Hi Everyone,

I'm thrilled to host Cara Blue Adams today on the podcast. We talked about her stellar short story, "Vision," available from Joyland Magazine. I met Cara years ago at the Kenyon Writers Workshop (which I highly recommend by the way...) so it was great fun to reconnect on the podcast.

Cara's work was recommended by Vincent Perrone, who is a part owner of the co-op bookstore, Book Suey, in Hamtramck, MI, so he joined us for the podcast as well. See his bio below, and please consider buying from Bookshop or even directly from Book Suey to support local bookstores!

Enjoy the show and see you on April 1st!

Kelly

Cara Blue Adams is the author of the interlinked story collection You Never Get It Back (University of Iowa Press, 2021), named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and awarded the John Simmons Short Fiction Prize, judged by Brandon Taylor, who calls it “a modern classic.” The collection was shortlisted for the Mary McCarthy Prize and longlisted for the Story Prize. Over twenty-five of her stories appear in magazines like the Granta, The Kenyon Review, Epoch, American Short Fiction, and Electric Literature, and her nonfiction appears in Bookforum and The Believer.

She has received the Kenyon Review Short Fiction Prize, the Missouri Review William Peden Prize, and the Meringoff Prize in Fiction, along with a 2018 Center for Fiction Emerging Writer fellowship and selection as a Pushcart Prize Notable. She has also received support from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the VCCA, the Lighthouse Works, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Cara earned a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Smith College and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Originally from Vermont, she has lived in Boston, Tucson, Montreal, Maine, South Carolina, and Baton Rouge. She is a former coeditor of The Southern Review. Currently, she is an associate professor in the MFA program at Temple University and lives in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley.

Purchase Cara's book at Book Suey (link above) or Book Shop or Amazon.

My co-host:

Vincent James Perrone is the author of the poetry collection, Starving Romantic (11:11 Press, 2018), the microchap, Travelogue For The Dispossessed (Ghost City Press, 2021), and a contributor to the anthology, Collected Voices in the Expanded Field (11:11 Press, 2020). His recent and forthcoming work can be found in Pithead Chapel, New Flash Fiction Review, TIMBER, Storm Cellar, and A Common Well Journal. Vincent lives in Detroit where he teaches at Wayne State University. He reads for Conduit and is a member-owner of the co-op bookstore, Book Suey.

#shortstories

#creativewriting

#joylandmag

#kenyonreview

#booksuey

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to Let's Deconstruct a Story! This month I'm talking to Jai Chakrabarti about his wonderful story, "A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness." Please find the link to the story at www.kellyfordon.com, It's best to read it before tuning into the podcast.

Next month, I'll be talking to Leigh Newman about her story, "An Extravaganza in Two Acts," also available via a link on my website. If you have any questions for Leigh, feel free to contact me, and I will pass them along.

Also, I've switched over to Let's Deconstruct a Story accounts on both Facebook and Instagram. Please follow us here:

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#letsdeconstructastory

Cheers!

Kelly

Jai Chakrabarti:

O. Henry and Pushcart Prize winner Jai Chakrabarti is the author of the novel A Play for the End of the World (Knopf ’21), which earned him the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction. The novel was also recognized as the Association of Jewish Libraries Honor Book, a finalist for the Rabindranath Tagore Prize, and long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award.

Chakrabarti is also the author of the story collection A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness (Knopf), which was included in several end-of-year lists, including The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2023. His short fiction has been published in Best American Short Stories, Ploughshares, One Story, Electric Literature, A Public Space, Conjunctions, and elsewhere and performed on Selected Shorts by Symphony Space.

Beyond fiction, Chakrabarti’s nonfiction has been widely published in journals such as The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Writer’s Digest, Berfrois, and LitHub. He was an Emerging Writer Fellow with A Public Space and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College. Despite his literary pursuits, Chakrabarti is also a trained computer scientist.

