Happy Holidays! This year, we're revisting our first ever Christmas Episode from 2021.
We are reading the timeless festive poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas, more commonly known as 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, and comparing it with a short story based on the classic narrative, by James Thurber. Curl up with a cup of mulled wine and enjoy our musings on Santa Claus, sugarplums and the demise of the kerchief.
Link to Stories:
This week we are reading "Caturday" by Emma Brankin and we are THRILLED to be joined by the author herself to discuss the story, and her brand new collection Attention Seekers, which is available now.
Caturday follows the story of Ash as she navigates a complicated relationship with her ex and the cat they once shared, who has become an internet sensation. Attention Seekers is Brankin's darkly comic debut collection, bringing to life characters as they stuggle with their identity, their place in the world, and the lure of the spotlight.
The author has made the story available for free on her website here.
Caturday was first published in So To Speak Journal.
Buy Attention Seekers in your local bookshop or online retailer and follow Emma Brankin (and her cat!) @sabre_reads
Instagram: @shortsthepod X: @shortsthepod Produced & edited by Alex Crowson
This week we’re reading Taylor Swift, a piece of flash fiction by Hugh Behm-Steinberg, published by Gulf Coast Mag.
In the alternate reality of the story, our narrator buys several Taylor Swift clones, whom they use to deal with their emotions over their next door neighbour and friend Tina. As the story progresses, we ask questions over the extreme commodification of celebrity, and the incomparable power of human connection.
Link to story: https://gulfcoastmag.org/journal/28.2/2015-barthelme-prize-winner-taylor-swift/
Instagram: @shortsthepod X: @shortsthepod Produced & edited by Alex Crowson
This week, we're reading "Ophelia" by Breanne McIvor. It was published in April 2017 on Adda, the online literary magazine of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Ophelia is a story about a young man who falls for a woman in the cast of a play he is in. As he prepares for a coffee with her - which could be their first date - he realises the distance between them, and decides he can’t go through with it. This is a story about class, about race, and how to navigate who you are.
Link to story: https://www.addastories.org/ophelia/
Instagram: @shortsthepod X: @shortsthepod Produced & edited by Alex Crowson
This week, we're reading “How To Be An Other Woman” by Lorrie Moore which was first published in 1985. The story is told from the perspective of Charlene, a secretary, who has an affair with a married man. One of the most famous examples of second person narration, How to Be an Other Woman follows Charlene as she navigates her identity from carefree mistress to jealous rival. Link to Story (you need to read both parts!)
Instagram: @shortsthepod X: @shortsthepod
Produced & edited by Alex Crowson
This week, we're reading “The Heart In The House” by Aaron Muller. It was published in 2022 in Cold Signal magazine. Part comedy, part horror, this story is a surrealist dive into a woman’s relationship with the house she recently purchased, which appears to be alive. Link to Story: "The Heart in the House" by Aaron Muller
Instagram: @shortsthepod X: @shortsthepod
Produced & edited by Alex Crowson
This week, we're reading “The Lazy River” by Zadie Smith. It was published in December 2017 in the New Yorker. In this story, a group of British families go on holiday at an all-inclusive resort in Southern Spain. This simple premise belies extraordinary metaphors about life, materialism, and inequality. Link to Story: "The Lazy River" by Zadie Smith
Link to the author reading the story: Zadie Smith Reads "The Lazy River"
Instagram: @shortsthepod X: @shortsthepod
Produced & edited by Alex Crowson
Merry Christmas and Welcome to Season 3 of Shorts! This season, we're kicking it off with our annual Christmas episode, and we're reading, "A Childs Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas. Written and recorded in 1952, this lyrical, alliterative, poem follows a boy's antics through Christmas Day. We recommend reading and listening to this poem, as Dylan's Welsh accent brings it to life.
Link to Poem: "A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas
Link to Recording: "A Child's Christmas in Wales, a Story"
X:@shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepod
Produced and edited by Alex Crowson
A special Christmas episode! For the second year in a row, we're reading a Christmas classic. This year, we dive into, "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry, first published in December 1905. The Gift of the Magi tells the story of the young married couple Della and Jim, and their struggle to find meaningful Christmas gifts for each other when money is tight and time is short.
Link to story: "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Alex Crowson
This is a bitesized edition of Shorts - special bonus episodes where we will be focusing on very short short stories (also known as flash fiction!) Today we are reading "Who am I" by Amanda Olive Amoah which was published in Flash Fiction Ghana in 2015. In this story, our narrator wakes up and discovers she doesn't know who she is. Throughout her day, she cycles through a routine marked by reminding and forgetting.
