Episode Details

Today we're talking with Tina deBellegarde about short stories, what makes a good short story, and why certain short story writers are so appealing. Tina has been nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, has a short story published in the Mystery Writers of America anthology called "When a Stranger Comes to Town," and most recently won the USA Prize in the Writers in Kyoto annual story competition.

Amy congratulates Tina on her contest-winning entry called "Sound Travels" in the WiK writing competition, and Tina mentions that it can be read on the Writers in Kyoto website. Tina tells how the inspiration for the entry came from the current coronavirus situation which has prevented her (living in the US) from seeing her son, (living in Kyoto), for over a year and a half. Her piece was constructed from telephone conversations with her son amidst the background sounds of Kyoto City as he went about his daily activities.

They start the topic of the podcast by highlighting some Japanese short story writers such as Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto, Hiromi Kawakami, Aoko Matsuda, and Kyoko Nakajima. and foreign writers, including Lafcadio Hearn and, more recently, Rebecca Otowa. Amy also mentions two short story collections from China, one by the well-known author Xu Xu called Bird Talk, and an anthology of flash fiction called The Pearl Jacket and Other Stories: Flash Fiction from Contemporary China  which prompts a discussion on flash fiction, which Tina defines for us and elaborates upon, including the works of Mieko Kawakami.

Amy asks Tina who her favorite short story authors are and Tina identifies Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto as definite favorites. Amy decides to give listeners a bit of a taste of Yoshimoto and how she smoothly transitions into "another world" by reading from the introduction of the story "Newlywed" from the short story collection Lizard. Tina notes in this example that some of the best short stories start from such an encounter, or moment, after which, the world is never the same for the protagonist. Trains are often the scene of stories in Japan, since most people in Japan ride trains all throughout their lives and these movable settings involve a revolving door of different kinds of people who visit familiar places at which events can occur. Murakami does this too, especially as seen in the stories in his latest collection First Person Singular. Tina notes that in this sampling of works many of Murakami's moments are merely moments, without morphing into other worlds (the way many of his novels do).

Tina admires Murakami for his adeptness at focusing on "small moments" and how he expands them into stories. She talks about his short story "The Second Bakery Attack," (from The Elephant Vanishes) then moves into "Carnaval" (from First Person Singular) and how Murakami contrasts beautiful and "ugly" women in this story (the latter of whom he envies for their skills in communicating and drawing people into their worlds). Amy mentions Books on Asia's Murakami Podcast and Issue, that lists all his books, including his short story collections and fun Murakami trivia.

Tina reflects on the

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