Let's Deconstruct a Story

Hi Everyone,

I’m happy to share the first podcast episode for the fall! On this episode, Jessica Treadway joins me to discuss a story from her 2026 short story collection, I Felt My Life with Both My Hands (Cornerstone Press). The story first appeared in Five Points and was later chosen as one of the 2025 Best American Short Stories. You can listen to Cynthia Nixon read the story here on Symphony Space.

“The women who narrate the remarkable stories in Jessica Treadway’s I Felt My Life with Both My Hands find the same kinds of hopes and sorrows filling and emptying their hearts—overtaking or abandoning them with power so startling but so intimately familiar that we recognize on every page our own sense of how often we are strangers most of all to ourselves.”

—Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize award for Tinkers

Here’s a PDF thanks to Cornerstone Press:

Jessica Treadway: An Early Departure

418KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

In addition, I highly recommend another Treadway story we touched on during the podcast:

The Boy on the Skateboard

You can purchase her book, I Felt My Life with Both My Hands (Cornerstone Press), via Bookshop and Amazon.

One final note:

I hope some listeners will consider becoming paid subscribers this year. I would love to record more podcasts, but the cost is prohibitive. Two yearly subscriptions cover the cost of producing one podcast.

If a paid subscription isn’t an option, please like the podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Substack.

I am so grateful for your support!

Kelly

Flannery O’Connor Award-winning author Jessica Treadway’s eighth book and fourth story collection, I Felt My Life With Both My Hands (Cornerstone Press, April 14, 2026), contains stories narrated by ordinary fictional women who become extraordinary by virtue of allowing us into their minds and hearts. From different ages, sexualities, family/social backgrounds, and life experiences, the speakers explore subjects including motherhood and childlessness; partner relationships; careers and job loss; the quest for spirituality; guilt and sacrifice; illness and grief.

In “An Early Departure,” selected for The Best American Short Stories 2025 edited by Celeste Ng, an aunt must choose between granting her niece’s request for help or risk losing a relationship she has always cherished in the absence of having children of her own. In “Cliché,” a wife recovers from vertigo and the discovery of her husband’s infidelity, only to find them linked in a way she would never have guessed. And in “The Daughter’s Story,” Treadway offers a companion tale to the late Andre Dubus’s classic “A Father’s Story,” in which a father sacrifices his spiritual integrity and a lifelong friendship to save his daughter from facing the consequences after she commits a fatal crime.

The New York Times Book Review called Jessica Treadway “a writer with an unsparing bent for the truth.” Her collection Please Come Back to Me received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her novel How Will I Know You? (Grand Central, 2016) was a People Magazine Book of the Week, and her novel Lacy Eye (Grand Central, 2015) was a Target Book Club selection.

A little bit about your host:

Kelly Fordon has published two award-winning short story collections, I Have the Answer (2020) and Garden for the Blind (2015), and two poetry collections, What Trammels the Heart (SFA Press, 2025) and Goodbye Toothless House (Kattywompus Press, 2019). Her poetry chapbook, The Witness (Kattywompus Press, 2016), won the Eric Hoffer Award for the Chapbook and was a Finalist for the Grand Prize. Her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review Online, The Boston Review, The Florida Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Rattle, and The Saturday Evening Post, among others. She was the spring 2026 Resident Fellow at VCCA’s Moulin à Nef campus in France. You can find her website at kellyfordon.com.

Hi Everyone,

Please join us for an interview with Madeleine Stein about her prize-winning story, “Too Beautiful,” first published in The Hopkins Review. This discussion was recorded with our paid subscribers and members of the Conscious Writers Collective, hosted by Maya C. Popa.

How “Let’s Deconstruct a Story” works:

Read the story below carefully. This is important because the interview will contain spoilers. During our sessions, authors discuss their personal practice and analyze craft elements such as plot, character, setting, dialogue, pacing, and revision. The aim is to learn how the story was built, with the hope that this will help you with your process.

Madeleine Stein is a fiction writer living in the Hudson Valley. Her work has appeared in The London Magazine, The Hopkins Review, The Kenyon Review, Ambit, Raymond Carver Review, Saranac Review, Cairo Times, and Orbis. She taught at the American University in Cairo and New York University.

**

Let’s Deconstruct a Story will return September 15th after our summer break.

We sincerely appreciate our paid subscribers, as this podcast is a labor of love. In addition, paid subscribers have access to our live discussions with the authors, as well as video recordings and annotated texts.

More soon!

