In September, the novelist Lionel Shriver caused quite a stir in the literary world when she delivered her now-notorious speech about cultural appropriation at the Brisbane Writer’s Festival. In her speech, she argued that censorious identity politics are potentially suffocating to literary inspiration, since authors fear that creating characters from marginalized backgrounds will invite charges of cultural pillaging. She delivered her remarks while wearing a sombrero. The outrage was immediate and far reaching. 

This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to Lionel Shriver about her infamous remarks on cultural appropriation as well as her dystopian vision for an America under the presidency of Donald Trump.