Ep. 59 Big Stories in Small Spaces with Ellen Birkett Morris 9-9-20

2020-09-08

Our guest this week, Ellen Birkett Morris, has an affection for small things. She says she was born prematurely and was terribly small at birth. She wonders if this is where her fascination with beautiful things coming in small packages began. Ellen is the author of a book of poetry and a new collection of short stories called Lost Girls. What readers may notice about her stories is that though they are small in length, they are powerful in meaning. Each story focuses on a passing moment in the lives of the girls and women she writes about. Ellen says she...

Our guest this week, Ellen Birkett Morris, has an affection for small things. She says she was born prematurely and was terribly small at birth. She wonders if this is where her fascination with beautiful things coming in small packages began. Ellen is the author of a book of poetry and a new collection of short stories called Lost Girls. What readers may notice about her stories is that though they are small in length, they are powerful in meaning. Each story focuses on a passing moment in the lives of the girls and women she writes about. Ellen says she loves dipping in and out of a person’s story to find the small snippet of time that packs an emotional punch.

Lost Girls has been receiving critical praise from such places as the Southern Review of Books, Alabama Public Radio, and numerous book bloggers and reviewers including the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog.

Ellen talks to us about why reading her favorite books as a girl formed her idea that to be a writer you have to be a little like a spy, how the #MeToo movement helped shape the final form her stories collection would take, and why the superstore Target carrying her book left her a little gobsmacked.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
2- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
3- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
4- Arabel's Raven by Joan Aiken
5- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
6- A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
7- Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
8- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach
9- Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
10- Lake Life by David James Poissant
11- Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
12- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
13- The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
14- Pax by Sara Pennypacker
15- American Ghost: A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest by Hannah Nordhaus
16- Brooklyn by Colm Tolbein
17- Norah Webster by Colm Tolbein