This week we're unlocking one of our bonus episodes, usually available only to Patreon subscribers. This is the inauguaral episode in our Summer of Shorts season, in which we're discussing both short stories and short pants. In this episode we take on a Ling Ma short story and also a pair of "conspiracy shorts" that are supposed to protect you from electromagnetic fields.

If you like the episode, and want to hear the rest of the Summer of Shorts season, you can subscribe to our Patreon for just five bucks: https://www.patreon.com/BookFight

You can also read the Ling Ma story we talked about here, via the New Yorker site (if you have free articles left this month, or are a subscriber): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/11/peking-duck

We're joined by the author of SINK to talk about difficult memoirs, how various kinds of privilege play out in workshop, and why he likes writing that forces you to get a little lost. 

Check out more from Joseph--and buy his book--via his website: https://www.josephearlthomas.net/

You can learn more about Blue Stoop Philly, including local literary events and course offerings, here: https://www.bluestoop.org/

And if you like our podcast, and want more of it in your life--including two bonus episodes each month--join our Patreon for just $5: https://www.patreon.com/BookFight

We're joined by Irish author Mark O'Connell (A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, which won the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish literature) to discuss a John Banville novel, The Book of Evidence, a fictionalized account of a famous Irish murder. O'Connell's newest book is actually a nonfiction exploration of that same murder, which took place in the early 80s and made headlines around the country, in part because the murderer was a well-known Dublin socialite.

We talk to O'Connell about why he became so obsessed with that murder, his approach to writing and researching nonfiction, and why he's not worried about AI taking any of our jobs.

You can find more about O'Connell--and his books--at his website: https://mark-oconnell.com/

If you like our show, and want to support it, we're offering two bonus episodes each month for only $5. Most recently those include our ongoing Summer of Shorts, in which we read short stories and talk about short pants: https://www.patreon.com/BookFight