Short Story Today
Episodes
Episode 141 - A "Found Fiction" Holiday Episode
24 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our final episode of our fifth season is a special holiday episode. It's part of a continuing series we like to call "Found Fiction." W...
Episode 140 - Anna Monardo: AFTER ITALY: A FAMILY MEMOIR OF ARRANGED MARRIAGE
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nebraska author Anna Monardo joins me to talk about her books After Italy: A Family Memoir of Arranged Marriage and The Courtyard of Dreams (both from...
Episode 139 - Vishwas R. Gaitonde: "The Wrath of Allah"
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Author Vishwas R. Gaitonde started life in India, and then made his way to England and finally the US, having lived in many states before settling in ...
Episode 138 - Ian Forth: "Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright"
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Author Ian Forth divides his time between Bordeaux, France and Wales. His debut story collection Hazlitt and the Mobility Scooter (Hard Travelling Boo...
Episode 137 - Michael Hopkins: "Foreclosure"
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wisconsin author Michael Hopkins is an award-winning writer whose debut collection Never Stop Exiting (Cornerstone Press) was released this year. It h...
Episode 136 - Lauren D. Woods: "Clementine"
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Washington DC author Lauren D. Woods discusses her debut collection The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe, winner of the 2024 Autumn House Fiction P...
Episode 135 - David Haynes: "That's Right, You're Not From Texas"
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Missouri author David Haynes's long-awaited debut story collection Martha's Daughter has finally arrived after seven novels and five books f...
Episode 134 - Lisa Alvarez: "Manuel"
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In her debut collection Some Final Beauty and Other Stories (University of Nevada Press), California author Lisa Alvarez writes about her home town of...
Episode 133 - Olajide Omojarabi: "Messenger Meg"
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nigerian author Olajide Omojarabi discusses his story "Messenger Meg," which was published in the Ploughshares Summer 2025 issue. The interv...
Episode 132 - Veena Gokhale: Annapurna's Bounty
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Montreal author Veena Gokhale's new collection, Annapurna's Bounty: Indian Food Legends Retold (Dundurn Press), is a literary smorgasbord. I...
Episode 131 - J.D. Barker
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, NY Times bestselling author J.D. Barker would never set foot in the basement. He'd read the stories about what happens to little boys...
Episode 130 - Catherine Bush: "Skin"
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Toronto author Catherine Bush writes about intimacy and connection - but ventures far beyond the human-to-human. She explores the indefinable realm wh...
Episode 129 - William R. Hincy: "Flying"
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
SoCal author William R. Hincy discusses his collection WITHOUT EXPIRATION, winner of the 2021 American Book Fest American Fiction Prize. He's the...
Episode 128 - Laury A. Egan: "The Impaired Pair"
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning NJ author Laury A. Egan's new collection is Contrary - an eclectic mix of twenty-one stories which also includes a two-act play. S...
Episode 127 - SAW PALM: Florida Literature and Art - Issue 19: Florida Strange
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The literary journal Saw Palm was created in 2006 by John Henry Fleming, Phd and the MFA students of the Creative Writing Program at the University of...
Episode 126 - Caitlin Galway: A Song for Wildcats
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning Toronto author Caitlin Galway speaks with us about her "mad scientist" approach to writing, which has produced some of the mos...
Episode 125 - Pratap Reddy: "Storm in a Teacup"
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Canadian author Pratap Reddy was born in India, but has lived in Mississauga, Ontario since 2002. In his fiction, he pays homage to the courageous men...
Episode 124 - Sarah Freligh: "All That Water"
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning NY author Sarah Freligh joins us to discuss her new collection OTHER EMERGENCIES (Univ of Arkansas Press), which is the 2025 Moon City P...
Episode 123 - Fija Callaghan: "Life, Death, and Other Complications"
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With her debut collection Frail Little Embers, UK author Fija Callaghan has created a literary offering that will enchant and delight readers. In this...
Episode 122 - T.D. Johnston: "The First Key"
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Indiana author T.D. Johnston is the founder and editor of Short Story America, a small press that publishes the Short Story America anthology series i...
