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About Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz

Aarthi Vadde is Associate Professor of English at Duke University. Email: aarthi.vadde@duke.edu. John Plotz is Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanities at Brandeis University and co-founder of the Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative. Email: plotz@brandeis.edu.


NBN Episodes hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz:

Novel Dialogue April 14, 2022

Why are You in Bed? Why are You Drinking?

Colm Tóibín and Joseph Rezek in Conversation

Colm Tóibín and Joseph Rezek

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Colm Tóibín, the new laureate for Irish fiction, talks to Joseph Rezek of Boston University, and guest host Tara K. Menon of Harvard. The conversation begins with Colm’s latest novel …
Novel Dialogue March 31, 2022

The Romance of Recovery

Ben Bateman talks to Shola von Reinhold

Ben Bateman and Shola von Reinhold

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Shola von Reinhold is the author of LOTE, a novel about getting lost in the archives and finding what the archives have lost. LOTE won the 2021 James Tait Black …
Novel Dialogue March 17, 2022

The Work of Inhabiting a Role

Charles Yu speaks to Chris Fan (JP)

Charles Yu and Chris Fan

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Charles Yu won the 2020 National Book Award for Interior Chinatown but some of us became fans a decade earlier, with How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe …
Novel Dialogue March 3, 2022

In the Editing Room with Ruth Ozeki and Rebecca Evans (EH)

Ruth Ozeki and Rebecca Evans

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Ruth Ozeki, whose most recent novel is The Book of Form and Emptiness, speaks with critic Rebecca Evans and guest host Emily Hyde. This is a conversation about talking books …
Novel Dialogue February 3, 2022

On Being Unmoored

Chang-rae Lee Charts Fiction with Anne Anlin Cheng

Chang-rae Lee and Anne Anlin Cheng

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Season three of Novel Dialogue launches in partnership with Public Books and introduces some fresh new voices into the mix. John and Aarthi welcome Chris Holmes, Emily Hyde, Tara Menon …
Novel Dialogue December 16, 2021

The Novel of Revolutionary Ideas

Viet Thanh Nguyen and Colleen Lye

Viet Thanh Nguyen and Colleen Lye

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning The Sympathizer and its sequel The Committed, joins esteemed scholar Colleen Lye of UC-Berkeley for a candid discussion about the Asian-American …
Novel Dialogue December 2, 2021

Dreaming or Thinking

Cristina Rivera Garza with Kate Marshall and Dominique Vargas

Cristina Rivera Garza, Kate Marshall and Dominique Vargas

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
ND stages a trialogue this week with MacArthur "Genius" Cristina Rivera Garza and Notre Dame critics Kate Marshall and Dominique Vargas. Professor Rivera Garza recalls roadtripping through Mexico in a …
Novel Dialogue November 11, 2021

Stitching the Past to the Present

Caryl Phillips speaks with Corina Stan

Caryl Phillips and Corina Stan

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Caryl Phillips, professor of English at Yale, world-renowned and prize-winning novelist (from The Final Passage to 2018’s A View of the Empire at Sunset) shares his thoughts on transplantation, on …
Novel Dialogue October 28, 2021

In Medias Res

Kamila Shamsie and Ankhi Mukherjee

Kamila Shamsie and Ankhi Mukherjee

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Acclaimed novelist Kamila Shamsie joins esteemed Oxford scholar Ankhi Mukherjee for a wide-ranging discussion of literature and politics. Ankhi raises the unique challenges facing postcolonial and specifically Muslim writers in …
Novel Dialogue October 14, 2021

Because I Couldn’t Be a Dancer

An Discussion with Sigrid Nunez and Tara Menon

Sigrid Nunez and Tara Menon

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
The brilliant New York writer Sigrid Nunez‘s most recent novel is What Are You Going Through; her previous one, The Friend, (2018) won the National Book Award. She speaks with …
Novel Dialogue September 30, 2021

