essay der Münchner Schriftstellerin Dagmar Leupold zur Freiheit der Kunst, eine kleine Materialkunde einer Waldorf-Schulzeit und ein Gespräch mit den Designerinnen der UnDesignUnit aus München.

In the second half of a special two-part episode, novelist and critic Jess Row and poet and critic Tim Yu talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about writing about whiteness in America. Who gets to participate in cultural criticism, and why? Who gets reviewed by and compared to whom, and why? How can white writers render and challenge their communities' part in the country's history of racism? Row and Yu also share their responses to Bob Hicok's recent essay about diversity in poetry. (Find Part I here.) Guests:Jess RowTim YuReadings for the Episode:Jess RowWhite FlightsYour Face in Mine“What Are White Writers For?” in The New Republic, Sept. 30, 2016“Native Sons: A straight white American man on loving James Baldwin and learning to write about race” in Guernica, Aug. 13, 2013“A Safe Space for Racism,” in The New Republic, Nov. 23, 2016 Tim Yu"The Case of the 'Disappearing' Poet: Why did a white poet see the success of writers of color as a signal of his own demise?" The New Republic, August 7, 2019White Poets Want Chinese Culture Without Chinese People Calvin Trillin's "Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" is the latest in a long artistic tradition. The New Republic, April 8, 2016, 100 Chinese Silences Whitney TerrellThe King of Kings County Others:White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (book)"The Authentic Outsider: Bill Cheng, Anthony Marra, and the freedom to write what you don't know," by V.V. Ganeshananthan“The Dominance of the White Male Critic,” by Elizabeth Méndez Berry and Chi-hui Yang, The New York Times, July 5, 2019"The Promise of American Poetry," by Bob Hicok, Utne Reader, Summer 2019 (originally appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter 2018)Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development: The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2010 by Kevin Fox GothamPlaying in the Dark: Whiteness in the literary imagination by Toni MorrisonWhite People by Allan GurganusLiterary Color Lines: On Inclusion in Publishing Fiction/Non/Fiction #8: Dhonielle Clayton and Ayesha Pande Talk Sensitivity Reading January 11, 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have two great interviews this week. First up, Magdalena Edwards joins co-hosts Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher to discuss her article for LARB "Benjamin Moser and the Smallest Woman in the World," which has gone viral. This dialogue is no less gripping, as Magdalena outlines her experience working with a publishing industry icon as the hired translator for Clarice Lispector's The Chandelier; and what that harrowing experience led her to reveal about the sordid underbelly of intellectual accreditation. Suffice to say, the powerful readily exploit the vulnerable; but, in this case, the pen and the podcast are gaining the upper hand. Then, Kate and Medaya are joined by Jess Row to discuss his new groundbreaking work White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American imagination. Row brilliantly critiques a broad range of white American authors as he advocates for reparative writing, in which writers use fiction "to approach each other again" in full awareness of America's long racist history. It's nothing short of a clarion call for authors to ply their trade in the fight against Trump and the on-going racist/enthno-nationalist revival that he leads. (p.s. The amount of great literature referenced and discussed in both halves of this podcast would satisfy anyone's late summer reading list.)

We have two great interviews this week. First up, Magdalena Edwards joins co-hosts Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher to discuss her article for LARB "Benjamin Moser and the Smallest Woman in the World," which has gone viral. This dialogue is no less gripping, as Magdalena outlines her experience working with a publishing industry icon as the hired translator for Clarice Lispector's The Chandelier; and what that harrowing experience led her to reveal about the sordid underbelly of intellectual accreditation. Suffice to say, the powerful readily exploit the vulnerable; but, in this case, the pen and the podcast are gaining the upper hand. Then, Kate and Medaya are joined by Jess Row to discuss his new groundbreaking work White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American imagination. Row brilliantly critiques a broad range of white American authors as he advocates for reparative writing, in which writers use fiction "to approach each other again" in full awareness of America's long racist history. It's nothing short of a clarion call for authors to ply their trade in the fight against Trump and the on-going racist/enthno-nationalist revival that he leads. (p.s. The amount of great literature referenced and discussed in both halves of this podcast would satisfy anyone's late summer reading list.)

