For our Winter 2021-22 issue, Editor-at-large Thomas Morris invited four authors to each write a short story in a single night: starting at dusk and submitting by dawn.

On this month’s episode of the podcast, he is joined by three of those authors – Marie-Helene Bertino, Rebecca Ivory, and Stephen Sexton – who read from their ‘One Night Stands’ and discuss what happens when you stay up all night to write a story.

Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of the novels Parakeet and 2 a.m. at The Cat’s Pajamas, and the story collection Safe as Houses. Her alien opus novel Beautyland is forthcoming from FSG in 2022. She lives in New York.

Rebecca Ivory lives in Dublin and writes short fiction. Her stories have appeared in The Stinging Fly, Banshee, The Tangerine and Fallow Media.

Stephen Sexton is the author of two books of poetry: If All the World and Love Were Young; and most recently Cheryl’s Destinies. He teaches at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Jon McGregor is the fourth author who wrote us a story in a single night. Jon was unfortunately unwell on the evening we recorded the podcast, so couldn’t participate. But happily, he’s on the mend now!

You can read Jon’s story, and all the astonishing One Night Stands, in our Winter 2021-22 issue.

And you can read Thomas Morris’s introduction to the stories here.

Safe as houses

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