Episode 245 with Shannon Sanders, Author of Company, the Winner of the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and a Master Class in Creating Empathy, Sympathy, and Awe for Their Smoothness

Notes and Links to Shannon Sanders’ Work

 

   For Episode 245, Pete welcomes Shannon Sanders, and the two discuss, among other topics, her childhood love of books, Toni Morrison and her powerful and pivotal work, Shannon’s writing for her job as a lawyer, rocking sneakers at a prize-winning, and salient themes and issues in her collection like generational differences, sacrifice, family bonds, motherhood, the title’s connection to guests and hosts(esses), and racism and sexism and the ways in which they work on the characters’ pasts and presents.

 

   Shannon Sanders is the author of the linked short story collection Company, which won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize's Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, was named a Publishers Weekly and Debutiful Best Book of 2023, and was shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in One Story, Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Electric Literature, and elsewhere, and received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Silver Spring with her husband and three sons.

 

Buy Company

 

Review of Company in Washington Post

 

Shannon Sanders’ Website

 

At about 1:35, Pete shouts out Shannon’s stellar Twitter presence 

At about 3:00, Shannon charts her childhood reading journey, and how she became an active writer from high school on

At about 5:40, Shannon talks about chill-inducing writing and writers, including Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, Stephen King, and VC Andrews, with modern writers like Lisa Taddeo, Deesha Philyaw, Danielle Evans, 

At about 9:15, Shannon responds to Pete’s questions about representation in what she has read, and she shouts out Toni Morrison (including Jazz) and Octavia Butler, to whom she was introduced in Vicki Adamson’s high school class

At about 11:55, Shannon talks about the writing in her lawyerly life and how it informs her fiction

At about 13:50, Shannon details the wonderful experience of winning her prize at the LA Times Book Festival and her unique footwear

At about 16:10, Shannon talks about Company’s genre and the links between stories

At about 17:30, Shannon outlines the background and rationale for using a family tree at the beginning of the book

At about 19:15, Pete highlights a Sebastian Maniscalco skit that has to do with the shift in the last few decades in having “company” at home, and Shannon explains her collection’s stories’ connections to the idea of hosts(esses) and guests

At about 21:00, Pete gives background on “The Good, Good Men,” the collection’s first story, and alludes to Antonya Nelson’s “In the Land of Men”

At about 23:30, Birds of paradise as a story and the birds themselves are discussed as Pete asks about debts and generational expectations for all women and for Black women

At about 27:35, Shannon talks about a story where you uses second person, its inspirations in Jamaica Kincaid’s legendary “Girl” and others, and birth order and generational differences

At about 30:50, The two discuss the theme of sacrifice through a flashback story

At about 34:35, Pete highlights a story based on flashback and incredible selflessness and the ways in which the collection felt “finished”

At about 38:00, Ideas of “old money” and treasured memories and empathy are discussed 

At about 39:15, Shannon talks about the story “Rioja” and traces the family’s machinations and subtleties

At about 41:35, “La Belle Hottentot” is discussed, including the sordid and tragic history, and how it is one of two stories that are different perspectives from the 

At about 44:00, Opal, the family matriarch is analyzed through a pivotal story in the collection

At about 47:45, Shannon responds to Pete’s questions about maintaining continuity in her story collection

At about 50:50, Shannon answers Pete’s questions about how much she herself shows up in the collection’s characters 

At about 53:00, Pete quotes Ruth Madievsky about the ways in which different writers write and edit, and Shannon discusses her own style(s)

At about 54:55, The two explore ghosts and their significance in the collection

At about 56:00, Shannon gives interesting background on the character Lucy and her childhood friend and the storyline

At about 57:30, a “literal” ghost story is probed

At about 1:01:15, Shannon talks about exciting new projects and whether characters from Company will be expanded upon

At about 1:02:50, Shannon gives contact info and info for buying her book

 

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    Please tune in for Episode 246 with Ruben Reyes, Jr. He is the son of two Salvadoran immigrants, completed his MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop; and is a graduate of Harvard College. His writing has appeared in Audible Originals, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Acentos Review, Strange Horizons, Poynter, and other publications. His debut story collection, There is a Rio Grande in Heaven, is out as of today, August 6, along with our wonderful conversation. Happy Pub Day, Ruben!

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