Born in Kolkata, India, he currently lives in New York with his family and is a faculty member at Bennington Writing Seminars.

Your Host:

Kelly Fordon’s latest short story collection, I Have the Answer (Wayne State University Press, 2020), was chosen as a Midwest Book Award Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. Her 2016 Michigan Notable Book, Garden for the Blind (WSUP), was a Michigan Notable Book, an INDIEFAB Finalist, a Midwest Book Award Finalist, an Eric Hoffer Finalist, and an IPPY Awards Bronze Medalist. Her first full-length poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House (Kattywompus Press, 2019), was an Eyelands International Prize Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. It was later adapted into a play by Robin Martin and published in The Kenyon Review Online. She is the author of three award-winning poetry chapbooks and has received a Best of the Net Award and Pushcart Prize nominations in three different genres. She teaches at Springfed Arts in Detroit and online, where she runs a fiction podcast called “Let’s Deconstruct a Story.” http://www.kellyfordon.com

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to Let's Deconstruct a Story! This month I'm talking to Katherine Vaz about her wonderful story, "Our Lady of the Artichokes." Please read the story (available at www.kellyfordon.com/blog) before tuning into the podcast.

Also, please check out the link to her fantastic new novel Above the Salt which I read and adored. Sometimes I wish this was also a podcast about novels, but we do offer a brief preview of the book during our discussion. Purchase options are available below.

Next month I'll be talking to Jai Chakrabarti about his story, "A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness," also available via link on my website. If you have any questions for Jai, feel free to contact me and I will pass them along.

Have a wonderful holiday season. I'll be reaching out to my subscribers (here) in two weeks with some end-of-the-year recommendations and then we'll see you on January 1st for Jai Chakrabarti.

Cheers!

Kelly

P.S. You can purchase Katherine Vaz's amazing new book here on Bookshop or here on Amazon.

Upcoming Class: I'm offering a "Let's Deconstruct a Story" workshop in January. More details here.

Hi Everyone,

I had the best conversation with Bonnie Jo Campbell. Can't wait to share it with you!

Please read "Boar Taint" in The Kenyon Review before you listen, or our discussion won't make a lick of sense.

This episode is available on Apple, Spotify, Audible or anywhere you get your podcasts.

If you would like a transcript, please get in touch with me via the contact form on my website, www.kellyfordon.com.

Next month, I will be talking to Katherine Vaz.

See you then! Kelly

PS: Looking for a great audio engineer? Contact Elliot Bancel at elliotbancel@gmail.com.

Bio: Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of the novels Once Upon a River, a National Bestseller, and Q Road. Her critically acclaimed short fiction collections include American Salvage, which was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critic’s Circle Award; Women and Other Animals, which won the AWP Prize for Short Fiction; and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters. She was a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow.

Her novel, Once Upon a River, was adapted into a full length feature film and released to international critical acclaim in 2020.

Her forthcoming novel The Waters (January 9, 2023) will be released by W.W. Norton; “with a ‘ruthless and precise eye for the details of the physical world’ (New York Times Book Review), Bonnie Jo Campbell presents an elegant antidote to the dark side of masculinity, celebrating the resilience of nature and the brutality and sweetness of rural life.”

Her story collection American Salvage, a National Book Award Finalist, was heralded by The Guardian as a top 10 rural noir novel of all time.

Please purchase Bonnie Jo Campbell's books through⁠ Bookshop⁠, if possible, or Amazon.

Hi!

I am so happy to share my podcast interview with the esteemed Southern writer George Singleton. We delved into some serious subjects: the legacy of racism in the South, gun control, and substance abuse, but despite all of that, we managed to laugh every now and then because he is hilarious!

(And I said the word "interesting" about a gazillion times--Why? Why did I keep saying the same word over and over again as if I was malfunctioning?)

Anyway, George taught me a lot about persevering despite the fact that he (like many of us) gets sick of his own voice. He shared an anecdote about working with C. Michael Curtis of "The Atlantic Monthly" that shocked and delighted me.

