Left Shelf

Prepare for an emotional rollercoaster of shame, guilt, hope, and finally, inevitable tragedy. In this week’s episode, we read our first longer piece, “Giovanni’s Room”  by James Baldwin, and talk about all things sexuality, gender and how all the characters hate women. 

You can read or listen to the whole book here. 

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I dare you to find an author as witty and quick as Grace Paley. In this week’s episode, we cover her short story “Faith In A Tree” and talk about all the ways Grace Paley subverts the norms of gender/class expectations with her unusual characters and postmodern writing.

We couldn’t find a free source of this story, but you can get Grace Paley’s short story collection here. 

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“I want to see if it’s true. If the sky opens up at the top.” -- find out in this episode, where we explore the short story “Pop Art” by Joe Hill, talk about subtle yet underrated young male friendships and have some (small) asides of a particular cult experience.  

You can read Pop Art for free here. 

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Sad puppies, rabid puppies, dino dick and extraterrestrial love making. Ladies and gentleman, this piece by Chuck Tingle has got it all. Join us through this tale of woe and intrigue as we discuss how the alt-right, in their endless crusades against diversity, inadvertently made an alleged doctor of massage and his erotic stories more popular.

You can listen to this man read the story for free on YouTube or purchase the piece here for the special price of $2.99. 

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6. Email: [email protected]

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It’s not about where you go, but that you walk away. This podcast examines Ursula K. LeGuin’s thought experiment about what it means to have the happiness of a society depend on the suffering of a child.

You can read the piece (for free) here.

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Become a monthly contributor on Patreon!