Description

Hard-Wired for Stores

Join Heidi Pitlor, former 'Best American Short Stories' series editor, and Susan Shepherd, short story writer, for a lively discussion on the joys and current struggles of the beloved short story.
Award-winning actor and audio book narrator Peter Berkrot will present dramatic interpretations of each writer’s work. The discussion will be followed by book sales and a signing courtesy of the Bookstore of Gloucester.

Presented by Literary Cape Ann

About the authors:

Heidi Pitlor
Before helming The Best American Short Stories series, Pitlor was a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for 10 years. She is the founder and director of Heidi Pitlor Editorial, a firm providing editorial support to authors, agents, and publishers. Pitlor is also the author of the bestselling novels "The Birthdays"; "The Daylight Marriage," which was optioned for film; and “Impersonation." The New York Times Book Review said of “Impersonation,” "Pitlor’s voice is witty and brisk...like sitting down with a refreshingly honest friend who skips the part about how great her life is and dives right into the real stuff. We need more friends like this. Authors, too."
 
“If there’s anything I Iong for lately,” says Pitlor, “it’s genuine human connection. If there’s anything I read for, it’s the same. I look for smartly written characters, humanity of language, emotionally true descriptions of how we do and do not connect as people. These traits are what made me fall in love with fiction decades ago, and they’re what I find myself most drawn to still.”

Susan Shepherd
Shepherd’s writing has been published in the Boston Globe, Ploughshares, the Chicago Quarterly Review, Story, Swamp Pink, the Harvard Review and One Story. Her story “Baboons,” from the Kenyon Review, was selected by Lauren Groff for publication in the 2024 “Best American Short Stories.” Shepherd’s audio work as a writer, producer and reporter has aired on NPR, Marketplace, and on multiple NPR shows, including her short fiction podcast 11 Central Ave., which aired on a number of public radio stations around the country and won a Gold Medal for Best Comedy from the New York Festivals and a National Gracie Allen Award for Best Producer, Comedy. Shepherd recently finished the novel Animalia, several stories of which have been listed as distinguished stories in The Best American Short Stories.