short story

Pete Fromm reads the story "The Fairest of Them All," which would later appear in his short story collection Dry Rain (1997). Set in Alaska, the story is narrated by a man whose twin sister comes to stay with him following a lost custody dispute over her children. This reading was given with Sandra Alcosser.

Stanley Elkin reads The State of the Art from his collection of short stories The Living End.

Richard Yates reads from his collection Liars in Love, which would go on to be published in 1981.

Maxine Chernoff reads widely from Leap Year Day: New and Selected Poems (1990). In addition to poems and prose poems published over several decades, she reads work that would later be published in World: Poems 1991-2001 (2001). She closes the reading with a short story from Signs of Devotion (1993) and an excerpt from her then-unpublished novel American Heaven (1996).

Sherman Alexie reads widely from his work and engages the audience with stories characterized by his signature humor.

A celebration of the fairy tale, featuring readings from authors included in My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (2010), an anthology of new fairy tales edited by Kate Bernheimer.

Gloria E. Anzaldúa reads widely from her extensive body of work; this reading includes uncollected and unpublished poems.

Shannon Cain reads a story from her collection The Necessity of Certain Behaviors (2011) as part of the University of Arizona Prose Series. This reading was originally given with Lydia Millet.

Jonathan Penner reads two stories, "The Creative Fellow" and "Joseph's Feet," that would later appear in his short story collection This Is My Voice (2003).

In this reading, originally given with Aurelie Sheehan, Beth Alvarado shares an excerpt from the short story collection Not a Matter of Love (2006).

Richard Russo reads the title story from his collection The Whore's Child and Other Stories (2002).

Alan Heathcock reads from the collection Volt: Stories (2011).

Aurelie Sheehan reads a story from the collection Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant (1994), as well as two unpublished works.

Poetry Center Summer Resident Polly Rosenwaike reads an excerpt from the short story Grow Your Eyelashes. This reading was originally given with Samuel Ace and Dexter L. Booth.

John Gardner reads from two of his stories, "Coyote and the Dead Man" and "Come on Back."

Erin McGraw performs a Southern dialect to read the story Until It Comes Closer from her collection Bodies at Sea (1989).

Alison Moore begins her reading with a poem titled "The Extras at the Gates of Eden." She then reads her short story "Snake Woman," which would go on to be published in The Middle of Elsewhere: A Novella and Stories (2006).

Greg Sarris reads a story titled "Waiting for the Green Frog," in the voice of an elderly medicine woman, from his collection Grand Avenue: A Novel in Stories (1994).

Joy Williams reads her short story "Escapes," the title piece of her 1990 collection of short fiction.

Monique Wittig and Sande Zeig read for the Writers At Work Series. Wittig and Zeig team to play the parts of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in a play written by Wittig and translated by Zeig, Le Voyage sans fin (The Constant Journey, 1985), based on Miguel de Cervantes's classic novel. Before performing the play, Wittig gives a brief talk explaining the role of transposition and gender roles in her adaption of Cervantes's work.

Leonard Michaels reads from short stories written throughout his career, and concludes the reading with an excerpt from his novel The Men's Club (1981). His uncompromising realist sketches catch characters at their darkest and most vulnerable moments, and are colored with absurdist humor. Stories include those published in his collections Going Places (1969) and I Would Have Saved Them If I Could (1975). 

In this performance for the Writers at Work Series, Katherine Toy Miller and Vance Bourjaily read from their fiction. Katherine Toy Miller reads six short stories from a collection titled Eleanor, along with a short story titled "The Critical Session." Vance Bourjaily reads segments from a novel-in-progress called The Great Fake Book. Bourjaily ends his reading by performing a short solo on the cornet.

Lydia Millet reads from a forthcoming short story collection, Fight No More. This reading was originally given with Jenny Offill.

Manuel Muñoz reads an excerpt from his short story collection The Consequences (2022), which centers on Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers around Fresno, California. This reading was given alongside Ander Monson and Bojan Louis as part of the Distinguished Visitors in Creative Writing Series. 

Bojan Louis reads from his debut short story collection Sinking Bell (2022). This excerpted story revolves around a young Diné narrator in Flagstaff, Arizona, who finds himself working as a chauffeur for his cousin and her friends. Part of the Distinguished Visitors in Creative Writing Series, this reading was presented alongside Ander Monson and Manuel Muñoz. 

Cara Blue Adams, an alumna of the UA MFA in Creative Writing Program, reads a short story titled "Shoulder Season" from her collection You Never Get It Back (2021). This story takes place in Tucson and follows a protagonist who is in an optical sciences graduate program at UA, but decides to leave school and become a writer. This reading was originally given alongside Alberto Ríos and Aisha Sabatini Sloan to celebrate the MFA program's 50th anniversary.

Dionne Irving reads the short story "An American Idea of Fun" from her second book, The Islands (2022). The story traces the impact of a summer spent in France across an American girl's life. Irving answers questions about the story, The Islands as a whole, and the writers and stories that have inspired her.