Short Story Today

Texas author Marcela Fuentes won a 2022 Pushcart Prize for her short story "The Observable World," published in Ploughshares in their Summer 2021 issue. It examines a romantic relationship in which neurodiversity presents challenges for the couple that are managed in surprising and creative ways.  And there's a German Shepherd named Edgar! Support the show

Minnesota author A. Rafael Johnson tells us how this week's story began life as a birthday gift to a friend in his college creative writing program - a tradition created by his classmates as a way around having to purchase a present on a student's budget. His friend is the actual Morrison of "Morrison's Note" - but similarities to actual people are, of course, not intentio...

New Jersey author Jules Chung shares a glimpse into her experience of visiting relatives as a teenager in Seoul, South Korea in her reading of her poem Cut Fruit and Castella. In our interview with Jules, she enlightens us with her views on faith, motherhood and her desire to make meaningful art. We read her story "Posting From a Secret Post-Op Bedside" about a mother who is navigating t...

Maryland author Claire Taylor tells us about her personal journey, where she first earned a  psychology degree and then became a licensed massage therapist on her path to becoming a working writer. We read her astonishing speculative fiction story, "Leap Year Mother." Support the show

Virginia author Francesca Leader reveals some of the methodology behind her award-winning translation of the Japanese Iroha poem. She tells us how, when writing stories, she works from a snippet of dialogue, an image or a remembered moment, and then slowly builds the story around it. We read two of her shorter works, The Flaw and Waves. Support the show

Connecticut author Amie Souza Reilly shares how her childhood experiences while spending summers at her grandparents' home on Lake Champlain  inspired a series of short stories set in Essex, NY.  We read her story "But when we reach the season's end, sunflowers become a food source for all the wild birds," which is taken from that collection. Support the show

Washington, DC author Andrew Bertaina offers a probing and insightful look into his creative process as he describes how he begins working on stories from an emotion or an idea, and then builds the story out from a place inside. He shares his love of landscapes, which he learned to appreciate as a boy growing up in Santa Barbara, California. We read a story from his award-winning collection, &quot...

South Carolina author Kasie Whitener talks with us about her experiences teaching entrepreneurship, hosting a SC radio show about writing and writers, and writing novels, all while being a mom to a teenage daughter.  We read her provocative short story "Two Trunks," in which a teacher in charge of a kindergarten zoo trip experiences an existential crisis when confronted with the pent-up...

With her quick wit and vaudeville timing, Arlaina Tibensky brings a breezy humor to the episode this week. She tells us about the joys of being a mother to two adolescent sons, navigating a home (and a world) full of Legos, and gives us a preview of her novel work-in-progress about a  mother-daughter safari adventure. We read her whimsical and poignant mother-son story, "Masks." Support...

Author James R. West has deep roots in the great state of Utah. He gives us a candid account of his early years of life in a Mormon family, and his transition into the adult who would decide to leave that part of his life behind. We read "Cadillac," a coming-of-age story into which some of those early boyhood experiences have found their way. Support the show

Ohio author Kerry Langan tells Short Story Today about growing up in Buffalo, writing stories from a child's point of view, venturing outside her comfort zone to write a speculative fiction piece, and the pleasure she gets from creating male protagonists for her stories.  https://www.shortstorytoday.com Support the show

Scott Laudati talks about growing up in an unusual neighborhood in Staten Island, his harrowing experiences working as a dock builder for the City of NY, and being related to the outlaw Jesse James. We read his coming-of-age story, The First Execution , about a friendship fraught with the urge for ritual violence. Support the show

South Florida born, New York based author Elana Marcus is our guest on this episode. She tells us about the personal history she drew from in order to write her award-winning short story "Next of Kin." Using a second-person narrative, it addresses a recently-deceased man who was fiancé, stepfather, father, brother, son and ex-husband to the members of his family who have assembled in his...

Lis Anna-Langston tells Short Story Today about some of the colorful characters that populate her stories and novels - and about how the Buddhist teachings she follows have given her a way to cope with the rejection that is inevitable when submitting works for publication. We read her humorous and provocative story about marital infidelity, "The Descent." Support the show

Corley Longmire speaks about growing up in the Southeast, and how her childhood experiences of extreme weather have found their way into her stories.  She writes about gender and societal expectations, bodily autonomy, familial bonds, isolation, and the relation between identity and place. We read her story "Because They Can Get Lost," which examines the unusual ways in which grief can s...

In this inaugural episode of the all-new Short Story Today podcast, we celebrate John Henry Fleming, author of the novel "The Legend of the Barefoot Mailman" and the short story collection "Songs for the Deaf." The story featured in this episode is from that collection. In "Wind and Rain," a young man speaks to his younger brother, who lies in a coma following an inci...

We bring the "Classic" version of Short Story Today to a close with an episode devoted to the American author, Kate Chopin. Her stories of life in New Orleans and its environs at the turn-of-the-century, which frequently examine the plight of women in marriages of her day, have provided her with a place of respect in early feminist literature.  In this episode, we read two stories: &quot...

Bret Hart, one of the true masters of the short story form, composes a heartwarming tale of the wanderings of a little girl and her family of home-made dolls - a portrait of life during the California Gold Rush.  Support the show

In "A Mother of Five," Bret Harte, one of the true masters of the short story form, composes a heartwarming tale of the wanderings of a little girl and her family of home-made dolls - a portrait of life during the California Gold Rush.  Support the show

In his short story "The Magic Shop," the British titan of science fiction, H. G. Wells conjures up a shape-shifting world inside a mysterious London storefront where a little boy and his father have an experience together that will bond them for life. Support the show

"Death in the Woods"   In this masterpiece by American author Sherwood Anderson, the meaning of life (and death) are brought home to a man as he pieces together the fragments of a childhood memory that have haunted him ever since that long-ago day. Support the show

We bring Virginia back again because we can't ever get enough of her. The story this time is "Solid Objects," a whimsical  yet surprisingly poignant tale about a chap who's headed for a seat in Parliament, only to be derailed by his obsession with finding lost objet d'art. Support the show

We honor the innovative British author of the Bloomsbury Set this week with a reading of her weird and wonderful short story, "Kew Gardens," which takes place one hot summer day in the eponymous park. Curious things are happening close to the ground, in the sky and all around...   Also in this episode: Part 2 of the interview with the creators and hosts of the Get Lit podcast, Stephanie...

We honor the innovative British author of the Bloomsbury Set this week with a reading of her weird and wonderful short story, "Kew Gardens," which takes place one hot summer day in the eponymous park. Curious things are happening close to the ground, in the sky and all around... Support the show

SHORT STORY TODAY and GET LIT, the literary history podcast join forces this week for Reading Ireland Month with crossover episodes devoted to the mighty James Joyce! The short story for this episode is "A Painful Case" from Joyce's anthology, "The Dubliners." It's about the fate of two lonely people who meet at an inopportune time in each other's lives. Plus an...