In the first half of a special two-part episode, novelist and critic Jess Row and poet and critic Tim Yu talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about writing about whiteness in America. How can white writers render their communities' part in the country's history of racism, and also challenge them? Row and Yu also share their responses to Bob Hicok's recent Utne Reader essay about diversity in poetry. To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (make sure to include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Guests:Jess RowTim YuReadings for the Episode:Jess RowWhite FlightsYour Face in Mine“What Are White Writers For?” in The New Republic, Sept. 30, 2016“Native Sons: A straight white American man on loving James Baldwin and learning to write about race” in Guernica, Aug. 13, 2013 Tim Yu "The Case of the 'Disappearing' Poet: Why did a white poet see the success of writers of color as a signal of his own demise?" The New Republic, August 7, 2019White Poets Want Chinese Culture Without Chinese People Calvin Trillin's "Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" is the latest in a long artistic tradition. The New Republic, April 8, 2016, 100 Chinese Silences Whitney TerrellThe King of Kings CountyThe Huntsman Others:White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (book)"White Fragility," by Robin DiAngelo (article)"The Authentic Outsider: Bill Cheng, Anthony Marra, and the freedom to write what you don't know," by V.V. Ganeshananthan“The Dominance of the White Male Critic: Conversations about our monuments, museums, screens and stages have the same blind spots as our political discourse,” by Elizabeth Méndez Berry and Chi-hui Yang, The New York Times, July 5, 2019"The Promise of American Poetry," by Bob Hicok, Utne Reader, Summer 2019 (originally appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter 2018)"Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" by Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker, March 28, 2016Orientalism by Edward SaidMapping Prejudice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Was this episode our destiny? In episode 16, Jess Row and Meghan O'Rourke talk fate and fortune with V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell. Jess Row speaks first about race and fate, his novel Your Face in Mine, and his upcoming essay collection, White Flights. Then Meghan O'Rourke talks about how she saw her poem “My Life as a Subject” back when she wrote it, and how she understands it now, as well as her writing about the #MeToo movement and about illness. What are we responsible for, and what can we change? Readings: Your Face in Mine by Jess Row • "[Native Sons](https://www.guernicamag.com/jess-row-native-sons/)," by Jess Row, from Guernica • “Elbow Room,” by James Alan McPherson • "[Election Night,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHG0ezLiVGc)" from Saturday Night Live • "[The Gifts of Black Folk in the Age of Terrorism,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrxavMcGTW8)" by Cornel West • “[My Life as a Subject](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=192&issue=3&page=23),” and “[Idiopathic Illness](https://lithub.com/idiopathic-illness-a-new-poem-by-meghan-orourke),” by Meghan O'Rourke, from Sun in Days • “[When the Fog Lifts](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/13/magazine/the-reckoning-women-and-power-in-the-workplace.html),” by Meghan O'Rourke, from The New York Times Magazine • [The Story Behind The Song: Killing Moon by Echo & The Bunnymen](https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-behind-the-song-the-killing-moon-by-echo-the-bunnymen-1) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer and novelist, Jess Row, came through to chop it up about his novel, Your Face In Mine; the perniciousness of police movies; whiteness as a system of denial; and the trouble that inevitable comes with telling the truth.

This week, we hear from Jess Row, a Pushcart Prize and PEN/O’Henry award winning author who Granta named a "Best Young American Novelist" in 2007. Row's novel "Your Face in Mine" imagines a world in which racial reassignment surgery is a possibility, even a commonplace. In The New York Times, Dwight Garner writes that "Your Face in Mine" "puts [Row] on another level as an artist. He doesn’t shy away from the hard intellectual and moral questions his story raises, or from grainy philosophical dialogue, but he submerges these things in a narrative that burns with a steady flame. There’s some Jonathan Lethem in Mr. Row’s street-level awareness of culture. There’s some Saul Bellow in his needling intelligence."

