Mr. Jones’s home city of Portland has one of the most talented, and supportive, literary communities in the country. It’s a little like Paris in the 20s, only with food carts, craft beer, and legal cannabis.
On today’s show, we welcome four shining lights of that community, all writers whose most recent books are collections of short stories. Our guests are Margaret Malone, author of People Like You, which was a Pen Hemingway finalist; Karen Russell, author of Orange World, and recipient of both a MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowship; Kimberly King Parsons, whose book Black Light was long-listed for a 2019 National Book Award; and Lidia Yuknavitch, author of the new story collection Verge, which goes on sale February 4th. Lidia’s previous books have garnered numerous awards and honors, and my KBOO colleague, David Naimon, calls her Portland’s “literary fairy godmother”.
Lidia will be reading, and signing books, at Powell’s City of Books in downtown Portland, on Tuesday, February 4th at 7:30pm. I advise you to get there early. And Margaret will be teaching a Short Story Intensive class at Literary Arts, also in downtown Portland, starting on March 12th.
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood!
- KBOO