Cheers,

Kelly

Please read “The Bed and Breakfast” before listening to the episode.

Molly Dektar is the author of two novels, The Absolutes and The Ash Family. Her short stories have been published in the Best American Short Stories 2024, the Yale Review, N+1, the Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and the Sewanee Review, among others. The recipient of a Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and a residency at Hawthornden, Brooklyn, she is from North Carolina and lives in Queens, NY.

Follow her on Instagram here.

This interview is available here on Substack and on Apple, Spotify, and other platforms.

**

Would you Like Your Story Reviewed?

I’m offering a review right here on the show. If you want my professional feedback on your short story, here’s how it works:

* Join the paid subscriber community at letsdeconstructastory.substack.com

* Leave a review for the podcast on Apple Podcasts (and send me a screenshot!)

* Email your draft (up to 15 pages) to [email protected]

Let me know if you’d like your feedback to be anonymous, if you want your name shared, or if you’d just prefer your comments emailed to you instead of being discussed on air.

I’ll be selecting one story each month to talk about live on the podcast.

I cannot wait to read your work.

***

In July and August, we will be on summer hiatus, working on the fall schedule.

Please feel free to send story suggestions anytime!

Cheers,

Kelly

I recorded a short episode chock-full of advice from the last few podcast episodes. Hope you enjoy it! Let me know if you would like me to record more of these. I am cleaning up some old recordings, and I’m always struck by how often the person I’m interviewing offers the most unexpected yet sound counsel.

PS: It’s Andre Dubus III :) My apologies for botching that.

***This summer, we’re introducing a brand-new benefit to build community here on LDAS. We’re piloting a “Listener Submission” segment where I will deconstruct a story from an audience member live on the air.

* The Format: I will pick a submission (up to 15 pages) and provide a “Report Card” with three specific areas that are working, plus ideas for revision.

* This is a Tiered Benefit for paid subscribers: All you have to do is join as a yearly member, leave a review on Apple or Spotify, and send me a copy of your story (up to 15 pages) at [email protected].

**

Congratulations to Let’s Deconstruct a Story podcast guest, Erika Krouse, who won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize this month for her collection, Save Me, Stranger. Erika discussed one of the stories, “Jude,” here on the podcast last year.

Congratulations also to ‘Pemi Aguda, whose new novel, One Leg on Earth, was published by Norton this month as well. It’s already racking up rave reviews! ‘Pemi discussed her story, “Manifest,” here on the podcast from her collection, Ghostroots, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.

**

Paid subscribers are welcome to join me for an interview with Madeleine Stein on June 11th at 6 pm EST about her prize-winning story, “Too Beautiful,” first published in The Hopkins Review.

***

How “Let’s Deconstruct a Story” works:

Read the story below carefully. This is important because the interview will contain spoilers.

During our session, the author will discuss their personal practice and analyze craft elements: plot, character, setting, dialogue, pacing, and revision. The aim is to learn how the story was built, with the hope that this will help you with your process.

Here’s a copy of Madeleine’s story:

Madeleine Stein is a fiction writer living in the Hudson Valley. Her work has appeared in The London Magazine, The Hopkins Review, The Kenyon Review, Ambit, Raymond Carver Review, Saranac Review, Cairo Times, and Orbis. She taught at the American University in Cairo and New York University.

**I’ll send the Zoom link to paid subscribers one week before we record.

**

Lastly, the podcast episode (audio only) with Molly Dektar will be released on Apple and Spotify for all listeners on June 1st. Be sure to read her story first here at The Harvard Review.

If you would like to access the video recording of our interview, it’s already available to paid subscribers here.

Hi Everyone,

In this episode, I sit down with Jim Shepard to deconstruct his short story “The Queen of Bad Influences.” If you haven’t read the story yet, I recommend reading it first—this is a full short story analysis and writing craft breakdown, and we go deep.

This conversation is all about how a story works beneath the surface. We break down point of view (POV), story structure, character tension, and emotional conflict, and how these elements come together in strong historical fiction writing.

At the center of the story is the relationship between Constance and Minna—two young women navigating intimacy, repression, and expectation in early 20th century England. Set against the backdrop of the RMS Lusitania sinking, this story shows how catastrophe in fiction creates pressure that reveals character.

If you’re interested in:

how to write stronger short stories

how POV shapes character

how structure impacts emotional payoff

or how historical fiction can explore complex relationships

this episode will give you a clear breakdown you can apply to your own writing.