Episode 121 - Holiday Episode Redux
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We've brought back a newly-packaged edition of our 2022 Holiday episode, featuring stories selected from our contest submissions that year, as we...
Stories of Thanksgiving
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week we've created an audiobook anthology of short stories about thanksgiving - not the holiday, per se, but the things that Thanksgiving re...
Episode 119 - Danila Botha: "Don't Look Back"
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Toronto author Danila Botha's third story collection, Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness (Guernica Editions), moves uniquely through time....
Episode 118 - Eliot Parker: "Giving"
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mississippi author Eliot Parker's second collection of stories is something of a love letter to the hard-working people of Appalachia that he&apo...
Episode 117 - Jeffrey M. Feingold: "My Left Foot"
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning Massachusetts author Jeffrey Feingold will see his third short story collection published this fall. A FINE MADNESS - AND OTHER MAD STOR...
Episode 116 - Marguerite Sheffer: "The Observer's Cage"
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New Orleans author Marguerite Sheffer is a Professor of Practice at Tulane University, where she teaches courses in design thinking and speculative fi...
Episode 115 - Nina Schuyler: "Brethren and Sistren"
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bay Area author Nina Schuler doesn't subscribe to the "write what you know" school of thought. For her, that would just be boring. In h...
Episode 114 - Janis Hubschman: "Please See Me"
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New Jersey author Janis Hubschman was a marathon runner, so she understands the true meaning of endurance. The women in her debut story collection Tak...
Episode 113 - Tara Isabel Zambrano: Ruined a Little When We Are Born
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Author Tara Isabel Zambrano is an electrical engineer by day, where she relies on her left brain in designing semiconductors. She balances that by ens...
Episode 112 - Viggy Parr Hampton: "The Waiting Mortuary"
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Georgia author Viggy Parr Hampton discovered that the best way to find the satisfyingly scary horror stories she craved was to write them herself. She...
Episode 111 - Amy Stuber: "Dick Cheney Was Not My Father"
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Don't be misled by the title of Amy Stuber's debut collection SAD GROWNUPS (Stillhouse Press). It's full of humor. "The stories in...
Episode 110 - Kirti Bhadresa: "In a Name"
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Canadian author Kirti Bhadresa was born in Red Deer, Alberta to Indian parents who had travelled far and wide before settling there. In her debut coll...
Episode 109 - Meg Pokrass: Six Stories From FIRST LAW OF HOLES
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the fourteen years author Meg Pokrass has been writing flash, she has established herself as a key figure in the world of flash fiction. First Law ...
Episode 108 - Hollay Ghadery: Three Stories from WIDOW FANTASIES
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The flash stories in Canadian author Hollay Ghadery's debut collection Widow Fantasies are like portrait miniatures, capturing essential moments ...
Episode 107 - Kathryn Mockler: Four Stories from ANECDOTES
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's a lot on Canadian author Kathryn Mockler's mind when it comes to what sorts of things the future might hold. In her hybrid collectio...
Episode 106 - Claire Carroll: "My Two Sons"
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
UK author Claire Carroll is the daughter of a zoologist, which is no surprise given the ways in which her reverence for the natural world figures larg...
Episode 105 - Nick Rees Gardner: "Psychedelicious"
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In his linked story collection Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts, Washington DC author Nick Rees Gardner has created a fictional landscape inspire...
Episode 104 - John Sheirer: "Security"
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In his collection Stumbling Through Adulthood, Massachusetts author John Sheirer pays homage to folks like the ones he got to know while growing up in...
Episode 103 - Kolby Granville and After Dinner Conversation: "Father Dale's Drive-thru Exorcisms"
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kolby Granville, Founder and Editor of After Dinner Conversation: Philosophy and Ethics Short Story Magazine shares his thoughts and ideas about publi...
Episode 102 - Timothy Laurence Marsh: "The Perfect Paris Day"
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Author Timothy Laurence Marsh's coastal Southern California home town set the stage for his entering college on a tennis scholarship, where he be...
Episode 101 - Eufemia Fantetti: "A Recipe For Disaster"
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Toronto author Eufemia Fantetti is the child of Italian immigrants who emigrated to Canada in the sixties. In her story collection A Recipe for Disast...
