"Let's Deconstruct a Story" featuring Christie Hodgen

Let's Deconstruct a Story

Before listening to my interview with Christie Hodgen, please read her story, “Rich Strike,” because the interview is full of spoilers!

The story is available for free here on the Story website, thanks to Michael Nye. Please consider subscribing to Story and supporting great literature here.

Congratulations to Christie for winning a Pushcart Prize for this story as well.

If you would like to read my annotation of the story and some background on the books discussed during our interview, please consider becoming a paid subscriber and accessing my annotation in the archives here.

The interview is available for free here on Substack and Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I can’t wait to unpack this story with you!

Cheers,

Kelly

P.S.: I gave Christie Hodgen’s novel, Elegies for the Brokenhearted, to at least eight people one Christmas (I feel like it was more than that, but eight—at least—that I can track). It’s one of my all-time favorites. You can purchase a copy here.

Bio: Christie Hodgen’s most recent novel, Boy Meets Girl, won the 2020 AWP Prize for the Novel. Her other books include Elegies for the Brokenhearted, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “the literary equivalent of a hand grenade,” as well as Hello, I Must Be Going and A Jeweler’s Eye for Flaw.

Hodgen has published short stories and essays in dozens of literary journals and anthologies. Her work has received several awards, including two Pushcart Prizes, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in Kansas City and is the editor of New Letters magazine.

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I hope you enjoy this episode. If you do, please consider joining me as a yearly subscriber and/or helping to sponsor LDAS with a small donation. I would love to produce more content, but I need funds to do that. LDAS is entirely listener-supported, which allows us the freedom to create content of our choosing, and I hope to keep it that way.

**Thanks also to our audio engineer, Elliot Bancel!**

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On June 15th, I will be speaking with Eli Sparkman about his flash fiction (see the archive here for his stories.)

On July 1st, I’ll be speaking with Erika Krouse about her story, “Jude,” first published in The Colorado Review and later in her phenomenal short story collection, Save Me, Stranger. Caitlin Horrocks will join me for the interview, and after we discuss Jude, we will talk about Caitlin’s story, “Better Not Tell You Now,” from swamp pink.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsdeconstructastory.substack.com/subscribe