The Believer is one of the most beloved and eclectic literary and cultural magazines published today. Several of The Believer's acclaimed past authors will read a selection from one of their favorite past pieces from the magazine's archives. Contributors include Jeff Chang, Esme Weijun Wang, Steve Silberman, Jesse Nathan, and Anisse Gross. Hosted by Theodore Gioia.
Theodore Gioia (Moderator) is a critic living in San Francisco. His work has appeared in The Believer, The American Scholar, Los Angeles Review of Books, It's Nice That, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Currently, he is writing a book of essays about the evolution of California culture framed through food and arts. Theodore is also the former Partnerships Director of McSweeney's, the co-curator of the "Rising Writers" series at the Mechanics' Institute, and the founder of the upcoming site Forktongue interviewing food critics on the future of food writing.
Jeff Chang's first book, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, garnered many honors, including the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award. He edited the book, Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop. Who We Be: The Colorization of America (St. Martin's Press) was released on October 2014 to critical acclaim. It was published in paperback in January 2016 under the new title, Who We Be: A Cultural History of Race in Post-Civil Rights America (Picador). His latest book, We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation (Picador), was published in September 2016. It was named the Northern California Nonfiction Book Of The Year, and the Washington Post declared it “the smartest book of the year.
Anisse Gross is an award-winning freelance writer and member of the San Francisco Writers' Grotto. She received an MA and an MFA from San Francisco State University, where she was honored with the Graduate Award for Distinguished Achievement. Her journalism, criticism and editorial work has been featured in The New York Times, The NewYorker.com, The Guardian, The Believer, The San Francisco Chronicle, Lucky Peach, and elsewhere.
Jesse Nathan's poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, the Nation, and elsewhere. He lives in San Francisco.
Steve Silberman is an award-winning science writer whose articles have appeared in Wired, the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Financial Times, Nature, and many other publications. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity (Avery 2015), which Oliver Sacks called a “sweeping and penetrating history... presented with a rare sympathy and sensitivity.” Steve is currently working on a history of cystic fibrosis, The Taste of Salt, which will be published in 2022.
Esme Weijun Wang is a novelist and essayist. She is the author of the New York Times-bestselling essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019), for which she won the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize. Her debut novel, The Border of Paradise, was called a Best Book of 2016 by NPR and one of the 25 Best Novels of 2016 by Electric Literature. She was named by Granta as one of the “Best of Young American Novelists” in 2017 and won the Whiting Award in 2018.
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