Dr. Michele Berger, associate professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and former Director of the Faculty Fellows Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, discusses what inspired her to become a Black speculative writer. She describes Zora Neale Hurston's impact on her work and how she introduces her students at UNC-Chapel Hill to Afrofuturism and Black speculative writing. In addition to offering a brief synopsis of her new novella Reenu-You, Berger describes the moment when Toshi Reagon brought Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower to UNC in opera form, which fostered an engaging environment for students and community members to connect with Afrofuturistic work. Berger is interviewed at the Zora Committee House in Eatonville, FL by Tiffany Pennamon, English doctoral student at the University of Florida.
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