Beyond the page: Podcasts discussing POC authors
To those wishing to prolong their stay with books but also not finding anyone to discuss them with, podcasts are an ideal option for listening to candid but researched discussions on books, authors, and the time in which they were writing. Podcasts also allow the chance to learn about new texts and writers you may have never heard of otherwise. The following are podcasts that focus on POC writers, a list made because of the heavy Eurocentrism still present in the lists and bookstores known around Bangladesh. This listicle is limited in its scope in that the majority of the selected podcasts are in English and so many wonderful podcasts may be missed because of the issue of language. However, it is a start.
World Book Club
As the name of this podcast suggests, it involves discussions with writers from different parts of the world. You'll not only come across interviews with incredibly popular authors such as Paolo Coelho and Arundhati Roy, but authors from China, Egypt, South Africa, and Zimbabwe who may have escaped your radar. Additionally, one of the most unique parts of this podcast is that it involves calls from enthusiastic readers from all over the world. In this way, there is an old-timey element to it as it can remind one of the days when tv shows would get phone calls.
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Bulaq
This podcast, hosted by M Linx Qualey and Ursula Lindsey in Morocco and Jordan respectively, features episodes exclusively focusing on Arab writers and Arabic literature in translation. You will come across writers both famous in the international realm, such as Ghassan Kanafani and Naguib Mahfouz, along with more modern writers you may not have heard of, such as Hamdi Abu Julayyil/Golayyel and Yassin Adnan.
However, even when it's on writers you may be familiar with, this podcast's hour-long episodes focuses on less noticed aspects of both a writer's life and their work, whether it's a form of writing that the public usually does not associate them with or interesting anecdotes and characteristics that shed a light on how they were as people. It's a gold mine for those looking to become familiar with Arabic literature while also getting tidbits of advice for translation, as well as for learning about the socio-political history of various Arab nations.
The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice
This is a podcast I discovered after being disappointed with the repeated readings of mostly white writers from the past, despite the many translations available for works across the globe. Through this, I came across authors I had never heard of before, either because I wasn't taught them in classrooms or didn't come across them in social media. They include: Jamil Jan Kochai (Afghan), Weike Wang (Chinese American), Aysegul Savas (Turkish), Han Ong (American), and Alejandro Zambra (Chilean). And one of the most exciting parts? Living authors read their own works, so you get a rare glimpse into how the author intends the tone of their work to be.
Canonical
I came across this podcast while searching for discussions on Mo Yan, a Chinese author who is a Nobel Prize winner, but on whom you barely find podcast discussions. Through Canonical, I also found a sizeable number of texts by POC authors that were being explored. I realised that despite not explicitly mentioning it, the podcast often attempts to find authors of various backgrounds. The concrete proof came in the last episode, in which one of the hosts showed a percentage of their works according to countries. The USA took a 55% chunk, while the country with the second highest percentage of books was Nigeria, with other countries making up various other episodes. Though this podcast is no longer active, it has enough episodes to keep one occupied, and comparisons between authors of different nations can be found.
Aliza Rahman is a writer based in Dhaka.
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