Kelly Fordon's Blog

Adventure, by Richard Butner

Hi Everyone,

I’m sorry if you received multiple newsletters today as I dismantled this LDAS site and moved it over to Substack. WordPress has started charging $300 a year, and as LDAS is a labor of love, I couldn’t have that!

Personal information remains here (my books/stories/poems etc but updates to the podcast can be found here:

https://letsdeconstructastory.substack.com/

Thanks! Kelly

Congrats to Jennifer Quartararo on her new book! See below.

Sheila Kohler

Hi Everyone,

We’re a little late with this episode and it’s all my fault! As I mentioned in my May 1st post, for the first time in four years, I conducted an amazing interview with Sheila Kohler and forgot to hit record on Zoom. Sheila–the most gracious person on Earth–forgave me for wasting 45 minutes of her time and agreed to re-record the episode.

Thank you to Sheila for sitting down with me twice!

After I recovered from the shame, I realized this might be a great boon for readers. I loved Cracks, the short story, the novel, and the movie! You will find links to all three below. It was fascinating to talk about Sheila’s adaptation from short story to novel, also, to hear about the making of the movie and the decision to set the movie in England rather than South Africa.

I hope you have had time to read the short story and the novel. What did you think of the movie? Let me know if you have any follow-up questions or comments. I would love to hear.

Here are the links:

Cracks, the short story, by Sheila Kohler

Cracks, The Novel by Sheila Kohler, available at Bookshop and Amazon.

Cracks, The Movie

After you’ve read the short story, our podcast is available on

Spotify here

or

Apple here

or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sheila Kohler Bio:

Sheila Kohler was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the younger of two girls. Upon matriculation at 17 from Saint Andrews, with a distinction in history (1958), she left the country for Europe. She lived for 15 years in Paris, where she married, did her undergraduate degree in literature at the Sorbonne, and a graduate degree in psychology at the Institut Catholique. After raising her three girls, she moved to the USA in 1981, and did an MFA in writing at Columbia.

In the summer of 1987, her first published story, “The Mountain,” came out in “The Quarterly” and received an O.Henry prize and was published in the O.Henry Prize Stories of 1988. It also became the first chapter in her first novel, “The Perfect Place,” which was published by Knopf the next year.

Knopf also published the first volume of her short stories, “Miracles in America,” in 1990.

Kohler has won two O.Henry prizes for “The Mountain” 1988 and “The Transitional Object” 2008. She has been short-listed in the O.Henry Prize Stories for three years running: in 1999 for the story, “Africans”; in 2000 for “Casualty,” which had appeared in the Ontario Review; and 2001 for “Death in Rome,” a story which had appeared in The Antioch Review. “Casualty” was also included in the list of distinguished stories in The Best American Short Stories of 2001.

In 1994 she published a second novel, “The House on R Street,” also with Knopf, about which Patrick McGrath said, in “The New York Times Book Review: ” “Sheila Kohler has achieved in this short novel a remarkable atmosphere, a fine delicate fusion of period, society and climate.”

In 1998 she published a short story, “Africans,” in Story Magazine, which was chosen for the Best American Short Stories of 1999, was read and recorded at Symphony Space and at The American Repertory Theatre in Boston and was translated into Japanese. It was also included in her second collection of stories,” One Girl,” published by Helicon Nine, which won the Willa Cather Prize in 1998 judged by William Gass.

In 1999 she published her third novel, “Cracks,” with Zoland, which received a starred review from Kirkus, was nominated for an Impac award in 2001, and was chosen one of the best books of the year by Newsday and by Library Journal.” Cracks” also came out with Bloomsbury in England, was translated into French and Dutch, and will come out in Hebrew. It has been optioned six times by Killer films and Working Track 2. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September, 2009, and at the London film festival and came out here in the summer of 2010 and is now on Netflix. It is directed by Jordan Scott, with Eva Green in the role of Miss G.

In 2000 Kohler received the Smart Family Foundation Prize for “Underworld,” a story published in the October “Yale Review.”

In 2001 she published her fourth novel,” The Children of Pithiviers,” with Zoland, a novel about the concentration camps during the Vicky Period in France in Pithiviers and Beaune la Rolande.

In 2003 she was awarded a fellowship at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Institute to work on a historical novel based on the life on the Marquise de la Tour du Pin, a French aristocrat who escaped the Terror by bringing her family to Albany, New York. Also that year she published her third volume of short stories, “Stories from Another World” with the Ontario Review Press.

