This week we're talking with the immensely talented Deesha Philyaw. In 2020, Deesha published her debut collection of short stories, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. Though initially, it took Deesha and her agent several months to find a firm that would publish the book, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies dominated the 2020 literary awards season, winning the 2020 Story Prize, the 2020 L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction, and the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award. Listen to hear Deesha talk about the church ladies who inspired the book, how the short story collection came to be, and what she hopes readers take away from the book.

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