Adaptation

Tom Perrotta and Mark Wollaeger Go from Page to Screen

Tom Perrotta and Mark Wollaeger

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Novelist, screenwriter, and HBO showrunner Tom Perrotta joins his old friend Mark Wollaeger (who also happens to be a top scholar of modernism) for a wide-ranging conversation about literature, television …
Novel Dialogue September 16, 2021

Fiction as Streaming, Genre as Portal

A Discussion with Jennifer Egan and Ivan Kreilkamp

Jennifer Egan and Ivan Kreilkamp

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
We are just delighted to welcome you back to the second season of Novel Dialogue, putting scholars and writers together to chew the fat, and spill secrets of the trade …
Novel Dialogue April 29, 2021

Season Wrap

Aarthi and John Reflect and Ruminate

Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Our two hosts play guest, and dive into the season’s high and lowlights, starting with the role humor played on the show. We also talk through the affordances of the …
Novel Dialogue April 22, 2021

The Novel is like a Stack of Yurts

George Saunders talks with Michael Johnston

George Saunders and Michael Johnston

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Novel Dialogue sits down with Michael Johnston of Purdue University and George Saunders, master of the short story form and author of the Booker-prize winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo …
Novel Dialogue April 15, 2021

Helen Garner is Hacking at the Adverbs

Helen Garner

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Helen Garner sits down with John and Elizabeth McMahon, a distinguished scholar of Australian literature. Helen’s novels range from the anti-patriarchy exuberance of Monkey Grip (1977) to the heartbreaking mortality …
Novel Dialogue April 8, 2021

Military Sci-Fi Minus the Misogyny

Kameron Hurley with Gerry Canavan

Kameron Hurley and Gerry Canavan

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Gerry Canavan talks to geek feminist author Kameron Hurley about her Hugo-nominated novel The Light Brigade. A love-hate letter to military science fiction, The Light Brigade turns the form on …
Novel Dialogue April 1, 2021

Getting Into Other Worlds

James Robertson with Penny Fielding

James Robertson and Penny Fielding

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
James Robertson, brilliant author of The Testament of Gideon Mack, and University of Edinburgh’s top prof. Penny Fielding beam in from their respective corners of Scotland. Extensive reference is made …
Novel Dialogue March 25, 2021

Feral Fiction

A Discussion with Catherine Lacey and Martin Puchner

Catherine Lacey and Martin Puchner

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Novel Dialogue sends Martin Puchner (polymathic author of The Written World and most recently The Language of Thieves) out to speak with Pew author Catherine Lacey. They go a-wandering. Lacey’s …
Novel Dialogue March 18, 2021

Oh, The Places You’ll Go

Madhuri Vijay talks to Ulka Anjaria

Madhuri Vijay and Ulka Anjaria

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Ulka Anjaria and Madhuri Vijay sit down to talk about Madhuri’s prize-winning first novel The Far Field. They discuss what it’s like to write intimately about a place – Kashmir …
Novel Dialogue March 11, 2021

That Demonic Novelistic Impulse

A Discussion with

Orhan Pamuk with Bruce Robbins

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
In Episode Two of Novel Dialogue, critic and scholar Bruce Robbins sits down with Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. They have taught classes on the political novel together at Columbia for …
Novel Dialogue March 11, 2021

Orhan Pamuk Reads and Glosses the End of Snow

Bonus Episode

Orhan Pamuk

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Pamuk plays scholar and novelist both. He reads the cheekily postmodernist final page of his novel Snow, while also talmudically interspersing comments on the text.Aarthi Vadde is Associate Professor of …
Novel Dialogue March 4, 2021

Do Great Novels Set the Standard or Challenge it?

A Discussion with Kelly Rich and Teju Cole

Kelly Rich and Teju Cole

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Novel Dialogue kicks off with the writer and photographer Teju Cole and literary critic Kelly Rich of Harvard University talking about “saying yes to the text” as the first rule …
Novel Dialogue March 3, 2021

Introducing a New Podcast

Novel Dialogue with Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz

Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz
Novel Dialogue : where unlikely conversation partners come together to discuss the making of novels and what to make of them. Join Aarthi Vadde, a scholar of contemporary literature and …