S4 Ep. 23: From the Mouths of Babes: Wayne Miller and Elizabeth Gaffney on Writing About Children in Uncertain Times

fiction/non/fiction

Poet Wayne Miller and novelist Elizabeth Gaffney join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss writing from the point of view of children before and during the pandemic. First, Miller discusses the unknowable interior lives of children, reads poems from his new collection We the Jury, and talks about connections to his essay “Learning to Write About Your Own Children.” Later, Gaffney reads an excerpt from her 2014 novel When the World Was Young, and discusses how the traumas her child narrator survives during WWII compare to the challenges children have faced during COVID-19.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel, and don't miss our brand-new website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode is produced by Anne Kniggendorf and Whitney Terrell.

Selected readings:

Wayne Miller

• We The Jury
• Learning to Write About Your Own Children, LitHub
• When Talking About Poetry Online Goes Very Wrong, LitHub

Elizabeth Gaffney

• When the World Was Young
• Metropolis
• The 24-Hour Room

Others:

• Catcher in the Rye
• Family Ties
• The Branch Will Not Break by James Wright
• Kindred by Octavia Butler

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