Leesa Cross-Smith is the guest. Her debut story collection Every Kiss a War is now available from Mojave River Press. It was a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award and the Iowa Short Fiction Award. Roxane Gay says “Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller who uses her formidable talents to tell the oft-overlooked stories of people living in that great swath of place between the left and right coasts. She offers thrilling turns of phrase like, 'His mouth tasted like thousand-page Russian novels I’d never read,' or 'let your smeary mouth be his question mark.' Where she is most stunning is in the endings of each of the 27 stories in Every Kiss a War, creating crisp, evocative moments that will linger long after you’ve read this book’s very last word.” Monologue topics: mail, friends, IRL communities, fostering connectivity, being social. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.