A Small, Good Thing
A Small, Good Thing
Podcast Description
"A Small, Good Thing" is a podcast about short fiction. In every episode, I get to discuss the short story form with writers, academics, publishers, and anyone who shares a passion for short stories.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores themes around short fiction, including publishing challenges, writing techniques, and the cultural significance of short stories. Episodes feature discussions on specific works by authors such as John Cheever and Yiyun Li, as well as insights into initiatives like short story competitions. Additionally, it touches upon the evolution of narrative styles and engages with the academic perspectives on storytelling.
“A Small, Good Thing” is a podcast about short fiction. In every episode, I get to discuss the short story form with writers, academics, publishers, and anyone who shares a passion for short stories.
Ailsa Cox is a Professor Emerita at Edge Hill University (UK) and a short story writer. In this first part of the interview, we discuss famous claims about short stories and short story writing, like reading short stories in one sitting, the connection between short stories and poetic language, and much more. Listen to find out if they are facts or fiction!
Works cited:
Ailsa Cox, Writing Short Stories. Third Edition (Routledge, 2025).
Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Philosophy of Composition’, in Essays and Reviews (Library of America, 1984)
Leila Martin, Kodavision (Nightjar Press, 2025)
Colm Tóibín, Mothers and Sons (Picador, 2006).
Helen Simpson, Constitutional (Vintage, 2006).
Allan Weiss, The Mini-Cycle (Routledge, 2021).
Zoe Gilbert, Folk (Bloomsbury, 2018)
Paul March-Russell, ‘Anthropocene feminism and the Weird temporalities of landscape’, Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, 15:1-2 (2025), pp. 81-95.
Katherine Mansfield, ‘Bliss’, in Selected Stories (Oxford University Press, 2002).
Janice Galloway, Blood (Vintage, 1991).
Raymond Carver, ‘Fires’, in Call If You Need Me (The Harvill Press, 2000), pp. 93-106.
Alice Munro, Runaway (Chatto & Windus, 2005).
Nightjar Press, https://nightjarpress.weebly.com/
Podcast intro and outro credits: Shield, Leroy, Taylor Holmes, and Robert W Service. The shooting of Dan McGrew. 1923. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.
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