Is it instinctive?
The first time, as a young writer or reader, when you discover short stories published in The New Yorker, and you know you’ve finally stumbled across the good shit.
When you realise all the greats have contributed at some point. Salinger and Saunders. Rushdie and Roth. Ernaux and Ishiguro. Not to mention Truman Capote, John Updike, and Zadie Smith.
Maybe you always knew. Maybe you saw someone cool with a folded copy artfully poking out from their sports coat pocket. Maybe you heard it referenced in a film. Or maybe it’s just innate, maybe you’re just born with knowledge of The New Yorker—the literary equivalent of Maybelline.
Either way, chances are you do indeed know The New Yorker, and you know that the short stories it features are pretty good.
What you might not know is that my brilliant guest for this episode of the show has herself had a (very good) short story published in the prestigious pages of the magazine.
So, she makes for the ideal guest to discuss New Yorker Short Stories in general.
Indeed, welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.
As you may know by now, in each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books and culture to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.
There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.
If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading to a paid subscription.
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In this episode, my very special guest is the writer, Molly Aitken, whose most recent novel Bright I Burn is published in the UK by Canongate. We discuss her pick for the library, the short stories of The New Yorker, with a specific focus on The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, Leopard by Wells Tower, and In the Middle of the Fields by Mary Lavin.
About Molly
Molly Aitken is the author of Bright I Burn, a Royal Society of Literature Encore Prize shortlisted novel, and The Island Child. Her prize-winning short fiction has been published in The New Yorker and Ploughshares.
About The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife, Jane Grant, a reporter for The New York Times. It is arguably the most prestigious publisher of short fiction in the world. Famous contributors range from legends like J.D. Salinger and Vladimir Nabokov to contemporary heavyweights like George Saunders and Jhumpa Lahiri.
Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode
* Order A Century of Fiction by The New Yorker and Bright I Burn by Molly Aitken from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.
* Find Molly Aitken on Instagram here.
* Read Molly’s story in The New Yorker here.
* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.
* Find The Library of Lazy Thinking on Instagram here.
About the Library
The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. If you’d like to support the library and get access to everything here, you can become a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge). All support goes back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.
About Glenn
Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and artists here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands. Meanwhile, I am currently working on my first novel, The Invention of Memory, and on the eternal, soul-destroying task of finding an agent.
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