Short Story Today

Connecticut author J. Kevin Shushtari is a practicing physician, but when it comes to his fiction, it's not the world of medicine that interests him. His stories are inspired by the unique worlds and colorful characters known to him from his Iranian father's and Irish Catholic mother's families. We read his award-winning story "The Vast Garden of Strangers," which was publ...

NYC author Francine Witte has had a major impact on the world of flash fiction. As a writer, editor and prompt session leader, she has become an influential figure, admired by her peers and looked up to by young poets and writers. We read four flash stories from her most recent collection  Just Outside the Tunnel of Love : "Potato Saga," "All the Electric Things," "Mom&apo...

We open Season 2 with Canadian author John Delacourt.  John has a fondness for the arts - especially the creatives who make it all happen. The lives of painters, actors, musicians and dancers occupy a special place in his work, and he brings the worlds they inhabit to life in unique and compelling ways. We read his story "Duende," which was published in Syncopation Literary Review. Suppo...

Author Allison Field Bell grew up in California, and has been a desert-dweller for much of her life. She now resides in the desert state of Utah, where she is pursuing her PhD in Prose at the University of Utah. In both her fiction and nonfiction, she explores how being neuroatypical affects the daily routines of individuals in ways that confine and sometimes enlarge their lives. We read her story...

Wisconsin author Scot Mitchel May boasts an unusual job resume. He's been a short order cook in a fast food joint as well as a staff writer for Wisconsin senators. And now he's a novelist, with a newly-published work, Breakneck , and two other books due to be released later this year. We read his story "Naked Cake," which was published in The Metaworker.  https://www.scottmitch...

Author Kimberly Elkins made her way from the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia to New York City, where her writing career took flight. She began as a playwright, but soon found that writing fiction was her real jam. Her award-winning novel WHAT IS VISIBLE would prove that to the world. We read her story "Boys With Wings," which was published in SLICE Magazine.  https://www.kimberlyelkins...

 As the daughter of a mixed-race mother whose own mother had come to the U.S. from Japan, Emily Doyle saw how religion, culture and society held them down, and was moved to choose a different path for herself. It was as a writer that she would find the agency she longed for. We read her story "Thursdays For Haru," which was first published in The Sun Magazine. https://www.thesunmagazine....

We continue our series CULTURE IN FICTION with a conversation with Italian-Canadian writers. Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews, Eufemia Fantetti, Lori Sebastianutti and Natalie Welsh join Jon in a conversation about growing up as the children of Italian immigrants in the Toronto area, and the ways in which their cultural heritage has influenced their work. https://on.soundcloud.com/f7n7Z https://nsjcp.jou...

The stories of New York author Carrie Esposito can be searing in their attention to the frailties found in family relationships - whether they're families of origin or families of choice. She understands the ways in which the roles we're given in life - wife, mother, son, father - can push us to our limits as we strive to learn who we really are. We read the story "Man of the House,...

In her story collection Sidle Creek , Pennsylvania native Jolene McIlwain writes about the rural America she grew up in with compassion and tenderness. That's not to say that every character is a charmer. She understands how hardship can harden folks, and writes with blinding clarity about the brutality that resides there as well. We read a story from the collection entitled "The Steep S...

To commemorate the 1 year anniversary of the podcast, we're honoring our very first guest author, John Henry Fleming, with a reading of his short story "Song for the Deaf," from his collection "Songs for the Deaf." (Burrow Press) Support the show

Indian author Mandira Pattnaik's writing career began with a surprising discovery: under the mantle of science fiction, she could express her outrage at the harm done to society by the introduction of the cellphone. She has gone on from there to address, in her stories, societal and environmental concerns such as global warming and the overdevelopment of her beloved country. We read her story...

