Welcome to Literary Fiction on NTS. I'm Carrie Plitt, here as always with my co-host Octavia Bright.

Hello, Octavia. Hi, Carrie. Today, in our typically overreaching fashion, we're tackling a large topic, the short story. Reverered by readers and

overlooked by publishers, the short story is literature in a single shot, and the form has many

masters from Edgar Allan Poe to Laurie Moore to Juneau Diaz. And I noticed that I said all American

writers there, but there are also international writers who are good at short stories as well.

We'll be talking today about what a short story actually is, how to write a good one, and who writes

them best. Here in the studio today with us right now is a wonderful writer of short stories,

Jesse Greengrass, whose debut collection, an account of the decline of the Great Occup,

according to one who saw it, was published last year by John Murray Press.

Octavia, can you introduce Jessie, please?

Absolutely.

Jessie Greengrass was born in 1982, and she studied philosophy in Cambridge and London, where she now lives with her partner.

She's a founder member of the Broughtigan Free Press Press and her aforementioned debut collection has been

really well received, winning the Edge Hill Short Story Prize in 2016. And Jesse was also

shortlisted for the Sunday Times' PFD Young Writer of the Year award in 2016. So many accolades

and we're thrilled to have her with us. Yes, we are very thrilled. So we'll be talking to

Jessie about her collection. Then we'll be talking to Jessie about her collection.

Then we'll be discussing the theme, short stories more generally. And finally, we're having Jesse back to give her book recommendation. So stay tuned to literary friction. So Jesse, here

you are. Thank you for coming in. Hi, thank you for having me. And we've asked you to start

with the reading. And I think you're going to read a whole story for us, which is very exciting.

Yeah, it seems kind of slightly silly to come and only read half a story when you've written

things that are short. This is the lonesome southern trials of Nut the Whaler.

...