She won the Antioch Review Prize in 2004 for work in that magazine. Both “ The Perfect Place” and “Miracles in America” came out in England with Jonathan Cape and in paperback with Vintage International. “The Perfect Place” was translated into French, German, Japanese, and Portuguese.

Her fifth novel, “Crossways,” came out in October, 2004, also, with the Ontario Review Press edited by Raymond Smith and Joyce Carol Oates. It received a starred Kirkus Review and is out in paperback with the Other Press as well as “The Perfect Place.”

Kohler has published essays in The Boston Globe, Salmagundi (summer 2004, 2009), The Bellevue Literary magazine, and O Magazine,”The Heart Speaks” ( May 2004), “What Happy Ever After Really Looks Like” (2008) and reviews in The New Leader and Bomb as well as essays in The American Scholar in 2014 and 2015.

Kohler began teaching at The Writer’s Voice in 1990, going on from there to teach at SUNY Purchase, Sarah Lawrence, Colgate, CCNY , Bennington and Columbia. She has taught creative writing at Princeton since 2008 and now teaches freshman seminars there .

Sheila’s sixth novel, “Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness” was published in 2007, and the paperback was published with Berkely in 2008. “The Transitional Object” in Boulevard won an O.Henry prize and is included in the 2008 volume.

Her tenth book, “Becoming Jane Eyre” came out with Viking Penguin in December, 2009, and was a New York Times editor’s pick. Casey Cep wrote in the Boston Globe about this novel: “With an appreciation for their craft and sympathy for their difficult profession, Kohler’s “Becoming Jane Eyre’’ is a tender telling of the Brontë family’s saga and the stories they told.”

Her eleventh book “Love Child” was published by Penguin in America and by La Table Ronde in France. In June of 2012, her twelfth book “The Bay of Foxes,” was published by Penguin. “Dreaming for Freud” was published by Penguin in 2014. It will be translated into Turkish

In 2013 the story, “Magic Man” was published in Best American Short Stories.

Sheila Kohler published her memoir “Once we were sisters” in 2017 with Penguin in America and with Canongate in England and Alba in Spain. Sheila’s latest novel is “Open Secrets” published by Penguin in July 2020.

Kohler currently lives in New York and Amagansett.

***

In other news, I am taking a sabbatical from the podcast this summer to rest and regroup and figure out what direction to take this show in in the future. I love doing it but every now and then I think it’s a good idea to re-evaluate and hone in on what has been valuable and what parts need to go.

My first guest in the fall is Tim Tomlinson. Although I will be talking to him about one of his short stories, he does a have new book coming out this month. Looks terrific!

Cheers!

Kelly

Sheila Kohler

Hi Everyone,

We’re a little late with this episode and it’s all my fault! For the first time in four years, I conducted an amazing interview with Sheila Kohler and forgot to hit record on Zoom. ACK!! Then, Sheila–who is possibly the most gracious person on Earth–forgave me for wasting 45 minutes of her time and agreed to re-record the episode. Unfortunately, this didn’t leave enough time for Elliot Bancel to edit the episode by May 1st so it will be a few days late.

Thank you to Sheila! I loved Cracks, the short story, the novel, and the movie! You will find links to all three below. It was fascinating to talk about Sheila’s adaptation from short story to novel, also, to hear about the making of the movie and the decision to set the movie in England rather than South Africa.

I hope the delay in the podcast will allow you time to read both the short story and the novel and possibly watch the movie before listening to our discussion. I know that’s a big ask, but there is a lot to learn from the close study of all three versions. If you invest the time, you will be greatly enriched by the experience, I promise.

Here are the links:

Cracks, the short story, by Sheila Kohler first published in The Paris Review.

Cracks, The Novel by Sheila Kohler, available at Bookshop and Amazon.

Cracks, The Movie

See you on May 15th!

Cheers,

Kelly

Bio:

Sheila Kohler was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the younger of two girls. Upon matriculation at 17 from Saint Andrews, with a distinction in history (1958), she left the country for Europe. She lived for 15 years in Paris, where she married, did her undergraduate degree in literature at the Sorbonne, and a graduate degree in psychology at the Institut Catholique. After raising her three girls, she moved to the USA in 1981, and did an MFA in writing at Columbia.

In the summer of 1987, her first published story, “The Mountain,” came out in “The Quarterly” and received an O.Henry prize and was published in the O.Henry Prize Stories of 1988. It also became the first chapter in her first novel, “The Perfect Place,” which was published by Knopf the next year.

Knopf also published the first volume of her short stories, “Miracles in America,” in 1990.

