Well, I'm not going to lie. It was one of the top ten thrills of my life speaking with George Saunders. I was so excited, I thought I might pass out partway through the interview. But he could not have been more unpretentious, kind, and engaging. I learned so much from him, and hope you do too! Every story he writes reminds me that we are all multifaceted and precious, despite our flaws--what a gift.

More thanks are in order:

I am so grateful to George Saunders because he agreed to this podcast as a benefit for Pages Bookshop in Detroit. Plus, the Grosse Pointe Public Library in Michigan bought ten copies of Liberation Day for their patrons from Pages Bookshop, so this really ended up being a great collaboration.

In addition, my gratitude to fellow writers Jenn Goddu, Linda Downing Miller, Ellen Birkett Morris, Suma Rosen, Julie Ann Stewart, Laura Hulthen Thomas, and Gloria Whelan for their incisive questions, and for participating in the class!

Please read "Mother's Day" before listening to our discussion. It's available in his new book, Liberation Day, or in The New Yorker, or for free as a New Yorker Fiction Audio Selection.

Check out this wonderful article (one of many!) about this new collection: The sweet humanity

Next month I'll be talking to Toni Ann Johnson author of Light Skin Gone to Waste about a story from her Flannery O'Connor Award-winning collection.

Thanks for tuning in, everyone.

Kelly

PS: We had some technical difficulties. At one point you might hear some garbage trucks in the background, at another point we got cut off mid-sentence (talking about the hot hands) and had to continue that conversation near the end of the recording, but I managed to edit out most of it, and then I handed it over to podcast engineer, Andrew Mason, at Upwork who managed to clean up the rest. Thanks, Andrew!

PSS: If you would like a transcript of this conversation, please contact me.

Check out https://kellyfordon.com/lets-deconstruct-a-story/ for more episodes or more info about your host.

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