Barn Burning: Short Stories

Welcome back to Barnburning, a short story podcast! We are joined by Willie Davis who reads his story, "Battle Hymn" from his new short story collection, I Can Outdance Jesus: Short Stories and Tall Tales in an Age of Blasphemy, published by the Cowboy Jamboree Press . Willie can be found online at www. IAmWillieDavis.com and on Xwitter @iamwilliedavis.

Today we are joined by author Shannon Robinson whose debut short story collection The Ill-Fitting Skin won Press 53's award for Short Fiction. Our conversation was interrupted by a major storm, but we reconvened a few days later to finish talking about the first story in her collection, "Origin Story." Shannon Robinson’s writing has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, Joyland, Nimr...

Has your life ever been changed by an author? Twenty years ago this week, my life was forever changed by something I read in a magazine . Looking back, it's silly to imagine but it's true: I became a lawyer because of P.G. Wodehouse. And Anthony Lane. Join us on Barn Burning as we read one of Wodehouse's minor masterpieces, The Great Sermon Handicap, featuring that timeless upstairs-do...

Who murdered the samurai? Was it the notorious thief Tajomaru? Was it the samurai's heartbroken wife? Or did he leave a message telling us who the real killer was? In a dark story about an inscrutable world, Akutagawa asks what is truth, what do we believe, and what stories do we tell ourselves? CW: sexual assault Translator: Takashi Kojima Are you a writer and want to have your short story on...

Hello, Barn Burners! I met acclaimed writer Thomas H. McNeely at Inprint in Houston to record him reading his story, Tickle Torture. The story is from his collection, Pictures of the Shark , which I read and recommend for its powerful and relatable depictions of a tumultuous childhood. In a starred review, Kirkus has called Thomas H. McNeely's book, Pictures of the Shark: Stories "an emotionally t...

Welcome back to Barn Burning! After an extended hiatus, the Barn Burning short story podcast is back with a killer episode about hamsters, motherhood, and grief. I was honored to have on writer-poet @LannieStabile to read and discuss her story "Muriel vs. the Hunger," which was published in Sledgehammer Lit in November 2021. Lannie Stabile (she/her), a queer Detroiter, is the winner of OutWrite’s...

Welcome back to Barn Burning, a short story podcast! I had the great pleasure of speaking with writer Wendy J. Fox about her story Tornado Watch, from her forthcoming collection of interconnected stories, What If We Were Somewhere Else? The book comes out in November 2021 and you can pre-order a copy here: https://bookshop.org/a/1986/9781951631055. You can also find Wendy at her website: https://w...

I was honored to have British writer Kieran Wyatt share three short stories on the Barn Burning Podcast, 'Seagull' 'Leviathan' & 'Spaniel' , which first appeared in The Art of Everyone . We talked on UK Mother's Day about liminal places, magical realism, and the Camel Derby.  Kieran Wyatt lives on the Fylde Coast.  He is co-chair of GenSex (@GenSexResearch), an in...

Today I had the pleasure of reading J. Edward Kruft's story "The Big Balloon," followed by a wide-ranging conversation with Joe about MFA programs, character motivation, and the #FlashFiction format.  "The Big Balloon" appeared in the June 2020 issue of Door is a Jar Magazine and you can find it on his website . J. Edward  Kruft received his MFA in fiction writing from Brooklyn College,...

In this special episode, I sat down with writer Elizabeth Gonzalez James to read and discuss her story "What Kind of Love Is That?" which appeared in The Rumpus in September 2018. We discussed empathy, grace, and birthing cows. It was a great pleasure to have her on the show to discuss her fiction.  Elizabeth Gonzalez James' stories and essays have  appeared in The Idaho Review, PANK, Barrelhouse,...

Ask not for whom the Red Death comes, it comes for... everyone! You may remember this story as a nice little piece of gothiness, but I guarantee you it will shock you how eerily reminiscent of our modern moments it is. 

Over a hundred years before George Romero, Mark Twain wrote a cutting satire of politics and politicians which is still delicious in its mordant humor.

Today we talk about James Joyce’s classic short story, Araby, and the quest of a besotted young man. Sorry, no Irish accents.

What happens to the unemployed & dispossessed when a country is blighted by natural disasters & plague?

A seminary student warms himself by the fire of two widows and tells a biblical tale...

Welcome to Barn Burning, a podcast about short stories! Is Louise Mallard’s wedding bed like to be her death bed? How much of an emotional roller coaster can she endure in an hour?