Bio:

JIM SHEPARD is the author of seven previous novels, most recently The Book of Aron (winner of the 2016 PEN New England Award, the Sophie Brody medal for achievement in Jewish literature, the Ribalow Prize for Jewish literature, the Clark Fiction Prize, and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award) and five story collections, including Like You’d Understand, Anyway, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and won The Story Prize. His short fiction has appeared in, among other magazines, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Esquire, Tin House, Granta, Zoetrope, Electric Literature, and Vice, and has often been selected for The Best American Short Stories and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with his wife, three children, and three beagles, and he teaches at Williams College.

Want Your Story Deconstructed on the Podcast?

I’m offering a Craft Report Card right here on the show. If you want my professional feedback on your short story, here’s how it works:

Join the paid subscriber community at letsdeconstructastory.substack.com

Leave a review for the podcast on Apple Podcasts (and send me a screenshot!)

Email your draft (up to 15 pages) to [email protected]

Let me know if you’d like your feedback to be anonymous or if you want your name shared.

I’ll be selecting one story each month to deconstruct live on the podcast.

I cannot wait to read your work. 

Upcoming Episode:

June 1st: Molly Dektar:

Please read “The Bed and Breakfast” before listening to the episode.

Molly Dektar is the author of two novels, The Absolutes and The Ash Family. Her short stories have been published in the Best American Short Stories 2024, the Yale Review, N+1, the Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and the Sewanee Review, among others. The recipient of a Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and a residency at Hawthornden, Brooklyn, she is from North Carolina and lives in Queens, NY.

Hi Everyone,

I’m so happy to share ‘Pemi Aguda’s short story, “Manifest,” with you. Please read the story before you listen to the podcast, because there will be spoilers!

Read “Manifest” here on Granta (or here: https://granta.com/manifest/).

Let’s Deconstruct a Story is available here on Substack, as well as Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bio:

‘Pemi Aguda is from Lagos, Nigeria. She has an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. Her short stories have won O. Henry Prizes, a Nommo Award for Short Story, a Henfield Prize, and the Writivism Prize. Her work has been supported by an Octavia Butler Memorial Scholarship, and her novel-in-progress won the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award. She was a 2021 Fiction Fellow with the Miami Book Fair, a 2022 MacDowell fellow, and is the current Hortense Spillers Assistant Editor at Transition Magazine. Ghostroots, her debut story collection, was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Awards in Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award.

W. W. Norton, Virago, and Masobe published Ghostroots in 2024 and will publish her novel, One Leg on Earth, in 2026.

I hope you enjoy this episode!

Cheers,

Kelly

Upcoming Podcast Release Schedule: 

May 1st: Jim Shepard

Please read “The Queen of Bad Influences” before you listen to the episode.

JIM SHEPARD is the author of seven previous novels, most recently The Book of Aron (winner of the 2016 PEN New England Award, the Sophie Brody medal for achievement in Jewish literature, the Ribalow Prize for Jewish literature, the Clark Fiction Prize, and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award) and five story collections, including Like You’d Understand, Anyway, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and won The Story Prize. His short fiction has appeared in, among other magazines, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Esquire, Tin House, Granta, Zoetrope, Electric Literature, and Vice, and has often been selected for The Best American Short Stories and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with his wife, three children, and three beagles, and he teaches at Williams College.

June 1st: Molly Dektar:

Please read “The Bed and Breakfast” before listening to the episode.

Molly Dektar is the author of two novels, The Absolutes and The Ash Family. Her short stories have been published in the Best American Short Stories 2024, the Yale Review, N+1, the Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and the Sewanee Review, among others. The recipient of a Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and a residency at Hawthornden, Brooklyn, she is from North Carolina and lives in Queens, NY.

Follow her on Instagram here.

In July and August, we will be on summer hiatus, working on the fall schedule.

Please feel free to send suggestions!

Cheers,

Kelly

Paid Subscribers:

One last chance this season to join us for a live discussion.

On April 14th at 11 am EST, I will be talking to Molly Dektar about her 2024 Best American Short Story, “The Bed and Breakfast.”

First read: “The Bed & Breakfast.” Then bring your questions!

The Zoom link for paid subscribers is posted here.

We Need You!

Live Discussions with the author are one good reason to become a paid subscriber!

Another good reason to become a paid subscriber? Access to the video recordings.

Yet, another? Annotated texts.

A fourth, and final reason: I would love to produce more podcasts. Currently, I can only afford to produce one per month. I hope that will change someday soon. There are so many wonderful stories out there.