Kohler has won two O.Henry prizes for “The Mountain” 1988 and “The Transitional Object” 2008. She has been short-listed in the O.Henry Prize Stories for three years running: in 1999 for the story, “Africans”; in 2000 for “Casualty,” which had appeared in the Ontario Review; and 2001 for “Death in Rome,” a story which had appeared in The Antioch Review. “Casualty” was also included in the list of distinguished stories in The Best American Short Stories of 2001.

In 1994 she published a second novel, “The House on R Street,” also with Knopf, about which Patrick McGrath said, in “The New York Times Book Review: ” “Sheila Kohler has achieved in this short novel a remarkable atmosphere, a fine delicate fusion of period, society and climate.”

In 1998 she published a short story, “Africans,” in Story Magazine, which was chosen for the Best American Short Stories of 1999, was read and recorded at Symphony Space and at The American Repertory Theatre in Boston and was translated into Japanese. It was also included in her second collection of stories,” One Girl,” published by Helicon Nine, which won the Willa Cather Prize in 1998 judged by William Gass.

In 1999 she published her third novel, “Cracks,” with Zoland, which received a starred review from Kirkus, was nominated for an Impac award in 2001, and was chosen one of the best books of the year by Newsday and by Library Journal.” Cracks” also came out with Bloomsbury in England, was translated into French and Dutch, and will come out in Hebrew. It has been optioned six times by Killer films and Working Track 2. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September, 2009, and at the London film festival and came out here in the summer of 2010 and is now on Netflix. It is directed by Jordan Scott, with Eva Green in the role of Miss G.

In 2000 Kohler received the Smart Family Foundation Prize for “Underworld,” a story published in the October “Yale Review.”

In 2001 she published her fourth novel,” The Children of Pithiviers,” with Zoland, a novel about the concentration camps during the Vicky Period in France in Pithiviers and Beaune la Rolande.

In 2003 she was awarded a fellowship at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Institute to work on a historical novel based on the life on the Marquise de la Tour du Pin, a French aristocrat who escaped the Terror by bringing her family to Albany, New York. Also that year she published her third volume of short stories, “Stories from Another World” with the Ontario Review Press.

She won the Antioch Review Prize in 2004 for work in that magazine. Both “ The Perfect Place” and “Miracles in America” came out in England with Jonathan Cape and in paperback with Vintage International. “The Perfect Place” was translated into French, German, Japanese, and Portuguese.

Her fifth novel, “Crossways,” came out in October, 2004, also, with the Ontario Review Press edited by Raymond Smith and Joyce Carol Oates. It received a starred Kirkus Review and is out in paperback with the Other Press as well as “The Perfect Place.”

Kohler has published essays in The Boston Globe, Salmagundi (summer 2004, 2009), The Bellevue Literary magazine, and O Magazine,”The Heart Speaks” ( May 2004), “What Happy Ever After Really Looks Like” (2008) and reviews in The New Leader and Bomb as well as essays in The American Scholar in 2014 and 2015.

Kohler began teaching at The Writer’s Voice in 1990, going on from there to teach at SUNY Purchase, Sarah Lawrence, Colgate, CCNY , Bennington and Columbia. She has taught creative writing at Princeton since 2008 and now teaches freshman seminars there .

Sheila’s sixth novel, “Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness” was published in 2007, and the paperback was published with Berkely in 2008. “The Transitional Object” in Boulevard won an O.Henry prize and is included in the 2008 volume.

Her tenth book, “Becoming Jane Eyre” came out with Viking Penguin in December, 2009, and was a New York Times editor’s pick. Casey Cep wrote in the Boston Globe about this novel: “With an appreciation for their craft and sympathy for their difficult profession, Kohler’s “Becoming Jane Eyre’’ is a tender telling of the Brontë family’s saga and the stories they told.”

Her eleventh book “Love Child” was published by Penguin in America and by La Table Ronde in France. In June of 2012, her twelfth book “The Bay of Foxes,” was published by Penguin. “Dreaming for Freud” was published by Penguin in 2014. It will be translated into Turkish

In 2013 the story, “Magic Man” was published in Best American Short Stories.

Sheila Kohler published her memoir “Once we were sisters” in 2017 with Penguin in America and with Canongate in England and Alba in Spain. Sheila’s latest novel is “Open Secrets” published by Penguin in July 2020.

Kohler currently lives in New York and Amagansett.