We laughed about that too.

Please read his story, "I'm Down Here on the Floor," before you listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My apologies to StorySouth. I forgot to mention where the story was published during the podcast, but this is actually the second story in a row from StorySouth. Check out Jason Ockert's story "The Peoplemachines" from the September 1st episode as well.

Also, here's a link to The Atlantic Monthly story George mentioned called "Show and Tell." I think the paywall might be down now (?), but I subscribe to that magazine, so someone needs to let me know.

*Warning: There is some profanity on this episode, folks.

See you next month when I'll be talking to Bonnie Jo Campbell about her story, "Boar Taint," from The Kenyon Review.

Cheers,

Kelly

Bio: George Singleton has published eight collections of stories, two novels, and a book of writing advice. Over 200 of his stories have appeared in magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Playboy, the Georgia Review, the Southern Review, the Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Hillsdale Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and the Corrington Award for Literary Excellence. He lives in Spartanburg, SC, where he holds the John C. Cobb Chair in Humanities at Wofford College. Please find his books on Bookshop or Amazon.

Information about the podcast host, Kelly Fordon, as well as podcast updates and donation opportunities (we would be so grateful!) can all be found here.

We are so grateful to sound engineer Elliot Bancel for his work on this episode. If you need help with your podcast, please find his contact information here.

Chad B. Anderson's story "The Kelley Street Disappearances" has been lodged in my brain for almost a decade, so I decided to track him down, and I was so grateful when he agreed to be on the podcast. I'm sure if you are an avid reader like me, you know how rare it is to have a story resonate for that long. I hope you feel the same way I do about this one!

Thanks also to LDAS-featured writer, Robin Martin, for sending me the story many years ago.

For the first time with this podcast, in the interest of fostering our community of writers, I sent the story to all of my previous guests. LDAS-featured writers, Desiree Cooper and Renee Simms weighed in with a couple of really compelling questions for Chad. You can check out my interviews. with Desiree and Renee here as well.

Also, I'm grateful to Renee for mentioning the story, Recitatif by Toni Morrison, which I had not read, and the stunning New Yorker essay about the story by Zadie Smith.

Salamander Magazine has kindly removed the paywall for "The Kelley Street Disappearances." Please find it here.

Thanks so much to the managing editor, Katie Sticca, for helping us keep this podcast accessible.

**Salamander runs a fiction contest every year that runs from May 1 - June 1, with results announced by early September. Anyone interested can find more information on the website salamandermag.org.

Please check out the Let's Deconstruct a Story podcast on Spotify, Apple, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts after you read the story, and if you have a chance to rate the show, I would really appreciate it.

See you on October 1st, when we'll be talking about "I'm Down Here on the Floor" in StorySouth by George Singleton. Thanks to Dan Wickett of Dzanc Books for suggesting George's work.

On November 1st, Bonnie Jo Campbell visits to talk about her short story, "Boar Taint" in The Kenyon Review.

Chad has just finished editing this wonderful anthology. Check it out here.

Bio: Chad B. Anderson has published fiction in Salamander Review, Black Warrior Review, Nimrod International Journal, The Best American Short Stories 2017, Clockhouse, and Burrow Press Review, and he has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He has had residencies at the Ledig House International Writers’ Colony, the Jack Kerouac House in Orlando, Florida, and the Carolyn Moore Writers House in Portland, Oregon. He has served as an acting managing editor for Callaloo: Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters and a guest editor for Burrow Press Review and is currently an associate fiction editor for Orison Books. He edited and penned the introduction for an anthology of art, poetry, and prose titled What's Mine of Wilderness?, published by Burrow Press in 2023. Born and raised in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, he earned his B.A. in American Studies and English from University of Virginia and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Indiana University, where he served as fiction editor for Indiana Review. He currently lives in Michigan.

If you would like to donate the show (and even earmark it for transcription services), you can make a donation here.

Thank you so much! Kelly.