Today we are joined by author Shannon Robinson whose debut short story collection The Ill-Fitting Skin won Press 53's award for Short Fiction. Our conversation was interrupted by a major storm, but we reconvened a few days later to finish talking about the first story in her collection, "Origin Story." Shannon Robinson’s writing has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, Joyland, Nimrod, The Hopkins Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in fiction from Washington University in St. Louis, and in 2011 she was the Writer-in-Residence at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Other honors include Nimrod's Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts, a Hedgebrook Fellowship, a Sewanee Scholarship, and an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland Arts Council. She teaches creative writing at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Baltimore with her husband and son. You can buy The Ill-Fitting Skin at all bookstores and on Press 53's website (www.Press53.com) and find Shannon at www.ShannonRobinson.org. Are you a writer who would like to be on the podcast? Drop me a line at barnburningpodcast@gmail.com.