How Literature Can Save the World
Discussions and interviews with authors, scholars, and readers about the power of words, how to use that power to unite people, and what keeps readers interested and entertained enough to gain emotional perspective.
Episodes
Hub City Writers Project is a literary nonprofit organization located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Comprised of an acclaimed literary book publisher, an independent bookshop, and a literary programmer focused on education and outreach, our mission is cultivating readers and nurturing writers in both the Spartanburg community and throughout the South to foster an inclusive literary arts culture.
Find their books at Hub City Write...
Stacey Levine is the author of the novel Mice 1961, a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize that the Washington Post called “a rich and surprising country of curious hilarity, skewed lighting, awkward pratfalls, and ludicrous conversations.” Also the author of The Girl with Brown Fur: Tales & Stories, Frances Johnson, and My Horse and Other Stories, Levine received a PEN USA fiction award, a Stranger Genius Literatur...
Daniel Seifert's writing is published in The New York Times, Consequence, and Gulf Coast. His work received a Special Mention in the Pushcart Prize 2026 anthology, and has twice been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. He lives in Singapore, and is working on a novel.
Ibrahim Fawzy, is a literary translator, academic and writer from Egypt. He holds an MA in Comparative Literature. His translations, reviews and interviews have appeared or are forthcoming in ArabLit Quarterly, Words Without Borders, The Markaz Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Poetry Ireland Review, among others. He is currently an editorial assistant at R...
Mara Karlin, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities, Brookings Institute Fellow and Director for Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and author of The Inheritance.
Watch this episode here: https://youtu.be/5fsc-6-XpNU
Randy Winston, writer, Director of Fiction at The Black List, host of the podcast, Read the Acknowledgments, and former Creative Director for the Center for Fiction. Find him at RW.
Watch this interview at https://youtu.be/kePiTHOhDLU
Hugh Martin, poet and author of In Country and The Stick Soldiers, editor of War, Literature, and the Arts, professor, and veteran of the conflict in Iraq.
Joe Meno, author of Hairstyles of the Damned, Marval and a Wonder, The Boy Detective Fails, and Book of Extraordinary Tragedies; editor and professor.
Natalia Theodoridou is a transmasculine writer whose stories have appeared in publications such as Kenyon Review, The Cincinnati Review, Ninth Letter, and Strange Horizons, and have been translated into Italian, French, Greek, Estonian, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic. He won the 2018 World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction, the 2022 Emerging Writer Award by Moniack Mhor & The Bridge Awards, and the Neb...
Elizabeth Lukács Chesla is the daughter of Hungarian refugees and a mother of three. Her award-winning fiction debut, You Cannot Forbid the Flower, was published in 2023. She writes, edits, and teaches from the suburbs of Philadelphia, where she was born and raised.
Liz holds an MA in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and certificates in Transformative Language Arts and trauma-sensitive yoga. She has taugh...
Adrian Bonenberger is the author of The Afghan Post and The Road Home, a New York Times and Foreign Policy contributor, the founder of Wrath-Bearing Tree, and a combat veteran.
Brecht De Poortere was born in Belgium and grew up in Africa. He currently lives in Paris, France. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in the Hudson Review (3rd Prize Short Fiction Contest), the Missouri Review, the Baltimore Review, Grain, X-R-A-Y, The Forge Literary Magazine and Consequence, amongst others. Find him at www.brechtdepoortere.com
Wynter K Miller is the Managing Editor at Electric Literature, where she supports the publication of The Commuter and Recommended Reading. Previously, Wynter served as a contributing editor, Interim Books Editor, and Associate Editor at Electric Lit, and was the Managing Editor of Forum Literary Magazine. Find Wynter at Wynter K Miller | Editor | Writer.
Next episode will be live on N...
Matthew Krajniak earned a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston as a C. Glenn Cambor fellow. He coedited Wendy Battin: On the Life & Work of an American Master (Unsung Master Series, 2020), and his writing has appeared in Gulf Coast, Poetry Foundation, Willows Wept Review, The Avalon Literary Review, The Wax Paper, and elsewhere. He is the Executive Editor of Consequence Fo...
Sarah Starr Murphy is the Managing Editor of The Forge Literary Magazine, and her writing is in The Threepenny Review, Epiphany, Baltimore Review, and many more. She’s eternally writing a novel and never without a book to read. She’s a marathoner with epilepsy, often found wandering the forest in rural New England. Find her at Welcome! | Sarah Starr Murphy; follow her @sarahstarrmurphy.bsky.social and ...
Welcome to How Literature Can Save the World! This is an introduction episode explaining the purpose, interview format, and frequency of the podcast, as well as sharing the books that have changed my life.
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