S8 Ep. 15: Ream Shukairy on Syria After Assad

S8 Ep. 15: Ream Shukairy on Syria After Assad

fiction/non/fiction · 2025-01-09

Following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, novelist Ream Shukairy joins Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the country’s future. Shukairy, who grew up in California and spent summers in Syria, reflects on the long history of Syrian resistance to oppression, as well as how parts of her family emigrated. She also talks about how it feels to emerge from a culture of fear and surveillance, what it’s like to revisit what she previously wrote about Assad, and the places she wants to see when she returns to Syria for the first time in years. Shukairy reads from her young adult novel The Next New Syrian Girl.
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 podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Ream Shukairy

The Next New Syrian Girl

Six Truths and a Lie


Others:

Return to Homs

For Sama


The White Helmets (film)


The White Helmets (organization)

Last Men in Aleppo

Cries from Syria

Still Recording

The Cave


Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War by Leila Al-Shami and Robin Yassin-Kassab



Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy by Yassin al-Haj Saleh



Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family’s Lust for Power Destroyed Syria by Sam Dagher



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fiction/non/fiction

Hosted by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan, fiction/non/fiction interprets current events through the lens of literature, and features conversations with writers of all stripes, from novelists and poets to journalists and essayists.

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