S7 Ep. 7: American Precariat: Zeke Caligiuri on the Incarcerated Writers Who Edited An Anthology on Class

fiction/non/fiction

Writer and editor Zeke Caligiuri joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion, a new collection of essays on class he co-edited along with eleven other incarcerated writers. The volume’s contributors include Eula Biss, Kao Kalia Yang, Lacy M. Johnson, Valeria Luisielli, Kiese Laymon, and many others. Caligiuri, who worked on the book while in Minnesota correctional facilities and is now free, discusses the challenges of creativity and the literary life in prison settings, as well as how the book came to be. He also reflects on the idea that “the history of class hasn't always been written by the powerful, but they have always been its editors,” as he writes in a foreword, which he reads from during the episode.

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 versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Zeke Caligiuri

• American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion (ed.)
• This is Where I Am
• Prison Noir (ed. Joyce Carol Oates)
• The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting a Writer’s Life in Prison (ed. Caits Meissner)
• How a Collective of Incarcerated Writers Published an Anthology From Prison - Electric Literature
• “Before I Was Anything” (poem) Literary Hub

Others:

• Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop
• What Incarcerated Writers Want the Literary Community to Understand: Caits Meissner on Why "Prison Writer" Is a Limiting Label (featuring Zeke Caligiuri, Literary Hub, Sept. 11, 2019)
• C. Fausto Cabrera
• Kiese Laymon
• Valeria Luiselli
• Steve Almond
• Jen Bowen
• Kristin Collier
• Sarith Peou
• Toni Morrison
• Eula Biss

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