Welcome to our 2nd episode of “In Walks a Woman Writer”! Amy Stuber joined us in the studio, and the time flew by. Listening to this conversation, you’ll feel like you are sitting in your favorite coffee shop with Amy who is so kind, so unassuming–and yet so ridiculously talented.

Amy’s 2024 short story collection, Sad Grownups, won the prestigious Pen/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. The collection is wide-ranging, packed with women’s experiences, and haunting in its melancholy telling and perceptive understanding of modern American life. If you’ve ever seen a stranger on the street and wondered, what is their story?, this is the collection for you. Amy’s imagination is rich and empathetic, and these characters will stay with you, long after you finish her luminous collection.

We uncover so much in this conversation, including Amy’s literary influences, her inspirations, and why she believes short stories are the perfect fit for readers today. Along the way, some empty-nester secrets spring out of the vault, the Boss rides by with ghosts in his eyes, and we unmask a Joan Didion thief.

REFERENCES:

If you are in the Lawrence, Kansas area, Amy would love for you to pick up her book at her favorite local bookstore, The Raven. Support Amy’s local bookstore and Buy Here!

The Pen America Literary Awards are considered the “Oscars” of books, so it’s hard to exaggerate what a big deal it is that Amy won it. Get the whole scoop here, at the Pen Book Awards site. What we get from it is KANSAS. HAS. TALENT.