Skip to main content

Short Stories

Filter by

Select Air Date

to

Select Segment Types

Segment Types

30 Segments

Sort:

Newest

05:55

Karen Russell's 'Vampires' Deserve The Raves

The author of Swamplandia! has a new collection of short stories called Vampires in the Lemon Grove. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the stories are daring and devastating, and with them Russell establishes herself as one of the great American writers of our young century.

Review
06:22

10 Books To Help You Recover From A Tense 2012

2012 has been a very jittery year — what with the presidential election, extreme weather events and the looming "fiscal cliff." Fresh Air critic Maureen Corrigan found that her favorite fiction and nonfiction this year directly confronted the atmospheric uncertainty of the age.

Review
05:30

Roving Eyes, Wandering Hands In 'How You Lose Her'

Junot Diaz's electric new collection of short stories centers around Yunior, a macho yet mournful Dominican-American man. In these stories about love, lust and infidelity, a good man is hard to find — and when he is found, he's always in bed with someone else.

Review
05:24

Unflinching Evil in 'Say You're One of Them'

The debut short-story collection by Nigerian writer and Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan offers a sobering view of a world in which atrocity is commonplace, and the unthinkable is the everyday.

Review
05:40

Cultural Chasms in Lahiri's 'Unaccustomed Earth'

Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, a new collection of short stories that chronicles the cultural alienation that exists between Indian-born parents and their American-born children.

Review
06:33

'View From Castle Rock': New Stories From Alice Munro

Short story master Alice Munro would be justified in resting on her laurels at this point in her career — she's won Canada's Governor General's Literary Award three times, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. But in her new collection of stories, called The View from Castle Rock, Munro veers off into a fresh direction — exploring family history through fact and fiction.

Review
05:35

'Lucky Girls'

Book critic Maureen Corrigan considers Lucky Girls (Ecco), the debut short story collection by Nell Freudenberger.

Review
08:36

Writer and Doctor John Murray

Murray has written a new collection of short stories, A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies. Many of his stories are informed by his experiences as a doctor with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service when he traveled to developing countries like Burundi, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Murray is also a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Interview
05:30

Book Critic Maureen Corrigan

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, a collection of short stories by Alice Munro.

Review
35:26

Singer-Songwriter Steve Earle

Singer-songwriter Steve Earle has released ten critically acclaimed albums; his latest CD is called Transcendental Blues. He's just published his first book, a collection of short stories called Doghouse Roses. Earle is also politically active. He currently serves as a board member of the Journey of Hope and is affiliated with both the Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the Abolitionist Action Committee.

Interview

Did you know you can create a shareable playlist?

Advertisement

There are more than 22,000 Fresh Air segments.

Let us help you find exactly what you want to hear.
Just play me something
Your Queue

Would you like to make a playlist based on your queue?

Generate & Share View/Edit Your Queue