View on Zencastr

Editor and writer Robert Runte joins Mark and Joe on the podcast to encourage everyone to read R. F. Kuang’s satire of the publishing industry, Yellowface.

Robert is a long-term science fiction reader and for many years a reviewer and critic. That turned into a new role when one of the small presses he reviewed, Five Rivers, asked him to become one of its editors. That’s how he became Joe’s editor for A Time and a Place.

The three discuss the nature of editing. “Most publishing houses work off the Chicago Manual of Style,” Robert says, “mainly because it was the first style guide for books.”

Robert outlines how he approaches the art of editing with different writers.

Then they move on to R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface, which Robert loved. He recommends that everyone listen to the audiobook version of the novel because the actor, Helen Glazer, picks up all the subtleties of the story. Robert says the Glazer does such a good job of showing you the narrator’s point of view that she gets the reader through the most cringe-inducing and tough bits of satire.

The novel is a satire, tackling cultural appropriation and plagiarism in the publishing industry.

“The only consistent thing in the book is that everybody is awful. They’re just terrible people,” Robert says.

“If you’re a writer or you want to be a writer, you HAVE to read this book!”

A fun read and a fun conversation!