In the third episode of Season Two of The Empty Chair, PEN SA board member Bongani Kona interviews Tope Folarin. Tope talks about fatherhood, the American dream, his apprenticeship as a writer, his novel A Particular Kind of Black Man, reading Damon Galgut, autofiction, literary gatekeepers, and the need to construct new realities.

In this episode we stand in solidarity with Selahattin Demirtaş from Turkey. He is a writer and former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) who has been held in detention since November 2016 on charges that aim to stifle pluralism and limit freedom of political debate.

To learn more about his case, go to https://pen-international.org/campaigns/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-2021

This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.