Notes and Links to Andrew Porter’s Work

For Episode 213, Pete welcomes Andrew Porter, and the two discuss, among other topics, his lifelong love of art and creativity, his pivotal short story classes in college, wonderful writing mentors, the stories that continue to thrill and inspire him and his students, and salient themes from his most recent collection, such as the ephemeral nature of life, fatherhood, aging and nostalgia, and friendship triangles and squares.

Andrew Porter is the author of the short story collection The Theory of Light and Matter (Vintage/Penguin Random House), which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the novel In Between Days (Knopf), which was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection and an IndieBound “Indie Next” selection, and the short story collection The Disappeared (Knopf), which was recently published in April 2023. Porter’s books have been published in foreign editions in the UK and Australia and translated into numerous languages, including French, Spanish, Dutch, Bulgarian, and Korean.

In addition to winning the Flannery O’Connor Award, his collection, The Theory of Light and Matter, received Foreword Magazine’s “Book of the Year” Award for Short Fiction, was a finalist for The Steven Turner Award, The Paterson Prize and The WLT Book Award, was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and was selected by both The Kansas City Star and The San Antonio Express-News as one of the “Best Books of the Year.”

The recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the James Michener-Copernicus Foundation, the W.K. Rose Foundation, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Porter’s short stories have appeared in One Story, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, The Threepenny Review, The Missouri Review, Narrative Magazine, Epoch, Story, The Colorado Review, and Prairie Schooner, among others. He has had his work read on NPR’s Selected Shorts and twice selected as one of the Distinguished Stories of the Year by Best American Short Stories.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Porter is currently a Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Trinity University in San Antonio.

Andrew's Website

Buy The Disappeared

The Disappeared Review from Chicago Review of Books

New York Times Shoutout for The Disappeared

At about 1:50, Pete asks Andrew about the Spurs and breakfast tacos in San Antonio

At about 2:40, Andrew discusses his artistic loves as a kid and growing up and his picking up a love for the short story in college

At about 5:20, Andrew cites Bausch, Carver, Richard Ford, Amy Hempel, Lorrie Moore, and Joyce Carol Oates’ story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” as formative and transformative

At about 8:40, Andrew responds to Pete’s question about whom he is reading these days-writers including Annie Ernauex, Rachel Cusk, and Jamel Brinkley

At about 10:00, Andrew traces the evolution of his writing career, including how he received wonderful mentorship from Dean Crawford and the “hugely” influential David Wong Louie

At about 12:15, Pete asks Andrew what feedback he has gotten since his short story collection The Disappeared has received, and what his students have said as well

At about 13:50, Pete highlights Andrew’s wonderful and resonant endings and he and Andrew discuss the powerful opening story of the collection, “Austin”

At about 17:55, Pete puts the flash fiction piece “Cigarettes” into context regarding the book’s theme of aging and nostalgia

At about 19:00, Pete laments his predicament as he readies to play in the high school Students vs. Faculty Game (plot spoiler: he played well, and the faculty won)

At about 19:40, The two discuss the engrossing and echoing “Vines” short story, including themes within, and Andrew discusses the art life

At about 23:00, “Cello” is discussed in the vein of a life lived with(out) art

At about 24:20, The story “Chili” is discussed with regards to the theme of aging, and Andrew expounds about including foods he likes and that he identifies with San Antonio and Austin

At about 26:40, Pete stumbles through remembering details of a favorite canceled show and talks glowingly about “Rhinebeck” and its characters and themes; Andrew discusses the topics that interest him and inspired the story

At about 30:20, Pete and Andrew discuss “in-betweeners” in the collection, including Jimena and others who complicate romantic and friend relationships

At about 32:50, Pete cites the collection’s titular story and the “netherworld” in which the characters exist; Andrew collects the story with the previously-mentioned ones in exploring “triangulation”

At about 34:20, The two discussed what Pete dubs “men unmoored” in the collection

At about 35:15, The two discuss art as a collection theme, and Anthony speaks on presenting different levels of art and different representations of the creative life and past versions of ourselves

At about 37:15, Andrew replies to Pete asking about art/writing as a “restorative process”

At about 38:25, The two discuss the ways in which fatherhood is discussed in the collection, especially in the story “Breathe”

At about 43:15, The two continue to talk about the ephemeral nature of so much of the book, including in the titular story

At about 44:25, Andrew responds to Pete’s asking about the ephemeral nature of the book and how he wanted the titular story’s ending to be a sort of an answer to the collection’s first story

At about 46:20, Pete refers to the delightful ambiguity in the book

At about 47:15, Pete asks Andrew about future projects

At about 50:00, Andrew shouts out publishing info, social media contacts

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Please tune in for Episode 214 with Leah Myers. Leah is a member of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe of the Pacific Northwest, and she earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of New Orleans, where she won the Samuel Mockbee Award for Nonfiction two years in a row. Her debut memoir, THINNING BLOOD, is published by W.W. Norton and received a rave review in the New York Times.

The episode will air on November 28.