Link to story: "Who am I" by Amanda Olive Amoah
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Alex Crowson
For this special bonus episode, Lizzie and Jen join Completely Arbortrary, a podcast that deep dives into all things TREE, to discuss The Direction of the Road by Ursula K. Le Guin. This short story is told from the perspective of a single oak tree on the Oregon State Highway, and through its gaze, we discover something about ourselves, too. Together with Completely Arbortrary co-hosts Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson we discuss the story, the tree and the extraordinary Ursula K. Le Guin.
Link to story: The Direction of the Road by Ursula K. Le Guin
Check out Completely Arbortrary here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
For the Season Finale of Season 2, we are running Shorts a bit differently. We're reading, “The Cheater’s Guide to Love,” by Junot Diaz published in the New Yorker in 2012. It is also the final story in Diaz’s 2012 short story collection, This is How You Lose Her, which was a finalist for the US national book award. However today, we're discussing the relationship between the reader and the writer. Today we will be focusing on the tricky and murky question of: how do the actions of a writer impact your reading of their work?
Sources for this episode:
Dear Sophie by Emma Brankin was published in X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine in July 2020. In a brief series of emails, Amy attempts to craft the perfect message to send to her friend Sophie on her wedding day. In this very modern, witty piece, we see Amy grapple with the guilt of missing her friend’s wedding day, the shame and comparison created by social media, and how to congratulate someone you care about when your own life is in shambles.
Link to story: Dear Sophie by Emma Brankin
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Nikola Vasovic
Mass Effect is the story of Eddie and Ivan, two long-term boyfriends grappling with Ivan’s sudden diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. The story begins and ends during a getaway the two take to a cabin, with Eddie’s perspective leading us through the history of their relationship, the struggles and pain, the inside jokes and play, and his powerlessness as he watches his partner deteriorate. Mass Effect was shortlisted for the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Link to story: Mass Effect by Joshua Wales
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Nikola Vasovic
This week we're reading "How To Marry An African President" by Erica Sugo Anyadike. This story follows the relationship between a secretary and the President of an unnamed African country from the beginning of their courtship. Through a second person narrative, we see their relationship develop and their power corrupt. The story was shortlisted for the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the Queen Mary Wasafiri Writing prize and the AKO Caine Prize for African writing.
Link to story: How To Marry An African President by Erica Sugo Anyadike
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Nikola Vasovic
Welcome to Season Two! Today we are reading, "Needs" by Karen Brown, published in the Atlantic. Set in the 1960's in the USA, "Needs" is told from the perspective of a housewife whose neighbor is mysteriously murdered one afternoon. It's a fun, dark, edge of your seat mystery with an ending that will surprise even the most seasoned reader.
Link to story: Needs by Karen Brown
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Nikola Vasovic
A special Christmas episode! Today we are reading the timeless festive poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas, more commonly known as 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, and comparing it with a short story based on the classic narrative, by James Thurber. Curl up with a cup of mulled wine and enjoy our musings on Santa Claus, sugarplums and the demise of the kerchief.
Link to stories:
A Visit From Saint Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore (or by Henry Livingston Junior)
A Visit From Saint Nicholas (in the Ernest Hemingway manner) by James Thurber
Further reading: ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ helped make the modern Santa – and led to a literary whodunit
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Nikola Vasovic
In our last episode of Season 1 we discuss Light by Lesley Nneka Arimah. In this story we follow a Nigerian father and daughter and explore the fragility of their bond amidst the complex reality of raising a girl today. Arimah asks us to question what expectations and limitations we put on girls and young women, and how parents fight to navigate this in the best interests of their child. This story won the 2015 Regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa.
Link to story: Light by Lesley Nneka Arimah
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Nikola Vasovic
This week, we are discussing Carmen Maria Machado's, "Mary When You Follow Her." This 2018 flash fiction follows Maria, a young girl navigating grief, loss, and growing up amidst the disappearance of other young women in her town. This story is breathtaking, written in a single sentence, and pushes us to think critically about whose stories are told.
Link to story: Mary When You Follow Her by Carmen Maria Machado.
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Nikola Vasovic
This week we are reading As The Last I May Know by S.L. Huang, the 2020 Hugo Award winner for Best Short Story. In this story, we are faced with a different reality - one in which the decision over whether to release weapons of mass destruction requires the President to kill a child with his own hand before they can order the devastation. Through this extraordinary short story, we are presented with a huge question: are the safeguards in place for our most heinous decisions strong enough? Or, whatever the cost, must we humanise the choices we make in order to save lives?
Link to story: As The Last I May Know by S.L. Huang
Twitter: @shortsthepod
Instagram: @shortsthepodcast
Sound editing & mix by Nikola Vasovic