Ursa Short Fiction is proud to present an original audio production of “Bitch Baby,” written by Halle Hill, from her debut collection, Good Women, and performed by Nytia Nikole. “Bitch Baby” is about two siblings, Celine and Reggie, in the aftermath of Reggie being beaten by police. This story is dazzling, messy, heart-wrenching, and beautiful. Hill tackles themes of racial tensions, queerness, religion, and family. Stick around at the end for Halle Hill, in her own words, discussing her writing journey.

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Produced by Ursa Story Company 

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

Story performed by Nytia Nikole

Interview by Marina Leigh

Ursa Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, and Mark Armstrong

Associate Producer: Marina Leigh

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

About the Author 

Halle Hill is the author of Good Women (Hub City Press), which was named a 2023 Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, O Magazine, Electric Literature, Book Riot and Southwest Review. A finalist for the 2023 Weatherford Award for Appalachian writing, she is the winner of the 2020 Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize and the 2020 Oxford American Debut Fiction Prize. Her short stories have been translated into French and published in journals including Joyland, New Limestone Review, Atlanta Magazine, Ursa Short Fiction and The Oxford American, among others. A born and raised East Tennessean, she currently lives, works and teaches in North Carolina.

About the Narrator 

Nytia Nikole comes from the culturally rich city of Boston. She’s an award-winning actress and director, an accomplished filmmaker, writer, and producer. She is best known for her lead role in Taboo 3, and supporting roles in Fractured, Fixation 2, Dexter Jackson's Guide to Dating, several other films as well as multiple tv roles to include Fatal Attraction, Murder Chose Me, and ATL Homicide, and Personal Injury Court to name a few. Nytia has experience in film, theatre, and voiceover performance.

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In this Member Bonus episode, Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton talk about what they’re reading, writing, watching, and what they’re celebrating. What books and anthologies should we be on the lookout for in 2025? What newsletters should we be following? Plus: Bonus writing prompts! 

Enjoy this free teaser, and become an Ursa Member in Apple Podcasts or at ursastory.com/join to get the full episode. 

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Produced by Ursa Story Company

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, Mark Armstrong

Associate Producer: Marina Leigh

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

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Deesha and Dawnie talk with Destiny O. Birdsong, author of the poetry collection Negotiations and the novel Nobody’s Magic. Last year, Birdsong published a short story, “The Jump,” only to have it pulled from publication less than a day later over disagreements with the editors. The story eventually found a new home at Roxane Gay’s newsletter, The Audacity.

Birdsong talks about navigating censorship and what happens when writers and editors don’t see eye to eye, and they highlight the necessity of respect and support from editors and keeping the integrity of your work when finding a home for it. Birdsong also talks about the intersections of religion and queerness, the representation of queer sex and sex work in literature, and how she follows instinct when approaching her work.

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Produced by Ursa Story Company 

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, and Mark Armstrong

Associate Producer: Marina Leigh

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

About the Author

Destiny O. Birdsong is the author of the poetry collection Negotiations (Tin House Books, 2020) and the triptych novel Nobody’s Magic (Grand Central, 2022), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, was a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and won the 2022 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. She has served as a Writer-in-Residence for the Hurston/Wright Foundation and the University of Tennessee and is a contributing editor of Poets & Writers magazine. She is currently at work on a second novel and a collection of short stories.

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An Ursa Member Bonus! In a new recurring feature we call First Chapters, Dawnie and Deesha dig into the memorable opening chapter of Dawnie’s debut novel, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. Dawnie talks about her journey to becoming a writer, as well as the process of this story coming to fruition.

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Produced by Ursa Story Company 

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, and Mark Armstrong

Associate Producer: Marina Leigh

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

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Deesha and Dawnie introduce an Ursa original production of “Snow Bath Season,” a short story written by Stacie Denetsosie, and performed by Nasheen Sleuth. This story is about Diana, a young Navajo woman whose late mother is communicating with her via an Amazon Alexa device. 

Denetsosie juxtaposes modern technology with Navajo tradition in compelling ways, while also writing into grief, love, and mother-daughter relationships through humor and bizarre circumstances. “Snow Bath Season” is from Denetsosie’s debut collection, The Missing Morningstar, published by Torrey House Press. Stay tuned after the story to hear from Stacie Denetsosie herself.

