S8E3 Manuel Muñoz and Lester Walbrugh: "The Real Mystery of Everyday Stories"

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The Empty Chair by PEN SA

PEN South Africa

63 episodes

4 days ago

In The Empty Chair Podcast: A Transatlantic Conversation, PEN South Africa hosts authors, academics and activists based in South Africa and the USA. The podcast focuses on books, writing, social justice, freedom of expression, shared histories and possible futures. Each of our episodes is dedicated to an imprisoned writer or a writer who has been harassed by the state.

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S8E3 Manuel Muñoz and Lester Walbrugh: "The Real Mystery of Everyday Stories"

The Empty Chair by PEN SA

1 hour 8 minutes 13 seconds

2 years ago

S8E3 Manuel Muñoz and Lester Walbrugh: "The Real Mystery of Everyday Stories"

Lester Walbrugh asks Manuel Muñoz about his latest collection of short stories: The Consequences. Manuel reflects on his Mexican-American identity, working on farms as a young boy and embracing his family’s stories. He discusses deportation, silence and queer codes, community, being seen and the inclusion of Spanish in his writing.

Manuel and Lester also explore parallels between their lives in the Central Valley in the U.S. and Grabouw in South Africa.

Lester Walbrugh is from Grabouw in the Western Cape. His acclaimed short stories have been published in, among others, the anthologies of Short.Sharp.Stories and Short Story Day Africa, New Contrast and, most recently, Hair: Weaving & Unpicking Stories of Identity. He has lived in the UK and Japan and is currently back in his hometown. Let It Fall Where It Will is his debut short story collection. Elton Baatjies is his first novel. Both are published by Karavan Press.

Manuel Muñoz is the author of The Consequences: Stories (Graywolf Press, 2022). He is the winner of the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and the collection was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and was shortlisted for The Story Prize. The author of two previous collections of short stories, Zigzagger and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, and a novel, What You See in the Dark, Muñoz has been recognized with a Whiting Writer’s Award, three O. Henry Awards and two appearances in Best American Short Stories. A native of Dinuba, California, Muñoz currently lives and works in Tucson, Arizona.

In this episode we are in solidarity with Kyaw Min Swe, a news editor and journalist detained in Myanmar. We call for his freedom. As tributes to Kyaw Min Swe, Manuel reads “This Bright Day” by A. R. Ammons and Lester reads an extract from Lethokuhle Msimang’s The Frightened.

UPDATE: We welcome reports that journalist Kyaw Min Swe was released on 7 July 2023. Info and background here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/myanmar-arrest-of-journalist-latest-example-of-juntas-ongoing-repression-of-peaceful-expression

This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.