Episodes 11-20

Ep. 11 "Liz Gorinsky"

Friend of the podcast Liz Gorinsky arrives to share her experiences as an editor, from her early days of reading comic books, to her work at Tor.com, and finally starting Erewhon Books. Mary Anne and Ben inquire about the technical and career aspects of editing, as well as the importance of grappling with their internal editor in their own writing process.

Note: Ben and Liz refer to The Unravelling releasing in May, but the date has been moved to June 8.

You can find out more about Erewhon Books and Liz by going to www.erewhonbooks.com and http://lizgorinsky.com/.

Recorded 7 March 2021 / Published 7 June 2021

Ep. 12 "The Unraveling"

Stepping down momentarily from being a co-host, Ben is interviewed by Mary Anne and Jed about his newest book, The Unraveling, a tale of social unrest in a far future society. The trio explore the themes of gender, pronouns, societal structure, parenting, and even surveillance that are brought up in Ben’s story.

You can find out more about Ben’s book on the Erewhon Books website, where you can find links to purchase the Unraveling as well.

Recorded 25 April 2021 / Published 14 June 2021

Ep. 13 "Food (and/or Cricket) Can Solve Everything"

This time around, the impetus for this discussion is Mary Anne’s new cookbook, Vegan Serendib, a companion piece to her previous A Feast of Serendib, an Amazon bestseller. Friends of the show, writers V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan and Nayomi Munaweera are invited to the podcast to talk Sri-Lankan history, writers, and food in anticipation of Mary Anne’s newest cookbook.

If you want to find out more about Vegan Serendib, or support it, you can visit the Kickstarter Mary Anne is running at https://bit.ly/3vI4bTX.

Recorded 15 June 2021 / Published 21 June 2021

Ep. 14 "Chore Charts and Cookies"

Trapped in quarantine during the early stages of the pandemic, Mary Anne and Ben delve into their family structures through a lens of domesticity. Ben introduces and explains his chore chart, which was created earlier in his life and has developed into a well running machine. And Mary Anne asks the question of whether or not you should get a cookie for doing the right thing.

Recorded 20 May 2020 / Published 28 June 2021

Ep. 15 "An Interview with Farah Mendlesohn"

Join Mary Anne as she interviews Farah Mendlesohn about international science fiction and her latest book, The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein.

Recorded 2019 / Published 5 July 2021

Ep. 16 "How We Started"

Stranded in the Swiss Alps, Ben reminisces with Mary Anne about their early writing in what is essentially a sequel to the “Gamifying the Rejection” episode. The two also discuss the importance of magazines in their lives, and how starting Strange Horizons impacted budding and established writers alike in the field.

Recorded 12 July 2020 / Published 12 July 2021

Ep. 17 "An Interview with Nalo Hopkinson"

Join Mary Anne as she interviews Nalo Hopkinson about the exceptional use of language and vernacular in her work.

To read the transcription of the interview, click here.

Recorded 2019/ Published 26 July 2021

Ep. 18 "Cadwell Turnbull"

In movies, shows, and books, the aliens often invade the biggest, most iconic cities in our world. But what if the aliens chose to inhabit a place like the US Virgin Islands? In this episode, Mary Anne and Ben interview Cadwell Turnbull on his sci-fi book, The Lesson, and what its representations of aliens, violence, language, and culture says about our own troubled history with colonialism.

Recorded 29 November 2020 / Published 9 August 2021

Ep. 19 "Delia and Ellen, Pt. 1"

Mary Anne and Ben catch up with old friends Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner. In the first half of the episode, the hosts of MRAH speak to Delia about her balladic influences, formula fiction, and the process of writing Freedom Maze. In the last half of the episode, Ellen switches with Delia to talk about her book Swordspoint, the intricacies of collaborative writing, and more.

Recorded 6 June 2021 / Published 23 August 2021

Ep. 20 "Delia and Ellen, Pt. 2"

In the second part of their discussion, both Delia and Ellen are present to talk Shakespeare, writing style, character realism, dialogue, the queer side of the genre history, and more with Mary Anne and Ben.