Missouri author L Mari Harris's flash fiction is not for the faint of heart. It is her aim to push readers into uncomfortable places. Nothing is off limits: taboos, family secrets - in her stories, they're all fair game. We read two of her flash stories: "They're So Beautiful When They're Sleeping" and "The Exterminator." Support the show

When a briefcase containing his laptop and years of work was stolen, Texas author Andrew Porter nearly lost all hope. Luckily for us, a visiting writer gig at U of Maryland, Baltimore turned his life around. And the rest is history.  We read his story "Two Men," which was published in The Missouri Review.    https://www.andrewporterwriter.com/ Support the show

Canadian author Kirsti MacKenzie is blazing a trail as a writer of fiction with her unmistakable, inimitable voice. Like a modern-day Dorothy Parker, she is creating her own personal brand of razor-sharp and quick-witted fiction.  We read two of her flash stories: "The Incumbent" and "You Crown Paul Shaffer's Head With Mustard." Support the show

Growing up in rural midwest America gave author Madeline Anthes a way of seeing the world that would reverberate throughout her writing. As a mother of two young sons, she reveals how motherhood has "pushed [her] boundaries of emotional capacity," and brought a new level of depth and complexity to her work. We read four of her flash fiction pieces: "Staying Afloat," "Love...

We begin our new Culture In Fiction series with an episode featuring five accomplished Jewish writers who discuss how their faith and cultural heritage inform their work. Mara Beneway, Temim Fruchter, Mordecai Martin, Kate Schmier and Bonnie Weinstein Crowe engage in a lively conversation covering topics like Jewish humor, the Yiddishe Mama in popular culture, and the great tradition of storytelli...

Author Danny DeRock was born and raised in the U.S. Midwest, and now lives in the Netherlands. He has a PhD in political science from the University of Amsterdam, and does research on the global political economy of climate change. At the age of 34, through his own research, he determined he was autistic, a diagnosis that was medically confirmed.  He speaks candidly about how his ADHD and autism h...

California author Marianne Villanueva has no fear when it comes to writing fiction. She writes in an astonishing variety of genres, styles, tones and voices. And, on occasion, she'll even invent a new language. But they all vibrate with a verve and spirit that are unmistakably hers. We read her story "Residents of the Deep," about an explorer who believes he has discovered the lost...

California author Kyle Seibel joined the Navy and got to see the world. The impression it made would inform his writing with wisdom and wonder. In the stories that make up his new and soon-to-be-released collection Hey You Assholes , he celebrates the boy in the man, and the man in the boy. We read "Master Guns," in which a young enlisted sailor finds himself partnered with a troubled of...

California author Tanya Žilinskas has made her home of Marin County the backdrop for many of her stories. She is acutely aware that the perception of safety and security in a suburban haven is just an illusion. And for her characters, the dangers may be hiding in plain sight. We read her story "Sillage," about a woman whose personal and professional lives have prompted her to discover a...

In his stories, North Carolina author Justin Bryant is compelled to write about the things that fill him with fear. From forces of nature that wrest control away from sailors and pilots, to giant spiders, he takes back the power with his pen. We read his story "On These Seas, Colors Wash to Gray." Support the show

Minneapolis author Maureen Aitken has written a love letter to her home town of Detroit with the evocative and heart-warming stories in her collection The Patron Saint of Lost Girls . Known alternately as Motor City and Motown, the urban Michigan metropolis serves as the backdrop for the lives of a white family living in a majority-minority community during the turbulent sixties and seventies. Meg...

Washington, DC area author Stanley Stocker knew he wanted to be a lawyer from the age of ten. What he discovered as an adult was a love for writing fiction. He's now an award winning author, with a historical fiction novel in the works, which is set in Mississippi in the early 20th century. We read his Pen America Dau prize-winning story "The List." Support the show

Washington, DC area author Emily Mirengoff loves the unreliable narrator.  Her stories with first person narratives feature the kinds of interior monologues that can take readers on a spellbinding journey into a child's - or a senior citizen's mind. Meg Sewell reads a first-person narrative, "It Could Be Worse Than California." Support the show