Unbound Podcast

Panelists: Gabino Iglesias and Ann Dávila Cardinal Moderator: Sheri-Marie Harrison Not all monsters are creatures that go bump in the night. Some horrors are everyday, and the most frightening tales often follow monstrous human behavior. This panel brings together writers of thrilling fiction to discuss the ways scary stories reflect truths about the horrors constructed by society and the monsters...

Panelists: Alexander Weinstein, Akil Kumarasamy, Andrew Yoon Moderator: John Joseph Adams Ours is an era in which artificial intelligence is the hidden engine behind so much of society and culture, and is even making inroads into art. Depictions of AI in literature therefore have a relevance like never before. The authors on this panel are known for their thoughtful literary engagement with the in...

  Panelists: BJ Best, Andrew Ervin, Brittney Morris Moderators: Whitney Terrell, V.V. Ganeshananthan Life relies on play. Kittens learn to hunt by pouncing on siblings, springboks practice leaping away from predators, and great apes form bonds through bouts of tag. Video games are the latest installation of gameplay to humans. The writers on this panel have wrestled with the human desire to play g...

Panelists: Desideria Mesa, José Faus, CJ Janovy Moderator: Whitney Terrell How is Kansas City portrayed in literature? Four KC-based writers discuss the city's long literary legacy and its future. The city has experienced unprecedented growth in its writing and artistic communities over the past twenty years. Has the "traditional" literary take on the city changed? How welcome are authors from div...

Panelists : Phong Nguyen , Jocelyn Cullity , Vanessa Riley Moderator : Trudy Lewis We often act as though the West invented the idea of the powerful woman. Yet women have succeeded as political and military leaders throughout the world, often in times of revolution and transition. These three writers of historical fiction have researched and written novels about three such historical moments in wh...

Panelists : Calvin Kasulke , Akil Kumarasamy , YZ Chin Moderator : Donald Quist Once upon a time, networks were made of connected people. Now, the most relevant networks are digital. As technology advances and invades our workplaces, we're faced with a cloud of innovations that change the shape and nature of our work lives. These three writers trace the wires of influence in our workplace.

Panelists : Megan Kaminiski , Megan Giddings , Sun Yung Shin , Desideria Mesa Moderator : Tina Casagrand Foss Where do we find hope, community, and belonging in the face of a divided and distant society? If only there were some magic to see things differently. These writers' latest books use witchcraft, divination, and the power of nature to turn our everyday world on its head and fight against op...

Panelists : Angela Hume , Jennifer Haigh , Natalie Y. Moore Moderator : Molly Housch Gordon In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, Margaret Atwood wrote "I thought I was writing fiction in The Handmaid's Tale." A theocratic United States where women were treated as if they were "in 17th century New England" seemed to her, in 1985, to be "far-fetched" and "silly." Yet Gilead is slowly becoming an...

In their most recent novels, Christopher Castellani and Jocelyn Cullity base their stories on actual people (Tennesse Williams in Castellani's  Leading Men ) or events (the 1857 siege of Lucknow in Cullity's  Amah and the Silk-Winges Pigeons .) How did they merge fact and fiction? What are the responsibilities of a storyteller to stick to the facts, if the truth that they're looking for lies elsew...

The writing and writers of rural America are as rich and varied as those of any American landscape. These three writers give voice to real and imagined lives that resonate from the holler to the rolling hills, from splendid isolation to cacophonous interference; from margin to center.   Panelists: Kayleb Rae Candrilli, Garrard Conley, Crystal Wilkinson