Cheers,

Kelly

Welcome to Let’s Deconstruct a Story!

How this works:

Read the story carefully. This is important because the interview will contain spoilers.

During this session, we will talk with the author about their personal process and analyze craft elements: plot, character, setting, dialogue, pacing, and revision.

The aim is to learn how the story was built, with the hope that this will help you with your process.

Hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,

Kelly

Toni Ann Johnson will be talking about her story, “Daughtered Out,” from The Coachella Review.https://thecoachellareview.com/2021/06/02/daughtered-out-by-toni-ann-johnson/

TONI ANN JOHNSON is the winner of the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award for short fiction with her linked collection Light Skin Gone to Waste, released in October 2022. Roxane Gay selected the book for the prize and is its editor. Johnson’s novella Homegoing was a semi-finalist for the William Faulkner Wisdom Award in fiction. It won Accents Publishing’s inaugural novella contest in 2020 and was released in May of 2021. The novel Remedy For a Broken Angel was released in 2014 and earned Johnson a 2015 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author.

In 1998, Johnson won the Christopher Award and the Humanitas Prize for her screenplay “Ruby Bridges,” the Disney/ABC movie and true story of the young girl who integrated into the New Orleans Public School system. In 2004, Johnson won a second Humanitas Prize for her screenplay “Crown Heights” (Showtime), also a true story.

Purchase Toni Ann Johnson’s book here.

Hi Everyone,

During this episode, Shastri Akella discusses his Best American Short Story, “The Magic Bangle.”

The podcast episode is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Please read the story before listening to the podcast episode.

It’s available here at The Fairy Tale Review.

I hope you enjoy this discussion with Shastri as much as I did!

Cheers,

Kelly

PS: As always, I would love to hear about your favorite stories! Please send ideas anytime.

Bio: Shastri Akella’s debut novel, “The Sea Elephants,” has been published by Flatiron Books (USA, Canada) and Penguin (India). He was a writing resident at the Fine Arts Works Center (2021) and the Oak Springs Garden Foundation (2023). He’s the winner of the 2022 FracturedLit Flash Fiction Contest and the 2023 Best Microfiction Contest. His writing has appeared in Guernica, Fairy Tale Review, CRAFT, The Masters Review, Electric Literature, World Literature Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD. in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He’s an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Michigan State University. Contact him for readings and book signings at your bookstore, college, or library at shastriakella.com.

Shastri Akella’s book is available here.

Upcoming Podcast Schedule

Free and available on Spotify, Apple, and Substack, as well as other podcast platforms.

March 1st: Toni Ann Johnson

April 1st: ‘Pemi Aguda

May 1st: Jim Shepard

June 1st: Molly Dektar

Upcoming interview schedule:

Paid subscribers and former guests are welcome to join me for live interviews with these writers below. Please read the story beforehand and come ready to discuss it with the author :)

On February 17th at 1 pm EST, I will talk to ‘Pemi Aguda about “Manifest.”

On March 4th at 1 pm: Jim Shepard: “The Queen of Bad Influences.”

On April 8th at 11 am: Molly Dektar: “The Bed & Breakfast.”

If you are a member of the Conscious Writers Collective with Maya C. Popa, you are also welcome to join us for the interviews. I highly recommend CWC. The instructors are amazing, and everyone is extremely supportive. I hope you will check it out!

In other news, I am heading to France from March 11th to May 29th to serve as the Resident Fellow at VCCA’s Moulin à Nef campus. If you’re nearby (or heading there for a residency), I’d love to see you!

Cheers,

Kelly

Happy New Year!

Maura Stanton and I had so much fun discussing “School for Robots.” Please be sure to read the story first before watching this video, and check out more of Maura’s fantastic stories below.

Enjoy!

Kelly

Bio: Maura Stanton’s Cities in the Sun was the recipient of the Michigan Literary Fiction Award. She is the author of two previous books of stories, Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling, which won the Sullivan Prize, and The Country I Come From. Stanton’s books of poetry include Glacier Wine, Snow on Snow, Cries of Swimmers, Tales of the Supernatural, and Life Among the Trolls. She teaches in the M.F.A. creative writing program at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her supernatural robot stories have appeared in Allium, Pacifica Literary Review, Baltimore Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, The Phoenix, and North American Review. Her chapbook, Interiors, won the Open Chapbook contest and was published by Finishing Line Press. With “School for Robots,” she is a two-time winner of The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award. She also won the Fall 2015 Supernatural Fiction Award for her story, “House Ghosts.”

