Short Story Today

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. Support...

In this episode, the revered American author Willa Cather transports us to the farmlands of Nebraska in the evocative short story, "The Enchanted Bluff." A man recounts the events from a day in his youth when he met up with his buddies for a final camping outing before leaving to start his new life as a teacher in a distant town. It is night they will all remember. Support the show

The divisive and prolific D. H. Lawrence graces SHORT STORY TODAY this week with the humorous “Rawdon’s Roof,” about a man who, for mysterious reasons, would let no woman sleep beneath his roof.  Support the show

E. M.  Forster's short story,  "The Road From Colonus," examines the life of an old man during his final holiday in Greece - a  trip he has looked forward to for most of his life.  While taking off on his own one afternoon, he experiences an epiphany that convinces him to fight against the docility of old age in his waning years - but the events that unfold that day  have a profound...

In this episode we have some fun with a ghost story by the redoubtable Edith Wharton. In "Miss Mary Pask," an American painter who is trying his hand at marine art on the coast of France, pays a promised visit to the spinster sister of a good friend who happens to be living there. What he finds when he arrives proves to be more than his nerves can handle. Support the show

F. Scott Fitzgerald takes the spotlight this time with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - Part 2.  It's a fantastic tale of an unusual life, lived by an unusual man - a man whose mind and body have put him in a life-long predicament in his relationship with time. Support the show

F. Scott Fitzgerald takes the spotlight this time with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." It's a fantastic tale of an unusual life, lived by an unusual man - a man whose mind and body have put him in a life-long predicament in his relationship with time. Support the show

F. Scott Fitzgerald takes the spotlight this time with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." It's a fantastic tale of an unusual life, lived by an unusual man - a man whose mind and body have put him in a life-long predicament in his relationship with time. Support the show

The inimitable Dorothy Parker demonstrates, in her short story "Such a Pretty Little Picture," her keen eye for revealing the ennui that can begin to permeate the American Dream, in the heart of suburban America.  Support the show

In this episode, the first in a series entitled THE PRESERVATION EPISODES,  a "lost" short story is resurrected, and listeners will discover an author who has languished in obscurity for a century. This gifted Iowan weaves a poignant story full of heart. It's a Christmas story, set in an unnamed city, which explores a woman's struggles with the shame of poverty, and how she fin...

This week's short story is a classic: "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It will be presented in two parts.  The conclusion of the story will be on  Episode #3.  "The Yellow Wallpaper" is often referred to as an example of the Gothic Horror genre. The story takes place one summer on an estate in New England at the turn of the 20th Century, which a doctor h...

This week's short story is a classic: "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It will be presented in two parts.  The conclusion of the story will be on  Episode #3.  "The Yellow Wallpaper" is often referred to as an example of the Gothic Horror genre. The story takes place one summer on an estate in New England at the turn of the 20th Century, which a doctor h...

This week's short story is a classic: "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It will be presented in two parts.  The conclusion of the story will be on  Episode #3.  "The Yellow Wallpaper" is often referred to as an example of the Gothic Horror genre. The story takes place one summer on an estate in New England at the turn of the 20th Century, which a doctor h...

This week's short story is a classic: "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It will be presented in two parts.  The conclusion of the story will be on  Episode #3.  "The Yellow Wallpaper" is often referred to as an example of the Gothic Horror genre. The story takes place one summer on an estate in New England at the turn of the 20th Century, which a doctor h...

The first episode of "Short Story Today" features a story by the New Zealand author, Katherine Mansfield, entitled "The Young Girl". While travelling in Europe with her teenage daughter and young son, an Englishwoman tries unsuccessfully to pass her teenage daughter off for 21 so that she may experience what a casino is like. Unable to simply leave her outside,  the mother asks...