Barn Burning: Short Stories

Welcome back to Barnburning, a short story podcast! We are joined by Willie Davis who reads his story, "Battle Hymn" from his new short story collection, I Can Outdance Jesus: Short Stories and Tall Tales in an Age of Blasphemy, published by the Cowboy Jamboree Press. Willie can be found online at www.IAmWillieDavis.com and on Xwitter @iamwilliedavis.

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.

Has your life ever been changed by an author? Twenty years ago this week, my life was forever changed by something I read in a magazine. Looking back, it's silly to imagine but it's true: I became a lawyer because of P.G. Wodehouse. And Anthony Lane. Join us on Barn Burning as we read one of Wodehouse's minor masterpieces, The Great Sermon Handicap, featuring that timeless upstairs-downstairs pair, Bertram Wooster and his man Jeeves. #thankyoujeeves

Who murdered the samurai? Was it the notorious thief Tajomaru? Was it the samurai's heartbroken wife? Or did he leave a message telling us who the real killer was? In a dark story about an inscrutable world, Akutagawa asks what is truth, what do we believe, and what stories do we tell ourselves? CW: sexual assault Translator: Takashi Kojima Are you a writer and want to have your short story on the podcast? You can reach me at barnburningpodcast@gmail.com Happy reading!

Hello, Barn Burners! I met acclaimed writer Thomas H. McNeely at Inprint in Houston to record him reading his story, Tickle Torture. The story is from his collection, Pictures of the Shark, which I read and recommend for its powerful and relatable depictions of a tumultuous childhood. In a starred review, Kirkus has called Thomas H. McNeely's book, Pictures of the Shark: Stories "an emotionally taut and often haunting collection." An East End Houston native, McNeely has published short stories and non-fiction in The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Ploughshares, and many other magazines and anthologies. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wallace Stegner Program at Stanford University, and the MacDowell Colony. His stories have been short-listed for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories and O. Henry Award anthologies. He currently teaches in the Stanford Online Writing Studio and at Emerson College, Boston. His website is www.thomashmcneelywriter.com and he can be found on Twitter @thmcneely. Are you a writer and want to have your short story on the podcast? You can reach me at barnburningpodcast@gmail.com! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Welcome back to Barn Burning! After an extended hiatus, the Barn Burning short story podcast is back with a killer episode about hamsters, motherhood, and grief. I was honored to have on writer-poet @LannieStabile to read and discuss her story "Muriel vs. the Hunger," which was published in Sledgehammer Lit in November 2021. Lannie Stabile (she/her), a queer Detroiter, is the winner of OutWrite's 2020 Chapbook Competition in Poetry and a back-to-back semifinalist for  the Button Poetry Chapbook Contest. Lannie was also named a 2020 Best of the Net finalist. Her debut poetry full-length, Good Morning to Everyone Except Men Who Name Their Dogs Zeus, was published in 2021 by Cephalopress. Her fiction debut, Something Dead in Everything, is out  now with ELJ Editions. Find her on Twitter @LannieStabile and her website, www.lanniestabile.com. Are you a writer and want to have your short story on the podcast? You can reach me at barnburningpodcast@gmail.com! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Welcome back to Barn Burning, a short story podcast! I had the great pleasure of speaking with writer Wendy J. Fox about her story Tornado Watch, from her forthcoming collection of interconnected stories, What If We Were Somewhere Else? The book comes out in November 2021 and you can pre-order a copy here: https://bookshop.org/a/1986/9781951631055. You can also find Wendy at her website: https://www.wendyjfox.com/ Are you a writer and want to have your story on the podcast? You can reach me at barnburningpodcast@gmail.com! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

I was honored to have British writer Kieran Wyatt share three short stories on the Barn Burning Podcast, 'Seagull' 'Leviathan' & 'Spaniel', which first appeared in The Art of Everyone. We talked on UK Mother's Day about liminal places, magical realism, and the Camel Derby. Kieran Wyatt lives on the Fylde Coast. He is co-chair of GenSex (@GenSexResearch), an interdisciplinary research group, asking probing questions about gender and sexuality. His work has been published by Eunoia Review, The Art of Everyone, Small Leaf Press, Fevers of the Mind, and others. He graduated from Edge Hill University in 2018 with honours in Creative Writing. You can find him on Twitter at @Kinz_Wyatt. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today I had the pleasure of reading J. Edward Kruft's story "The Big Balloon," followed by a wide-ranging conversation with Joe about MFA programs, character motivation, and the #FlashFiction format. "The Big Balloon" appeared in the June 2020 issue of Door is a Jar Magazine and you can find it on his website. J. Edward Kruft received his MFA in fiction writing from Brooklyn College, and has been a Best Small Fictions nominee. His stories have appeared in Jellyfish Review, MoonPark Review and Typehouse Literary Magazine, among others. He is a Virgo, and as such, while working at a storied fast food chain, he made an impassioned but reasoned argument against polyester uniforms given their proximity to the fry machine. He was fired. Originally from the very west of Washington state, he now lives in the very west of Queens, NY and Sullivan County, NY with his husband, Mike, and their adopted Siberian Husky, Sasha. If you're a writer and would like to have your story read on Barn Burning, please email me at barnburningpodcast@gmail.com, or find me on Twitter at @barnburnpodcast. Read on, fellows barn-burners! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this special episode, I sat down with writer Elizabeth Gonzalez James to read and discuss her story "What Kind of Love Is That?" which appeared in The Rumpus in September 2018. We discussed empathy, grace, and birthing cows. It was a great pleasure to have her on the show to discuss her fiction.  Elizabeth Gonzalez James' stories and essays have  appeared in The Idaho Review, PANK, Barrelhouse, and elsewhere and have  received numerous Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. In  2021 she will be a regular contributor to the Ploughshares Blog. Her  debut novel MONA AT SEA was a finalist in the 2019 SFWP Literary Awards  judged by Carmen Maria Machado, and is forthcoming in July 2021. You can  find more information at www.elizabethgonzalezjames.com. If you're a writer and would like to have your story read on Barn Burning, please email me at barnburningpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Twitter at @barnburnpodcast.  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Ask not for whom the Red Death comes, it comes for... everyone! You may remember this story as a nice little piece of gothiness, but I guarantee you it will shock you how eerily reminiscent of our modern moments it is. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Over a hundred years before George Romero, Mark Twain wrote a cutting satire of politics and politicians which is still delicious in its mordant humor. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today we talk about James Joyce’s classic short story, Araby, and the quest of a besotted young man. Sorry, no Irish accents. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

What happens to the unemployed & dispossessed when a country is blighted by natural disasters & plague? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

A seminary student warms himself by the fire of two widows and tells a biblical tale... --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

“He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Welcome to Barn Burning, a podcast about short stories! Is Louise Mallard’s wedding bed like to be her death bed? How much of an emotional roller coaster can she endure in an hour? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app