Episode 100 - Aaron Kreuter: "The Krasners"
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Toronto author Aaron Kreuter's linked story collection Rubble Children, he's provided a stirring and provocative portrait of a Jewish com...
Episode 99 - Nicola Winstanley: "Feeling in the Flesh"
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning Ontario children's book author Nicola Winstanley has recently published a collection of fiction - this time for grownups. Smoke (Bu...
Episode #95 - Charles Hanson Towne: "Shelby" (A "Found Fiction" Episode)
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
While we prepare for Season 3, we thought it might be fun to bring you some first-rate stories that probably haven’t seen the light of day in ages. ...
Episode #94 - Wole Talabi
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nigerian author Wole Talabi excels at math (he's an engineer), so he creates what he calls a "fiction-equation" when beginning a story....
Episode #93 - Nicole Haroutunian: "Three Times I Breathed Other People's Breath and No One Worried About Death"
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New York author Nicole Haroutunian knows how to keep an audience engaged - whether, as a museum educator, it's the groups she helps find a deeper...
Episode #92 - Ananda Lima
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chicago author Ananda Lima was born in Brasilia, Brazil, and made her way to Illinois via Australia and New York while working in the field of linguis...
Episode #91 - Jess Bowers: "Granddad Swam"
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Missouri author Jess Bowers began her lifelong love affair with horses while still a child in her hometown of York, Pennsylvania - but she wasn't...
Episode #90 - Trent Lewin: "The Longest Day"
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This emerging Canadian author writes under the pseudonym of Trent Lewin. "It was specifically picked so that I could elude the reality in which I...
Episode #89 - Andrea Bishop: "Ice Created Layer Upon Layer"
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vancouver, Canada author Andrea Bishop has been awarded a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to complete her first collection of short stories...
Episode #88 - Dave Gregory: "Last Jump Off the Lift Bridge"
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Canadian author Dave Gregory writes fiction on a wide variety of topics. But with his stories based on experiences shared in the oral tradition by his...
Episode #87 - Tommy Dean: "Naming the Darkness"
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
No stranger to hard work, Indiana author Tommy Dean toiled in the corn fields of his youth, dreaming of basketball or baseball stardom. He's draw...
Episode #86 - Amy Cipolla Barnes: Four Flash Stories
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tennessee author Amy Cipolla Barnes grew up in Great Plains territory, where her grandparents owned and operated a farm. In her fiction and other wr...
Episode #85 - Keith Hood: "Utility"
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Michigan author Keith Hood can remember with clarity the day the riots of 1967 came right up to the front door of his childhood Detroit home. In his f...
Episode #84 - Chaya Bhuvaneswar: "Wormhole" (an excerpt)
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Massachusetts author Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a practicing psychiatrist in the Boston area who joins a long tradition of doctors who have written poetry a...
Episode #83 - Doug Brown: "My Bohemian Baptism"
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pennsylvania author Doug Brown's debut story collection My Bohemian Baptism and Then Some (Serif Press) is a testament to his determination to ne...
Episode #82 - Mark Wish and Elizabeth Coffey of COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES is the brainchild of authors Mark Wish and Elizabeth Coffey, whose combined years working in the publishing industry has give...
Episode #81 - Alyson Mosquera Dutemple: Four Flash Stories
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New Jersey author Alyson Mosquera Dutemple began her professional career working in film production. The pressures of working on-set soon had her turn...
Episode #80 - Dustin M. Hoffman: "Smoke at the End of the World"
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
South Carolina author Dustin M. Hoffman spent ten years as a house painter - which might have something to do with his fondness for characters from th...
Episode #79 - Bill Merklee: Four Flash Stories
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New Jersey author Bill Merklee was playing in rock bands when he began working for a newspaper that had a tuition-reimbursement program. It was his re...
Episode #78 - Matthew Goldberg: "Bees Wings"
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Philadelphia author Matthew Goldberg's fiction, as described on his website, "reimagines the mundane through the lens of the absurd." H...
Episode #77 - Alice Jolly: "All the Places That I Have Not Seen"
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning UK author Alice Jolly had 5 novels to her credit prior to publishing her first story collection - but she'd been writing stories th...
