In this episode writers Alex Higley and Willie Fitzgerald join host Catherine Nichols to discuss two stories from Alice Munro's 1991 short story collection Friend of My Youth. The first is the title story, in which the narrator retells (and reinterprets) a story she was told by her dying mother about two Presbyterian sisters; the second is "Meneseteung," about a writer doing research on a 19th century poet. Willie Fitzgerald's short stories have been published in Joyland, Prairie Schooner, and many other publications. He is a graduate of the Michener Center, cofounder of the APRIL festival, and is currently the Mari Sabusawa Editorial Fellow at American Short Fiction.Alex Higley is the author of the short collection Cardinal (longlisted for the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction) and the novel Old Open. He's also co-host (with Lindsay Hunter) of the podcast "I'm a Writer But." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

The Great Gatsby

Host Catherine Nichols and guests choose one book for each year of the twentieth century (Nella Larsen's Passing, 1936, Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, 1966; Mohandas Gandhi's Indian Home Rule, 1909) and talk about it in its historical and literary context. Tune in to find out what the 20th century was all about.