Other stories by Maura Stanton:

North American Review: Tin Man

The Baltimore Review: Ballerina

Pacifica Review: Star Crossed

The Bennington Review: MARSPAINTSDAILY

A little about your host, Kelly Fordon:

KELLY FORDON’s latest poetry collection, What Trammels the Heart, was published by SFAPress in 2025. Her short story collection, I Have the Answer (Wayne State University Press, 2020), was chosen as a Midwest Book Award Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. Her first full-length poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House (Kattywompus Press, 2019), was an Eyelands International Prize Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. It was later adapted into a play by Robin Martin and published in The Kenyon Review Online. Her novel-in-stories, Garden for the Blind, was published by WSUP in 2015. She teaches at Springfed Arts in Detroit and online.

What Trammels the Heart is on sale right now for 40% off at tamupress.com with the code HEART40 :) and Amazon here.

Hi Everyone,

I hope you enjoy this episode, which features Susan Shepherd discussing her Best American Short Story, “Baboons, “ first published in The Kenyon Review.

Paid subscribers and Conscious Writers Collective members are welcome to join us for interviews, and I want to thank Paul Delong, in particular, for his question, which is included in this recording.

Also, thanks to audio engineer Elliot Bancel for his help with this episode.

**Susan recommended a memoir during the interview: The Sheep Stell: Memoirs of a Shepherd by Janet White.

Upcoming Schedule:

On January 1st, Maura Stanton will discuss her story “School for Robots” on the podcast.

On January 14th at 12 pm, I will be talking to Toni Ann Johnson about “Daughtered Out” in The Coachella Review. Paid subscribers and CWC members are welcome to join us—more information to come.

On February 1st, Shastri Akella’s podcast episode drops. Remember to read “The Magic Bangle” first.

On February 17th, ‘Pemi Aguda will join me to discuss her story, “Manifest,” first published in Granta. Thanks to Peter Ho Davies for connecting us! Paid subscribers and CWC members are welcome to join.

On March 1st, Toni Ann Johnson’s podcast episode will drop for everyone.

On April 1st, ‘Pemi Aguda’s podcast episode will drop. We will be discussing her story, “Manifest,” first published in Granta.

Bio:

Susan Shepherd’s writing has been published in the Boston Globe, Ploughshares, Story Magazine, the Chicago Quarterly, the Kenyon Review, One Story Magazine, Swamp Pink, Best American Short Stories 2024, and is forthcoming in the Harvard Review.

Her story “Goats’”(Ploughshares), was a distinguished story in Best American Short Stories 2021, edited by Jesmyn Ward, and “Snakes’”(Chicago Quarterly) was a distinguished story in Best American Short Stories 2023, edited by Min Jin Lee.

“Baboons” was chosen by Lauren Groff to be published in the 2024 edition of Best American Short Stories. Available now from Bookshop.org or Amazon.

Susan Shepherd’s work as a producer and reporter has aired on multiple National Public Radio shows, including Living on Earth, and Marketplace.

Her show, 11 Central Ave, a radio comic strip, aired on select NPR stations on Morning Edition around the country. 11 Central Ave won a Gold Medal for ‘Best Comedy’ from the New York Festivals, and a National Gracie Allen Award for ‘Best Producer, Comedy’.

In other news:

Have you heard about Telephone?!

The brainchild of Nathan Langston, TELEPHONE is a game played by artists. It works like the children’s game of the same name. A message is whispered from person to person, changing and evolving as it is passed from player to player—a secret message is passed from art form to art form.

Here are links to two artists from Australia and the Netherlands responding to my poem. This game has given me a little hope in these dire times.

I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,

Kelly

About your host:

KELLY FORDON’s latest poetry collection, What Trammels the Heart, was published by SFAPress in 2025. Her short story collection, I Have the Answer (Wayne State University Press, 2020), was chosen as a Midwest Book Award Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. Her first full-length poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House (Kattywompus Press, 2019), was an Eyelands International Prize Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. It was later adapted into a play by Robin Martin and published in The Kenyon Review Online. Her novel-in-stories, Garden for the Blind, was published by WSUP in 2015. She teaches at Springfed Arts in Detroit and online, where she also runs a fiction podcast called “Let’s Deconstruct a Story.” http://www.letsdeconstructastory.substack.com.

What Trammels the Heart is on sale right now for 40% off at tamupress.com with the code HEART40 :) and $10 on Amazon here.