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Produced by Ursa Story Company 

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

“Snow Bath Season” written by Stacie Denetsosie 

Performed by Nasheen Sleuth

Interview by Marina Leigh 

Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, and Mark Armstrong

Associate Producers: Marina Leigh & Ashawnta Jackson

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

Special thanks to Cleyvis Natera

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Deesha and Dawnie sit down with their own agents, Danielle Chiotti and PJ Mark, to chat about the publishing industry. What does it mean to be a white agent representing authors of color? What are the gold standards for blurbing? Where are the best places to find an agent and what are some common red flags with scammy “agents”? They discuss the significance of the agent-author connection, the questions that an author should ask of a potential agent, as well as what makes an agent say “hell yes” to a pitched book. 

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Produced by Ursa Story Company 

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, and Mark Armstrong

Associate Producer: Marina Leigh

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

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Deesha and Dawnie chat with Rion Amilcar Scott, sharing stories, craft advice, 90’s hip-hop references, and how experience as parents, as teachers, and as lovers of music can inform the writing process. 

They discuss their reactions to elements of their work playing out in real life, and call for not forgetting the joys and humor of the Black experience that coincides with the tragedies. Rion talks about his generative and drafting process—his beginnings and endings, the structure and limitations of flash and short fiction, the revision process, and his playfulness and improvisation as an approach to the work. 

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Produced by Ursa Story Company 

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, Mark Armstrong

Associate Producer: Marina Leigh

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

Author Bio:

Rion Amilcar Scott is the author of the story collections The World Doesn’t Require You and Insurrections, which was awarded the 2017 PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and the 2017 Hillsdale Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He teaches creative writing at the University of Maryland, College Park. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Kenyon Review, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020, among other publications.

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In this special Member Exclusive episode, Deesha and Dawnie kick off a recurring feature we call Iconic Stories — starting with James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues,’ first published in 1957 in the Partisan Review.  They discuss the prevalent themes of family and brotherhood, loss, drug addiction, and music, as well as the broader social and political contexts of Baldwin’s fiction and nonfiction. 

Deesha Philyaw: “James Baldwin is the writer that made me want to be a writer.”

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• Charlie Parker

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Produced by Ursa Story Company 

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

Executive Producers: Deesha Philyaw, Dawnie Walton, and Mark Armstrong

Associate Producer: Marina Leigh

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

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Deesha and Dawnie introduce an Ursa original audio production of “Telling Stories” by T.E. Wilderson, published in The Account magazine in 2021, and narrated by Jordan Cobb. 

Eighth grader, P’Mona, is sarcastic, witty, and a pathological liar. Taking place over the course of a day, the story follows P’Mona attempting to simultaneously navigate the world and cope with a difficult home life. 

Be sure to stick around at the end of the story to hear from T.E. Wilderson in her own words, discussing the themes of the story, her advice to writers, and her inspirations for “Telling Stories” and the character of P’Mona.

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Produced by Ursa Story Company 

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

Story performed by Jordan Cobb

Author interview by Marina Leigh

Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, and Mark Armstrong

Associate Producers: Marina Leigh & Ashawnta Jackson 

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

About the Author

T. E. Wilderson is a New Orleans-born, African American writer, editor, and teaching artist currently living in the Midwest. Her short stories have appeared in F(r)iction, Notre Dame Review, Roanoke Review, Crack the Spine Anthology XVII, The Louisville Review, The Tishman Review, Still: The Journal, Cobalt Weekly, The Account: A Journal of Prose, Poetry, and Thought, and Coolest American Stories 2023, among others. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Spalding University and is a 2019 McKnight Foundation Writing Fellow.

About the Narrator

Jordan Cobb is a New York City-based writer and actress, with a focus on live stage and voiceover. Her work spans fiction podcasts such as Bloody Disgusting's Dead Space: Deep Cover and No Such Thing Production's Primordial Deep, to bestselling audiobooks like Kalynn Bayron's This Poison Heart and Tigest Girma's Immortal Dark. For more information, visit jordanvcobb.com.

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In the spirit of Halloween, Deesha and Dawnie dig into thrillers, mysteries, and suspense with acclaimed crime fiction writer S.A. Cosby, author of the New York Times bestseller Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland, and the forthcoming novel, King of Ashes. 

Cosby talks about his early inspirations in the horror and suspense genres, and he explains how he began to use genre to craft stories that reflected his own experiences as a Black writer from the South.

Cosby also offers advice to emerging writers and helps demystify the publication process, as co-editor of The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024 anthology.  

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Produced by Ursa Story Company 

Hosted by Deesha Philyaw & Dawnie Walton

Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton, Deesha Philyaw, and Mark Armstrong

Associate Producer: Marina Leigh

Episode Editor: Kelly Araja

About the Author 

S. A. Cosby is an Anthony Award-winning writer from Southeastern Virginia. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was a New York Times Notable Book, and was named a best book of the year by NPR, The Guardian, and Library Journal, among others. When not writing, he is an avid hiker and chess player.

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