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The Short Story in Midcentury America (with Sam Reese)
Around 1950, the short story genre in America was at the highest and at the same time most delicate moment of its history. While the number of magazines publishing short fiction and of short story…
David Foster Wallace's Short Fiction (with Marshall Boswell)
2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of Infinite Jest, arguably David Foster Wallace’s most famous and celebrated book. In this episode, Professor Marshall Boswell, one of the leading…
The New Yorker Short Story (with Naomi Kanakia)
In this episode, Naomi Kanakia (a.k.a Woman of Letters on Substack) tells the fascinating tale of the New Yorker Short Story. Since the times of Harold Ross and editor Katharine White, the New Yorker…
Richard Brautigan's Short Fiction (with Chris Gair)
Richard Brautigan is most famous for his iconic novel Trout Fishing in America (1967), but he was also a prolific short story writer and poet. Whether you are a hardcore Brautigan fan, or you have…
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Short Fiction (with Chigozirim Nwaosu)
Chigozirim Nwaosu is a PhD candidate in English Literature in the School of Literature and Languages at the University of Surrey (UK). Her research focuses on the intersectionality between race,…
Writing Through Writer's Block (With Aaron Colton)
What can fictional representations of blocked short story writers teach us about writer’s block and what causes a writer to feel blocked? I discuss these questions with Aaron Colton, Associate…
Women of Wonder: Women Short Story Writers in Science Fiction (With Paul March-Russell)
Paul March-Russell is the outgoing editor of Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, the co-founder of Gold SF, an intersectional feminist science fiction imprint of Goldsmiths…
The Best of the Best: Literary Institutions and the American Short Story Canon (With Alexander Manshel)
Alexander Manshel is Associate Professor of English at McGill University in Montreal (Canada). His research focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century American literature, multi-ethnic American…
Small, Good Things. A Special Episode
(00:00:00) Intro (00:02:00) The Place to Find a Body (Ailsa Cox) (00:06:17) The Woman in the Tracksuit (Charlie Hill) (00:07:05) The Sunshine Skyway (Lauren C. Johnson) (00:13:53) New You (Shelley…
Flash Fiction and Three-Dimensional Story Worlds (with Shelley Roche-Jacques)
Shelley Roche-Jacques is a poet, flash fiction writer and Senior Lecturer of Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University (UK). In this episode, Shelley will be our guide into the world of Flash…
Like Old Photographs in Second-hand Books (With Nicholas Royle)
Nicholas Royle is a short story writer, a novel writer, the editor of the Best British Short Stories series. In this episode, I get to chat with him about his latest collection of short…
William Saroyan: Life at Full Volume (with Scott Setrakian)
Scott Setrakian is the president of the William Saroyan Foundation. At the time we recorded this interview, he had just come back from Armenia, where he had taken part in a seven-day event called…
More Facts and Fiction of Short Story Writing (with Ailsa Cox) [Part Two]
Ailsa Cox is a professor Emerita at Edge Hill University (UK) and a short story writer. In this second part of the interview we discuss famous pieces of short story writing advice like “show don’t…
The Facts and Fiction of Short Story Writing (with Ailsa Cox) [Part one]
Ailsa Cox is a Professor Emerita at Edge Hill University (UK) and a short story writer. In this first part of the interview, we discuss famous claims about short stories and short story writing, like…
The Culture and Commerce of the American Short Story (with Andrew Levy)
Andrew Levy is professor of English and Creative Writing and the Edna Cooper Chair of English at Butler University in Indiana (USA). In this episode, I get to ask him a few questions about his book…
Short Fiction and Knowledge for Living (with Michael Basseler)
How does the short story form contribute to our understanding of life and the world? To find out, listen to this episode of the podcast, in which I get to interview prof. Michael Basseler, from…
Failed Summer Vacation (with the author, Heuijung Hur)
In this episode I get to interview Heuijung Hur on her collection Failed Summer Vacation, which has recently been published in English by Scratchbooks. Listen to Heuijung talk about her favourite…
Contact Zones (with Michael Collins)
Michael Collins is Reader in American Studies at King’s College, London and co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to the American Short Story (2024). In this episode, I ask him why the short story is…
[Part Two] Lucia Berlin: Laundromats and Missing Puzzle Pieces (with Elizabeth Geoghegan)
In this two-part episode, I have the privilege of chatting about Lucia Berlin’s short fiction with writer (and Lucia Berlin’s personal friend) Elizabeth Geoghegan. In the first part, Elizabeth tells…
[Part One] Lucia Berlin: Laundromats and Missing Puzzle Pieces (with Elizabeth Geoghegan)
In this two-part episode, I have the privilege of chatting about Lucia Berlin’s short fiction with writer (and Lucia Berlin’s personal friend) Elizabeth Geoghegan. In the first part, Elizabeth tells…
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A Small, Good Thing has published 23 episodes since April 2025, covering topics in Arts, Books.
A Small, Good Thing is currently highly active with new episodes monthly. Average episode length is 31m.
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