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April Ayers Lawson And Clare Beams Chronicle Transgressions And Transformations In Short Stories

An image of writers Clare Beams and April Ayers Lawson
Kristi Jan Hoover/Jason Ayers
Writers Clare Beams and April Ayers Lawson discuss their debut short story collections

When writing a short story, an author must be swift and succinct. A short story does not allow a plot the same amount of breathing room compared to a novel. Writers April Ayers Lawson and Clare Beams welcome the immediacy inherent in a short story as they integrate intimate and engaging tales into their work.

Lawson's debut short story collection "Virgin and Other Stories" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/2016) grapples with gender, sexuality and intimacy in gothic Southern landscapes. Meanwhile, Beams' debut short story collection "We Show What We Have Learned" (Lookout Books/ 2016) features several fantastical stories from the classroom.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Lawson and Beams about their approach to short story writing. Lawson and Beams speak at 7 p.m. tonight at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill.

Charlie Shelton-Ormond is a podcast producer for WUNC.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.