The Regional Office is Under Attack! (Riverhead Books) In a world beset by amassing forces of darkness, one organization the Regional Office and its coterie of super-powered female assassins protects the globe from annihilation. At its helm, the mysterious Oyemi and her oracles seek out new recruits and root out evil plots. Then a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. And now, the Regional Office is under attack.  Recruited by a defector from within, Rose is a young assassin leading the attack, eager to stretch into her powers and prove herself on her first mission. Defending the Regional Office is Sarah who may or may not have a mechanical arm fiercely devoted to the organization that took her in as a young woman in the wake of her mother's sudden disappearance. On the day that the Regional Office is attacked, Rose's and Sarah's stories will overlap, their lives will collide, and the world as they know it just might end.  Weaving in a brilliantly conceived mythology, fantastical magical powers, teenage crushes, and kinetic fight scenes, The Regional Office Is Under Attack!"is a seismically entertaining debut novel about revenge and allegiance and love. Praise for The Regional Office is Under Attack! “[A] wry and propulsive work of inventive fiction by a terrific young writer! Read it!”—Jess Walter, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins “Delightfully weird, weirdly delightful! Manuel Gonzales clearly has a labyrinth of a brain—all stuffed with monsters, trapdoors, and complicated heroes. Sign me up as a member of the fan club, please.”—Kelly Link, author of Get in Troubleand Magic for Beginners “With exuberant prose and a corkscrew plot, Manuel Gonzales vanquishes artistic orthodoxies, tiresome genre boundaries and every humdrum narrative convention in sight, leaving in his wake a riveting story of secrets, betrayals, and vengeance!” —Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn and Gold Fame Citrus “[A]n exciting new voice."—Aimee Bender, The New York Times Book Review “It’s easy to compare Manuel Gonzales to George Saunders, but it would be just as easy to compare him to Borges or Márquez or Aimee Bender . . . He makes the extraordinary ordinary, and his playfulness is infectious.”—Benjamin Percy,Esquire “Manuel Gonzales has an imagination that's as expansive and open as a Texas prairie.”—Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times “A brand-new American literary voice.”—Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet “The Regional Office is Under Attack! is wickedly subversive, suspenseful, and thoughtful, all at once—but most of all, it's just fun to read, from the first  sentence to the last. Put down your expectations and pick up this book.  It'll hit you like a lightning bolt.”—Jess Row, author of Your Face in Mine “Wild, visionary, ablaze with heart and riot, The Regional Office is Under Attack! is unforgettable—an epic love story that confronts our future with a howl and fireworks.”—Paul Yoon, author of Snow Hunters Manuel Gonzales is the author of the acclaimed story collection The Miniature Wife, winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. A graduate of the Columbia University Creative Writing Program, he teaches writing at the University of Kentucky and the Institute for American Indian Arts. He has published fiction and nonfiction in Open City, Fence, One Story, Esquire, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, andThe Believer. Gonzales lives in Kentucky with his wife and two children. Jim Gavin’s fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Zoetrope, Esquire, Slice, The Mississippi Review, andZYZZYVA. He lives in Los Angeles.

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Jess Row about his novel Your Face in Mine about what his book has to say about race in America, and guest readers Ian Solomon and Shifra Sharlin join Oppenheimer to discuss identity, re-invention, and what Nabokov has to do with it all.

Jess Row, the author of “Your Face in Mine” and two short story collections, “The Train to Lo Wu” and “Nobody Ever Gets Lost” reads from his work at UC Berkeley. He has received a Whiting Writers Award, the PEN/O. Henry Award, and two Pushcart Prizes. In 2007 he was named a "Best Young American Novelist" by Granta. He teaches at the College of New Jersey and is an ordained Zen Teacher. Series: "Story Hour in the Library" [Humanities] [Show ID: 28831]

Jess Row, the author of “Your Face in Mine” and two short story collections, “The Train to Lo Wu” and “Nobody Ever Gets Lost” reads from his work at UC Berkeley. He has received a Whiting Writers Award, the PEN/O. Henry Award, and two Pushcart Prizes. In 2007 he was named a "Best Young American Novelist" by Granta. He teaches at the College of New Jersey and is an ordained Zen Teacher. Series: "Story Hour in the Library" [Humanities] [Show ID: 28831]

Not long after moving back to his hometown of Baltimore, Kelly Thorndike meets an old friend from high school who has had "racial reassignment surgery." Once a skinny, white Jewish kid, Martin has altered his hair, skin and physiognomy to allow him to pass as African American. He wants Kelly to help him sell racial reassignment surgery to the world. Kelly agrees and soon things begin to spiral out of control.Jess Row is the author of the story collections The Train to Lo Wu and Nobody Ever Gets Lost. His stories have been anthologized three times in The Best American Short Stories and have won two Pushcart Prizes and a PEN/O. Henry Award.  In 2007 he was named a "Best Young American Novelist" by Granta.Recorded On: Wednesday, August 20, 2014