Short Story Today
A biweekly podcast hosted by Jon DiSavino. It celebrates the enduring and compact literary form known as - you guessed it - the short story. But more importantly, it gives listeners an opportunity to hear the work of some of the best emerging writers of today. Episodes contain an author interview followed by a reading of a story by that author. Jon DiSavino is an actor and stage director. He's been producing and narrating audiobooks since 2019. His most recent is Abduction: Another Max Dent MD Adventure by Mark R. Belsky, set for publication in 2025.
Episodes
As a child, NY Times bestselling author J.D. Barker would never set foot in the basement. He'd read the stories about what happens to little boys who wander off into places like that. Now he's writing those stories - and they're doing the same thing to a whole new generation of readers. SOMETHING I KEEP UPSTAIRS is his latest. It's from Simon & Schuster. https://jdbarker.com/
Toronto author Catherine Bush writes about intimacy and connection - but ventures far beyond the human-to-human. She explores the indefinable realm where it may be possible for the natural world to reveal to us the sublime nature of all things - if we have the courage to see. Her new collection is Skin (Goose Lane Editions). For this episode, the title story from Skin is read by the author. https://catherinebush.com/
SoCal author William R. Hincy discusses his collection WITHOUT EXPIRATION, winner of the 2021 American Book Fest American Fiction Prize. He's the host of the long-running literary interview series on YouTube known as WRITERS DRINKING WHISKEY. We read "Flying," which was first published in Ancient Paths Literary Magazine.
Award-winning NJ author Laury A. Egan's new collection is Contrary - an eclectic mix of twenty-one stories which also includes a two-act play. She's the author of seventeen books of fiction and four poetry volumes. We read her story "The Impaired Pair," which appears in Contrary. https://www.lauryaegan.com/
The literary journal Saw Palm was created in 2006 by John Henry Fleming, Phd and the MFA students of the Creative Writing Program at the University of South Florida. Saw Palm's mission is to go beyond the tourist brochures and capture the unique experience of Florida lives, landscapes, and tropes. The episode features a discussion about the making of Issue 19 with Dr. Fleming and student editors Elizabeth Pottinger and Andrea ...
Award-winning Toronto author Caitlin Galway speaks with us about her "mad scientist" approach to writing, which has produced some of the most startling and original fiction being written today. Her new collection is A Song for Wildcats, published by Dundurn Press.
Canadian author Pratap Reddy was born in India, but has lived in Mississauga, Ontario since 2002. In his fiction, he pays homage to the courageous men and women who have braved hardships of every kind while seeking a new future in the West. His new collection is Remaindered People & Other Stories (Guernica Editions). From the collection, we read "Storm in a Teacup."
Award-winning NY author Sarah Freligh joins us to discuss her new collection OTHER EMERGENCIES (Univ of Arkansas Press), which is the 2025 Moon City Press Editors Choice Selection. Her oeuvre includes several poetry collections and a novella. We read "All That Water," which was first published in Stone Canoe. https://sarahfreligh.com/
With her debut collection Frail Little Embers, UK author Fija Callaghan has created a literary offering that will enchant and delight readers. In this beguiling work, she's re-imagined myths and folk and fairy tales, offering inspiring examples of the resilience of the human spirit. We read, from the collection: "Life, Death, and Other Complications."
Indiana author T.D. Johnston is the founder and editor of Short Story America, a small press that publishes the Short Story America anthology series in addition to author story collections and novels. Friday Afternoon and Other Stories, his first collection, won the 2017 International Book Award Prize for Short Fiction. We read "The First Key" from that collection. https://tdjohnston.com/
We've brought back a newly-packaged edition of our 2022 Holiday episode, featuring stories selected from our contest submissions that year, as well as a few by authors who were guests on the podcast. We've added a story from 1917 that was discovered in the archives of Project Gutenberg, and was featured in Episode 4 of the first edition of Short Story Today. Featuring the voices of Jon DiSavino, Alison Fraser, Peter Garru...
This week we've created an audiobook anthology of short stories about thanksgiving - not the holiday, per se, but the things that Thanksgiving represents: family bonds, gratitude, and benevolence. There are nine stories by five authors: Mathieu Cailler, Melissa Ostrom, Andrea Rinard, John Sheirer, and Hart Vetter. Featuring the voices of Daniel Dykiel, Sierra Lidén, Meg Sewell, and Jon DiSavino.
https://shortstorytoday.com...
Toronto author Danila Botha's third story collection, Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness (Guernica Editions), moves uniquely through time. She combines multigenerational stories that eloquently reflect on history with contemporary stories of the lives and loves of urban youth. Sierra Lidén reads "Don't Look Back," which was first published in Jewishfiction.net.
https://www.danilabotha.com/
Mississippi author Eliot Parker's second collection of stories is something of a love letter to the hard-working people of Appalachia that he's come to appreciate in the many years he's lived in the territory. Table For Two (Colorful Crow Publishing) is a multi-genre collection of tales that focus on one-on-one conversations with heart and humor. We read "Giving," the final story in the book.
https://ww...
Award-winning Massachusetts author Jeffrey Feingold will see his third short story collection published this fall. A FINE MADNESS - AND OTHER MAD STORIES (MFT Press) is a combination of literary realism and magical realism that crosses over, at times, into the surreal. What binds it all together, though, is the humor. We read "My Left Foot" from his first book, The Black Hole Pastrami.
https://jeffreymfeingold.com/
New Orleans author Marguerite Sheffer is a Professor of Practice at Tulane University, where she teaches courses in design thinking and speculative fiction as tools for social change. Read her collection The Man in the Banana Trees (Univ of Iowa Press) to see how it's done. We read "The Observer's Cage," which was first published in The Offing.
https://www.margueritesheffer.com/
Bay Area author Nina Schuler doesn't subscribe to the "write what you know" school of thought. For her, that would just be boring. In her fiction, she writes fearlessly about complex subjects like AI and the science of climate change, and makes us think about what roles we might take in an effort to make the world a better place. Karen Joy Fowler, author of Booth, has called her collection IN THIS RAVISING WORLD &quo...
New Jersey author Janis Hubschman was a marathon runner, so she understands the true meaning of endurance. The women in her debut story collection Take Me With You Next Time (Betty Books) are athletes and outdoorswomen who find themselves on terrain that challenges not only their bodies, but their hearts and minds, too. We read "Please See Me," which was first published in Chautauqua Journal.
https://www.janishubschma...
Author Tara Isabel Zambrano is an electrical engineer by day, where she relies on her left brain in designing semiconductors. She balances that by ensuring that her right brain gets time to do some playing - particularly in the form of writing fiction. Of her new collection Ruined a Little When We Are Born (Dzanc Books), Laura Picklesimer, author of Kill For Love writes: "Enchanting and heartbreaking, Zambrano’s prose pulses w...
Georgia author Viggy Parr Hampton discovered that the best way to find the satisfyingly scary horror stories she craved was to write them herself. She's just published her second novel, Much Too Vulgar, which has been described by Ronald Malfi, bestselling author of Small Town Horror as “A brash, unapologetic, and often funny novel with a delightful nasty streak." We read the story "The Waiting Mortuary," which ...
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