KJZZ is a service of Rio Salado College,
and Maricopa Community Colleges

Copyright © 2024 KJZZ/Rio Salado College/MCCCD
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A Title IX investigation into an ASU professor’s family made her question the truth

Where is the line between truth and deception? Fact and fiction? Those are some of the big questions author Sarah Viren tackles in her new memoir, "To Name the Bigger Lie."

Viren is a professor of creative writing at Arizona State University, where her wife, Marta, teaches as well. Their lives were derailed when they find out Marta was being investigated under Title IX for sexual misconduct.

While she knew the allegations against her must be lies, her increasingly desperate attempts to prove their innocence made Viren question everything — even what she knows to be true. 

Eventually, she uncovered the person behind the accusations: a man who was competing with Viren for a professor job at the University of Michigan. But proving that becomes something else entirely. 

The Show spoke with Viren about the book.

More stories from KJZZ

Lauren Gilger, host of KJZZ's The Show, is an award-winning journalist whose work has impacted communities large and small, exposing injustices and giving a voice to the voiceless and marginalized.