Extra Literary Affairs Podcast

Welcome back to another episode of the Extra Literary Affairs podcast! This week we are discussing "Friday Black" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. This is the titular story from his debut short story collection published in 2018. Adeji-Brenyah gives us a seemingly hyperbolic version of Black Friday filled with zombie like customers, brutality, and plenty of important social commentary. Listen along as...

Welcome back to another episode of the Extra Literary Affairs podcast. This week Jennifer and Joey discuss two works by Langston Hughes; a poem titled, "Mother to Son" and a short story titled, "Thank You Ma'am". Follow along as we trace parallels between the two works and dive a little deeper into the history of the Harlem Renaissance. 

Welcome back to another episode of the Extra Literary Affairs podcast. This week Joey and Jennifer are discussing one of the most iconic American short stories, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. We explore the idea of fate, how Jackson utilizes dread, and establish an all too convincing status quo.   

Welcome back to another episode of Extra Literary Affairs! This week Jennifer and Joey discuss "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin. Follow along as we delve into utilitarian philosophy, question the morality of utopian societies, and provide some historical background to help us understand why LeGuin may have included ideas like freedom of sexual expression.

Welcome to Extra Literary Affairs! We have officially rebranded and are excited to delve deeper into a multitude of new topics. This week, Joey and Jennifer discuss "The Ones Who Stay and Fight" by beloved fantasy / sci-fi author, N.K. Jemisin. In this episode, we discuss why this story is effective from a technical writing perspective and why this utopic society has been able to achieve equity. ...

Check out this week's episode where we discuss one of the greatest sci-fi short stories of all time.  Follow along as we discuss what happens to society when free thinking is oppressed, and the only currency is an elusive new idea.  

Welcome back to another episode of Extra Literary Affairs, a LitFiction podcast.  This week Jennifer and Joey discuss if Flannery O'Connor's work still merits scholarship. Should we continue to read problematic authors? Can we separate the author from the text? Do we still have anything to gain from stories with harmful rhetoric?  *Please excuse Joey's poor audio!

Check out this week's episode where we discuss a story we have all been waiting for, "A Good Man is Hard to Find".  This is a widely anthologized and studied story about an everyday American family whose family vacation gets cut short by an escaped prisoner named, "The Misfit". Follow along as we discuss the idea of "grace" and morality. 

It's officially the new year!  Check out our first episode of 2025 and learn about our reading goals for this year.  We have a list of new authors we want to discuss and would love to hear from you!

New Episode! Check out this week's new episode as we change it up and discuss an essay, for the first time ever!  Follow along as we walk the streets of London with Woolf and experience the imagination.

Welcome back to another episode of Extra Literary Affairs, a LitFiction podcast.  Today I am exploring and engaging with the tradition of reading creepy ghost stories during long cold nights of the holiday season.  I am advocating for everyone to read ghost stories to help us make it through the winter and connect us to ancient traditions.  There is no better ghost short story than "The Empty Hous...

Check out this week's episode where we discuss "One Christmas Eve" by Langston Hughes. Follow along as we analyze the technical structure of this story and the nuance of this holiday story.

Welcome back to another episode of Extra Literary Affairs, a LitFiction podcast.  Today I am discussing and analyzing Audre Lorde's essay, "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power".  In it, she advocates for us to forget out connection forged for us between the word "erotic" and adult content.  When we reclaim fully embracing our experiences, we can live a fuller life and rebel against oppressive...

Check out this week's episode where we reflect on this past year of reading on our podcast and in our personal reading lives.  We discuss our favorites, our least memorable, and stories we wished we had analyzed.    

Check out this week's new episode as Jennifer discusses her love for the work of George Saunders.

New Episode! Check out this week's episode where we discuss "Ghoul" by George Saunders featured in the New Yorker in 2020.  Listen along as Jennifer and Joey delve deeper into this underground world and try to discover is plethora of secrets.   #literature #shortstory #reading 

Welcome back to another episode of Extra Literary Affairs, a LitFiction podcast.  This week I am discussing two poems by William Blake that share the same name, "The Chimney Sweeper".  Follow along as I explore his life, the inspiration for his work, and the journey of the fiction chimney sweeper as he grows from young and innocent to old and experienced.   #poetry

Check out this week's episode where we discuss Shakespeare Part II, Sonnet 18.  We know Shakespeare can seem hard to understand, so our goal is for you to walk away with the understanding that you already have everything you need to decode this dated language.  This sonnet is well-known and will help you better connect with the words of the world's greatest playwright.   #shakespeare #sonnets #poe...

Check out this week's new episode of Extra Literary Affairs, a LitFiction podcast, where I discuss a flash fiction story, "The War of The Clowns" by Mia Couto, with my two special guests, Jenna and Brian.  If you have read flash fiction and walked away confused and feeling like you missed the point, don't worry!  Follow along as I lead my guests towards a deeper understanding of the text. #flashfi...

New Episode! Check out this week's episode where we discuss "The Aleph" by Jorge Luis Borges.  If you have are curious to read his dense and complex stories, this is the perfect place to start.  "The Aleph" is an unrequited love story, full of passion, longing, and desperation to reunite with a loved one. Follow along as we discuss a little more about Borges' life and the possible inspiration for...

Welcome back to Extra Literary Affairs, a LitFiction Podcast.  This week I am determined to demonstrate how Shakespeare is not as difficult as you may think.  In less than 10 minutes, you will walk away with a better grasp of how to read his work and tools to decode his writing.  

Check out this week's episode where we discuss Shakespearean Sonnet 94.  Our goal is to show you that understanding and decoding Shakespeare is not as difficult as it may seem.  His words are still very much relevant today and certainly worth the effort!   #literature #shakespeare #sonnets #poetry

Welcome back to another episode of Extra Literary Affairs, a LitFiction podcast.  This week I am joined by Jennifer to discuss, our first ever, non-fiction essay, "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" by Audre Lorde.  Follow us as we discuss why we are not protected by our silence and how we can use reading and actively listening to others to gain empathy.    

Check out this week's new episode where we discuss Sherlock Holmes' first case, "The Gloria Scott".  Listen along as we delve into determining if this is genre or literary fiction and the cultural impact the death of Holmes had on the population during his peak.   #sherlockholmes #mystery #literature

Welcome back to another episode of Extra Literary Affairs, a LitFiction Podcast.  Today we are delving into the definitions of Genre and Literary Fiction with the help of two short stories: Stephen King's "The Road Virus Heads North" and W.W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw".  Both stories center around a cursed object and will serve as the perfect examples to show the difference.