Keith Hood

Hi Everyone,

This month we are discussing “The Progress of Love” by Alice Munro. I’m joined on the podcast by Keith Hood, One Story’s 2024 Adina Talve-Goodman Fellow. Keith read the version of the story available in Alice Munro’s collection (1st person POV) and I read the New Yorker version. I suggest reading both as we had a great discussion about POV and narrative distance and Alice Munro’s decision to switch POV. Please find the stories here:

The Progress of Love from Alice Munro’s collection or her Selected Stories available for purchase on Amazon or Bookshop.

The New Yorker Version typed by Kelly is available below and available only for the month of April with possible typos. After April, please purchase a subscription and support good writing at The New Yorker here.

As always, I’d love to hear any suggestions for upcoming guests and/or possible stories for review. We always appreciate ratings, reviews, or donations (see the donation button on this page). If you have any ideas, comments, or additional insights into this story, please message me on the Let’s Deconstruct a Story Facebook Page. I’d love to add additional comments to this page (below) so check back over time for more insights.

I hope you enjoy the show!

Kelly

Let’s Deconstruct a Story on Apple

Let’s Deconstruct a Story on Spotify

ARTICLES AND BOOKS REFERENCED IN THIS PODCAST

“Switchback Time” by Joan Silber
“The Long-Clock Story” by Amy Gustine
The Mookes and The Gripes thoughts on “The Progress of Love.”
Tantalizing Silences: Articulating Pain in “.The Progress of Love”

The Erotics of Restraint: Essays on Literary Form
Douglas Glover (Author

Guest, Keith Hood:

Mostly true stuff even though not true of me. A Google search reveals that someone who shares Keith Hood’s name is a Compliance Director in Hoboken, NJ, a Senior Military Advisor in Washington D.C., and Managing Director of Warner Financial Services in the UK where a different Keith Hood established a thriving photographic business. Other Keith Hoods have experience in the medical field as dentist, periodontist, plastic surgeon, and ophthalmologist. A Keith Hood MD has written numerous articles in medical journals including, “Hematomas in Aesthetic Surgery.”(Again, I’m not that Keith Hood although I’ve written lots of short stories and essays (see Publications) but I’ve never written any medical articles. I don’t even have a college degree. I have never been a male or female prostitute, an operas singer or athlete. Despite rumors to the contrary, I have never been a staff writer for Star Trek: The Next Generation (although I tried my damnedest). Countless LinkedIn profiles say of various Keith Hoods that he is “an all-around splendid person.” For more on this Keith Hood, visit his website ⁠here. ⁠

Podcast Host Kelly Fordon:

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 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.

Hi Everyone,

I’m thrilled to host Cara Blue Adams today on the podcast. We talked about her stellar short story, “Vision,” available below from Joyland Magazine. I met Cara years ago at the Kenyon Writers Workshop (highly recommend) 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!

Vision

Please listen to the podcast on: Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

Enjoy the show and see you on April 1st!

Cheers,

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.

Hi Everyone,

We had so much fun discussing Leigh Newman’s short story, “An Extravaganza in Two Acts” available here from Electric Literature. You are going to learn so much about writing historical fiction. Leigh is a hoot! The conversation moved at a clip, so I have some discussion notes for you below.

Also, check out the bonus question one of my earlier guests, award-winning author and Pulitzer-prize nominated journalist, Desiree Cooper, sent to Leigh after we recorded the podcast.

We have a new Let’s Deconstruct a Story Facebook page and Instagram page. I’d love to see you there. Please like or follow it, if you have a chance, and feel free to post questions or comments or suggestions for future guests.

Here’s a link to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Audible.

Next month, I’ll be talking to Cara Blue Adams about her short story, “Vision,” available here. You might consider buying Cara Blue Adams’ book, You Never Get it Back, from Bookshop because my co-host for that podcast, Vincent Perrone, is part owner of Book Suey in Hamtramck, and all sales that roll through Bookshop next month will support his store.

Happy reading!

Kelly

PS: Do you have trouble sleeping? If so, I highly recommend Nothing Much Happens, Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups by Kathryn Nicolai. Apparently, Kathryn also lives in Michigan. I don’t know her, but I’m obsessed with these bedtime stories because they are designed to put you to sleep, and her voice is very soothing, but they are also wonderful. If you are in the mood for delightful, feel-good stories, check them out here.

PSS: I have to give one television show a plug…I was listening to a podcast featuring a former classmate from Kenyon, and she suggested a Swedish show called The Restaurant. IT IS SO GOOD. It’s winter here in Detroit, and bleak bleak bleak, so I figured, like me, you might want to light some candles and curl up with a good drama. This one is cutting into my reading time, which is the highest praise from me. Let me know what you think!!

