Episode #54 - Jolene McIlwain: "The Steep Side"

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 connection with art - or readers of her fiction. Her newly-released novel-in-stories Choose This Now  has been hailed by Lydia Kiesling, author of Mobility and The Golden State as " a sparkling, intimate look at women’s lives." Sierre Lidén reads "Three Times I Breathed Other People's Breath and No One Worried About Death," which was published in Tupelo Quarterly. https://nicoleharoutunian.com/Support the show

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 linguistics. She is a translator, a fiction writer,  and an award-winning poet. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called her debut collection Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil "a terrific fiction debut."   https://www.anandalima.com/about/Support the show

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 born to ranchers or farmers. Her dad was a sports journalist and a poet who fostered the love of literature in their home, which became the foundation on which she would build her writing career. We read "Granddad Swam" from her debut collection Horse Show, which was first published in Oyez Review.  https://jessbowers.org/Support the show

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’d lived for so many years, the reality that always had boundaries on it, and limits as to what I could do. I didn’t want my writing in a box." He has a PhD. But it's not in Creative Writing. It's in Environmental Engineering. He does important work there. But in the field of writing, he's begun to make another kind of mark on the world. We read his story "The Longest Day." https://trentlewin.com/Support the show

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. The work-in-progress features stories of fearless women - hikers, hockey-players, moms,  and mom-athletes - all striving to create harmony in an often brutal world. We read her story "Ice Created Layer Upon Layer," which was published in Grain Magazine.   https://andreabishop.ca/Support the show

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 father, he creates a palpable connection to a world gone by. His Port Colborne stories depict his dad's rough-and-tumble post-war childhood, preserving a precious part of his family's past, and honoring his father's memory with a literary legacy. We read "Last Jump Off the Lift Bridge." https://courtlandavenue.wordpress.com/Support the show

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 drawn to the ways that writing fiction allows him to become a kind of shapeshifter, creating worlds in which he gets to live multiple lives. The characters who populate his stories may live hard lives, but their faith in humanity keeps them connected to the world in profound ways. We read "Naming the Darkness" from the collection Hollows. https://tommydeanwriter.com/Support the show

Tennessee author Amy Cipolla Barnes grew up in Great  Plains territory, where her grandparents owned and operated a farm. In her fiction and other writing, one feels a powerful and ever-present connection to the earth and the natural world. Sierra Lidén reads "Docked," "St. Lucy of El Paso," "Drowning on Main Street," and "The Art of Brutalism."Support the show

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 fiction and essays, he writes with a reverent yet unalloyed veracity about his hometown, where he witnessed dramatic changes taking place. We read his story "Utility," which was first published in Blue Mesa Review. https://keithhoodwriter.com/Support the show

Massachusetts author Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a practicing psychiatrist in the Boston area who joins a long tradition of doctors who have written poetry and fiction while pursuing a life in medicine. Her debut story collection White Dancing Elephants was the winner of the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize in 2017, and was selected for the list of  "35 Over 35" Debut Books in 2018. In this episode, Chaya reads an excerpt from her story "Wormhole," which was published in the Southern Humanities Review.    https://www.chayabhuvaneswar.com/Support the show