Short Story Today

We're celebrating Valentine's Day with a micro fiction sampler of love stories. They're not your grandma's love stories, however. These are of the literary variety. There's sweetness and humor inside, of course - but you'll find some edgy and weird stuff in their, too. Featuring stories by Steve Almond and Pamela Painter, and the 11 contest-winning entries. Read by Al...

Author Pamela Painter is one of the most respected writers and educators in the world of short fiction. Her workbook "What If? Writing Exercises For Fiction Writers" which she co-wrote with Anne Bernays has become a staple of university writing programs. In recent years, Pamela has been teaching flash fiction workshops from coast to coast. We read her story "Deck," taken from t...

Portland, Oregon author Evan Morgan Williams gives a mini-master class on writing noir literary fiction. It's the genre he's chosen for his new novel. He finds satisfaction in creating the kinds of characters who turn out to be their own worst enemy. We read his story "A House Call," originally published in Ars Medica. Support the show

In his highly original flash fiction, Iowa author Will Musgrove applies his own unique brand of twisted logic to scenes from daily life. Zoo cages become displays of human domestic bliss and exotic animals lurk in the wallpaper of suburban homes. We read his stories "Open Tryout," "Small Town Stuffing" and "A Bout of Insomnia." Support the show

Hawaiian author Melissa Llanes Brownlee explains life on the islands as only an indigenous person who was born and raised there can. In her fiction, Hawaiian history, culture and lore are often woven together with the pop culture emblems of her youth. We read four of Melissa's flash fiction stories: 35mm, The Reused Cool Whip Container, Relax Said the Nightman, and A Primo Place to Stay. Supp...

Author Avitus B. Carle lives and writes just on the edge of Philadelphia. She has built a remarkable body of work, creating some of the most memorable characters you're likely to meet. And you can be sure that none of them will go quietly into that good night. We talk about her knack for recreating speech in dialects that were part of her family's legacy, and how having fun in the writin...

Baltimore, MD author Stephanie Parent reveals some of the mysteries of her lived experience as a submissive in a commercial BDSM dungeon while living and studying in Los Angeles. She has drawn on this for inspiration in the writing of her soon-to-be- released gothic horror novel "The Briars." We read her folk-tale inspired story "Deer, Girl," in which a young woman encounters a...

OUT NOW! Pakistani author Farah Ali lives with her family in Dubai, but her ties to her childhood home of Karachi run deep. It's often the background against which her stories unfold. She creates vivid and moving portraits of its inhabitants as they struggle to survive. We read "Bulletproof Bus," about a husband and father who is desperately working to improve his family's qual...

We celebrate the holidays with a cavalcade of holiday-themed short stories, written by some of the best contemporary writers in the field. Six professional voice artists read 12 stories - featuring Alison Fraser, Suzanne Savoy and Barrett Leddy. Plus, Jon interviews the duo behind the new anthology COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES: Elizabeth Coffey and Mark Wish. Support the show

In writing speculative fiction, Massachusetts author Cheryl Pappas sees a responsibility "to acknowledge the strange in everything."  The confining nature of American realism compelled her to seek inspiration from the works of writers like Italo Calvino while living for a time in Florence. We read "This Violent and Cherished Earth," which emerged from Cheryl's experience o...

Wisconsin-born author Elizabeth Trueblood writes stories that sometimes dance around the speculative, and at other times dive headlong into it. She populates them with survivors, many of whom possess unique "powers." There's even a "magic little girl" western - which puts a highly imaginative spin on the kind of stories of the old west that we're used to.   Support th...

Connecticut author Steven Ostrowski started life as a scrappy city kid from a large family on Staten Island. He developed a love of ice hockey back then, and has continued to play the sport to this day. He describes how he would rush straight from hockey practice to his City College English class, with his giant bag of equipment slung over his shoulder, and make the switch from brawn to brain.  He...

Utah-based author Meagan Arthur uses her stories to explore consciousness, and examine the "boundaried way of making meaning that we have inherited." In her story "The Telling is Clean," she presents a character who occupies the space between sanity and insanity.  Support the show

Kentucky author Whitney Collins spent 20 years writing non-fiction for pay before she decided it was time to take a chance with fiction. With guidance from her mentor, she learned that she was a natural once she was allowed "to go really weird."   We read her story "Bjorn," where a young woman finds a unique method of coming to grips with the loss of her "brother."  S...

 As the child of a father in the armed services, Pittsburgh PA author Molly Andrea-Ryan found herself moving frequently to a new town. Looking for a way to cope with the challenges of these uprootings, she immersed herself in books, and then discovered that writing could be her refuge. We read her story "Idle Hands," in which a young couple finds that the hobbies they have begun to think...

Globe-trotting author Claire Polders writes the kind of novels and stories that are only possible from one who possesses a deep understanding of the wider world. Her complex characters reflect this worldly wisdom in unique and surprising ways. We read her story "The Men on the Fence," which examines the fear and confusion experienced by a young boy when observing the poverty and desperat...

Upstate NY author Jared Povanda reveals his love of fantasy novels, and explains how those books gave him the building blocks to create his own unique style when blending the literary with the fantastical. For him, all magic is metaphor. We read his fanciful and visionary story "Missing Pieces," which features fairy tale characters attempting to live everyday lives among the so-called &q...

Nigerian-American author Olufunke Grace Bankole shares stories about her life, from serving as an intern with the Supreme Court, to the many impressions she took away from her years living as a child in Nigeria - which she is now compelled write about. We read her story "Niyi and the Tan Stucco House," about a young family waking up to the aftermath of an ice storm. Support the show

Oakland, CA author Minyoung Lee shares her thoughts about the ways in which  the immigrant time capsule effect contributed to her way of seeing the world, which was a constantly shifting landscape for her as her family moved from place to place across the globe. That wandering way of life was carried over into patterns that would continue for her as an adult. We read her story "Sing a Song of...

We learn from Connecticut author Julia Strayer how the misfits, eccentrics and outsiders she often writes about are, in a way, a reaction to the person she must be in her day job in high finance, which is weighted with great responsibility. We read her story "Empty House," which features some of these confused but colorful characters. Support the show

Pennsylvania author Josh Dale explains how creating a small press publishing house became a way to combine his love of books with his pursuit of a career as a writer. He provides a preview of his just-released novella, "The Light to Never Be Snuffed." We read "A Losing Bet," a story published in Maudlin House in 2022. Support the show

Michener Fellow Reena Shah talks about living as a young woman in Mumbai while learning the classical dance form known as kathak. She took inspiration from that experience when writing a series of linked short stories which would become a novel.  We read her story "Gloria," which examines some of the challenges of assimilation for a family living in Connecticut in the eighties. Support t...

New Hampshire author Sarah Schweitzer explains how writing fiction was for her a natural extension of the work she had done as a Pulitzer-nominated journalist. Her story "Love, Loss, Live" was inspired by a celebrity news item Sarah happened to read one day.  Support the show

Toronto-born author Ahsan Butt talks about growing up in a Punjabi community in Canada before venturing south to the U.S. He writes movingly about what it's like to live as a Muslim in America. We read his thought-provoking story 'Window," which explores this theme. It first appeared in Split Lip Magazine in 2022. Support the show

Danish-born, London-based author Erik Pardos Olsen writes short stories about life in East London. His online collection "Queer as in Weird" follows the life of Malthe, a gay comic looking for love in the big city as he works the comedy circuit. In the episode we read "Straight People," which was published in Parhelion Literary Magazine. Support the show