Episode #76 - Nishanth Injam: The Best Possible Experience
20 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nishanth Injam was raised in Telangana, India, and now makes his home in the US, in the Chicago area. His debut story collection, The Best Possible Ex...
Episode #75 - Mathieu Cailler: "A Little off the Top"
13 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As an adolescent, Los Angeles author Mathieu Cailler accompanied his grandfather to LA comedy clubs - an experience that gave him the idea that writin...
Episode #74 - Emma Brankin: "Eulogy for a Bastard," "The Second Miss Thompson." and "I Am a Trainwreck Actress's Vagina"
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
UK author Emma Brankin's debut story collection Attention Seekers features stories inspired by her former career as an entertainment columnist, ...
Episode #73 - Leslie Kirk Campbell and Daniel A. Olivas: "City of Angels" and "Elizondo Returns Home"
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
California authors and fellow Stanford grads Leslie Kirk Campbell and Daniel A. Olivas reverse roles in this episode as interviewer and interviewee. T...
Episode #72 - Jessie Ren Marshall: "After I Become a Ghost" and "Find Water Near Me"
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hawai'i author Jessie Ren Marshall's confidence as a writer was evident even as a child, as an early self-published book entitled How to Wri...
Episode #71 - John Fulton: "Stitches"
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Massachusetts author John Fulton's fiction has the power to cast an unusual kind of spell upon the reader. You may find him deftly weaving elemen...
Episode #70 - Melissa Ostrom: "Super-Absorbent Stella," "The Postscript," and "Measurements"
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Before Western New York author Melissa Ostrom fell in love with reading and long before she began writing stories, all she wanted to do was play. An...
Episode #69 - Julee Newberger: "Along the Sound"
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Virginia author Julee Newberger's life was upended when she learned, at the age of forty, that she'd been adopted - information she received...
Episode #68 - Stephen Cicirelli: "Quitting"
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
New Jersey author Stephen Cicirelli has a penchant for philosophy - and it shows up in his stories in surprising ways. But there's nothing academ...
Episode #67 - Grant Faulkner: "The Passenger" and "Cold Hard Cash"
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
California author Grant Faulkner was born and raised in Oskaloosa, Iowa - an experience that helped shape his sensibilities as a writer of stories of ...
Episode #66 - Erica Plouffe Lazure: "The Shit Branch"
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
New Hampshire author Erica Plouffe Lazure was born and raised in Massachusetts, but she has a particular fondness for the South - and for story-tellin...
Episode #65 - Eleonora Balsano: "The Best Vintages Have a Distinctive Character" and "The Movie Star's Daughter Has an Itchy Back"
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Italian author Eleonora Balsano (who now resides in Brussels) can speak and write in multiple languages - but she feels most at home writing in Englis...
Episode #64 - Catherine McNamara: "The Bamboo Furnace"
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Australian author Catherine McNamara has made the Veneto region in Italy her chosen home. But to get there, she first had to explore Paris, West Afric...
Episode #63 - J. Kevin Shushtari: "The Vast Garden of Strangers"
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Connecticut author J. Kevin Shushtari is a practicing physician, but when it comes to his fiction, it's not the world of medicine that interests ...
Episode #62 - Francine Witte: Four Flash Stories from JUST OUTSIDE THE TUNNEL OF LOVE
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
NYC author Francine Witte has had a major impact on the world of flash fiction. As a writer, editor and prompt session leader, she has become an influ...
Episode #61 - John Delacourt: "Duende"
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We open Season 2 with Canadian author John Delacourt. John has a fondness for the arts - especially the creatives who make it all happen. The lives ...
Episode #60 - Allison Field Bell: "River Mountain Summer"
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Author Allison Field Bell grew up in California, and has been a desert-dweller for much of her life. She now resides in the desert state of Utah, wher...
Episode #59 - Scott Mitchel May: "Naked Cake"
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wisconsin author Scot Mitchel May boasts an unusual job resume. He's been a short order cook in a fast food joint as well as a staff writer for W...