Discussion Notes:

Shawn Vestal, Godforsaken Idaho

Fitzcarraldo Werner Herzog

Cook Inlet’s Deadly Mud Flats

Deadwood

Desiree Cooper’s Question for Leigh Newman:

I’ve been ploughing through “Extravaganza.” It’s really fascinating. On my second read, I’m paying a lot more attention to the diction, the masterful descriptions, the use of internal rhyme, alliteration, etc. It’s a great story to teach from, plus, it has a stunning female protagonist who we only get to know through her guardian’s POV. My question is how Newman made the POV decision? Did she ever consider Genevieve’s? I can imagine me using this story for some of my workshops. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Leigh Newman’s answer:

Oh wow! This is a really interesting question. I think a lot about point of view because I’m really very at home with third person and so I find first person to be tricky. I often use it just as an exercise and some of my best stories have been written in first person, but it’s a serious undertaking for me. I never considered setting Genevieve story in Genevieve ‘s voice. It was always his story about her because he was looking at her and loving her but I do think it might’ve been really interesting to have what she felt spoken.

Bio: Leigh Newman’s collection Nobody Gets Out Alive (Scribner) was long-listed for the National Book Award for Fiction and The Story Prize. Her stories have appeared in the Paris Review, Harper’s, Best American Short Stories 2020, Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023, Tin House, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, One Story and Electric Literature, and have been awarded a Pushcart prize and an American Society of Magazine Editors’ fiction prize. Still Points North (Dial Press), her memoir about growing up in Alaska, was a finalist for the National Book Critic Circle’s John Leonard prize. In 2020, she received the Paris Review’s Terry Southern Prize for “humor, wit, and sprezzatura.”

Newman’s essays and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Bookforum, Vogue, O The Oprah Magazine, and other magazines. When not writing, she looks after her two dogs, two kids, and one cat. Goals include: goats and more chickens.

Leigh’s books are available here on Bookshop and here on Amazon.

Podcast 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

A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness

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 here at LitHub. It’s best to read the story before listening to the podcast.

Bio:

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.

Jai’s books are available on Bookshop or Amazon.

Next month, I’ll be talking to Leigh Newman about her story, “An Extravaganza in Two Acts,” also available via Electric Literature. 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 on Facebook and Instagram as well as Spotify or Apple.

I was hoping to send out a newsletter with my big list of 2023 resources/books/recommendations, but I have to be honest, 2023 was a TOUGH year, so I have compiled a small resources list (below) and hope you will enjoy it. Cheers to more great stories in 2024!

2023 Recommendations:

I read 52 books (besides short story collections) this year and although I can’t manage a “best of” list, four books really stuck with me:

The Poetics of Wrongness by Rachel Zucker

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Happening by Annie Ernaux

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

It goes without saying, I was truly inspired by the work of every short story writer who visited the podcast in 2023!

Here is the complete list of 2023 Let’s Deconstruct a Story Guests plus links to their work:

Kevin Fitton

Julie Ann Stewart

Meghan Louise Wagner

Robin Luce Martin

Anna Caritj

Caroline Kim

Chad B. Anderson

George Singleton

Bonnie Jo Campbell

Katherine Vaz

Thank you so much to everyone who visited the show in 2023!

In other news, in May 2023 I created and launched an audiobook.

My short story collection, I Have the Answer, was published by Wayne State University Press in April 2020. The timing alone would have been what I like to call a suckitude, but the press was also going through a kerfuffle, so the book just sort of floated off into the ether.

In 2023, I asked for (and graciously received) the audiobook rights from WSUP. With the help of sound engineer, Elliot Bancel, I contacted five audiobook narrators and read a few stories myself. I am terrible at self-promotion, but I am proud of it so wanted to give it a year-end shout out.

Check it out here.

Lastly, a couple of writing resources:

I LOVED the generative experiments offered by Gabriela Denise Frank through the Poetry Foundation. I took this one-day seminar late in a very tough year (2023-epic suckitude) and was completely bowled over by this class and her teaching technique. I was tempted–like Gollum–to keep this information to myself, but I am sharing it here against my better judgement.

Did you know you can join Off Campus Writers Workshop even if you don’t live in Chicago? And if you join for a nominal fee, all of their weekly classes are $10 a piece. This year they are hosting Peter Orner, Charles Baxter, and many other luminaries.

Every year I complete a year-end review offered by Annette Gendler and I have to say that even though I will be glad to say adieu to 2023, I actually wrote a lot more than I realized, and I only know this because I took the time to complete this inventory. It might make you feel MUCH better about your writing life. Here’s the link.

Happy New Year!

Kelly