Short Story Confession

This week Anthony Bukoski joins me on Realgoodwords.

Anthony Bukoski is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and a critically acclaimed short-story writer. If you are scoring at home, he was also our friend Aaron Brown's mentor!

I knew all of these things and yet I wan't thrilled to read his books. Nothing against Anthony Bukoski, but for some reason I've never been a huge fan of short stories. I am confessing that here, and now.

But here's the thing: Anthony Bukoski changed my tune on short stories. Or he cleaned my clock. Wait, I take that back. He didn't clean my clock. But plenty of his characters cleaned clocks (if you know what I mean). I was so thoroughly and pleasantly surprised by his writing, that I was a little nervous to actually talk to him.

I know that sounds strange - that if I liked a book I'd be nervous to talk to the author. What I've come to learn over the years is that liking a book doesn't mean that my conversation with them on Realgoodwords is going to be good. A lot of times I'm dissappointed. It might be me on this one, because I suspect that if I like an author I somehow think that I don't have to prepare as much for our interview.

Anyway, enough of my blog confessional. Anthony Bukoski did not disappoint. For me, the best moment of the interview was when I asked him WHERE he does his writing. I have never had an answer quite like Anthony's before.

Yes, I'm going to keep you hanging! Tune in live on Wednesday night from 6-7pm or Sunday Morning from 9-10. Or, after Wednesday you can listen to the archived interview here.

Here's a bio of Anthony:

ANTHONY BUKOSKI is the author of four other story collections,
including Children of Strangers (SMU, 1993), Polonaise (SMU, 1999),
and Time Between Trains (SMU, 2003), which was a Booklist Editors'
Choice. His stories have been featured on Wisconsin Public Radio,
National Public Radio, and in live performance in the "Selected Shorts"
series at Symphony Space in New York City. He teaches at his alma
mater, the University of Wisconsin in his hometown of Superior, where
his Polish émigré grandparents settled early in the last century.