Episode #58 - Kimberly Elkins: "Boys With Wings"
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Author Kimberly Elkins made her way from the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia to New York City, where her writing career took flight. She began as a ...
Episode #57 - Emily Doyle: "Thursdays For Haru"
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
 As the daughter of a mixed-race mother whose own mother had come to the U.S. from Japan, Emily Doyle saw how religion, culture and society held them...
#56 - CULTURE IN FICTION: A Conversation with Italian-Canadian Writers
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We continue our series CULTURE IN FICTION with a conversation with Italian-Canadian writers. Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews, Eufemia Fantetti, Lori Sebasti...
Episode #55 - Carrie Esposito: "Man of the House"
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The stories of New York author Carrie Esposito can be searing in their attention to the frailties found in family relationships - whether they're...
Episode #54 - Jolene McIlwain: "The Steep Side"
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In her story collection Sidle Creek, Pennsylvania native Jolene McIlwain writes about the rural America she grew up in with compassion and tenderness....
Episode 98: First Anniversary Celebration! John Henry Fleming's "Song for the Deaf"
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
To commemorate the 1 year anniversary of the podcast, we're honoring our very first guest author, John Henry Fleming, with a reading of his short...
Episode #53 - Mandira Pattnaik: "Whether an Apocryphal Story?"
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Indian author Mandira Pattnaik's writing career began with a surprising discovery: under the mantle of science fiction, she could express her out...
Episode #52 - L Mari Harris: "They're So Beautiful When They're Sleeping" and "The Exterminator"
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Missouri author L Mari Harris's flash fiction is not for the faint of heart. It is her aim to push readers into uncomfortable places. Nothing is ...
Episode #51 - Andrew Porter: "Two Men"
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When a briefcase containing his laptop and years of work was stolen, Texas author Andrew Porter nearly lost all hope. Luckily for us, a visiting write...
Episode #50 - Kirsti MacKenzie: "The Incumbent" and "You Crown Paul Shaffer's Head With Mustard"
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Canadian author Kirsti MacKenzie is blazing a trail as a writer of fiction with her unmistakable, inimitable voice. Like a modern-day Dorothy Parker, ...
Episode #49 - Madeline Anthes: Four Flash Fiction Stories
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in rural midwest America gave author Madeline Anthes a way of seeing the world that would reverberate throughout her writing. As a mother o...
Episode 97: Culture In Fiction #1: A Conversation With Jewish Writers
08 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We begin our new Culture In Fiction series with an episode featuring five accomplished Jewish writers who discuss how their faith and cultural heritag...
Episode #48 - Danny DeRock: "Artifacts"
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Author Danny DeRock was born and raised in the U.S. Midwest, and now lives in the Netherlands. He has a PhD in political science from the University o...
Episode #47 - Marianne Villanueva: "Residents of the Deep"
29 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
California author Marianne Villanueva has no fear when it comes to writing fiction. She writes in an astonishing variety of genres, styles, tones and ...
Episode #46 - Kyle Seibel: "Master Guns"
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
California author Kyle Seibel joined the Navy and got to see the world. The impression it made would inform his writing with wisdom and wonder. In the...
Episode #45 - Tanya Žilinskas: "Sillage"
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
California author Tanya Žilinskas has made her home of Marin County the backdrop for many of her stories. She is acutely aware that the perception of...
Episode #44 - Justin Bryant: "On These Seas, Colors Wash to Gray"
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In his stories, North Carolina author Justin Bryant is compelled to write about the things that fill him with fear. From forces of nature that wrest c...
Episode #43 - Maureen Aitken: "Tainted," "Bigfoot" and "Roby Burns"
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Minneapolis author Maureen Aitken has written a love letter to her home town of Detroit with the evocative and heart-warming stories in her collection...
Episode #42 - Stanley Stocker: "The List"
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Washington, DC area author Stanley Stocker knew he wanted to be a lawyer from the age of ten. What he discovered as an adult was a love for writing fi...
Episode #41 - Emily Mirengoff: "It Could Be Worse Than California"
15 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Washington, DC area author Emily Mirengoff loves the unreliable narrator. Her stories with first person narratives feature the kinds of interior mon...