The First Year
Short Stories by Scott Holleran debuts with first published fiction (13 new poems, essays and short stories this year) and an author question
Those of you who read Autonomia, my non-fiction podcast and publication, know I’ve had a challenging year of loss. Indeed, I’m at a loss for words to describe the depth and scope. Know that I’m making progress. This roundup of the first year of my story podcast accentuates the good, the gratitude and the gain. I’ll also ask for help.
The year started with the strategy I activated last year to launch a fiction podcast. As I wrote in a five-part series on 30 years in the press on Autonomia, throughout my writing career, whether going to work for a newspaper, choosing to write about books or partnering with a movie website—then guiding its sale to a subsidiary of Amazon.com—I know I’ve made good choices. Other decisions, such as becoming the first reporter to meet and interview a child refugee from Communism in 2000—the boy who became America’s youngest defector—which I thought would be a major break in journalism, work on certain projects or my activism for free choice in medicine, were both strategized and, ultimately, unsuccessful. Though the audience for this story podcast is small, it’s a bright spot.
My dad went into hospice during this time last year. I knew he was dying. When he finally did, which, unfortunately, I learned in a text message on a device during a meeting, I was flooded with a range of emotions. Within hours, I also learned that, for the first time, my fiction writing had been accepted for publication.
Ironically, the story, “Deal with God,” a romantic dystopian drama—coincidentally, the first story for this podcast—was published in an anthology entitled Reaching the Dead End. That same week, I received other, more devastating, news. All at once, I was shocked, emboldened and saddened. I’m still recovering from waves of emotions, particularly grief. To learn how I cope, read and subscribe to Autonomia.
“Deal with God” was published in March—weeks later, another story, “Allegheny Lane,” was accepted for publication—and the book’s India-based publisher, Free Spirit Publisher, asked to feature my romantic sexual fantasy, “His, Hers and Us,” for publication in its Flirtations anthology. By year’s end, with a few weeks left, 13 of my short stories, true stories and poems have been published or accepted for publication. Certain stories, including the dark tale of a young male terrorist, “Egoless,” (not available on podcast—yet) and the story of a gay teenager in the city, “Runaway,” (podcast this year), were among my stories accepted and published in literary journals.
I started this podcast to be able to read my stories aloud to those who value the performative aspects of a writer reading his story. Though I’m unable to procure necessary production values for a major podcast recording, I’ve been able to record the stories—including, as a bonus, a true Christmas story I recently wrote—without an abundance of major mistakes. Short Stories by Scott Holleran’s available on Spotify (Autonomia’s on Apple Podcasts). I’m scheduling episodes for 2025 with new tales. Incidentally, a theme in my stories—fiction and non-fiction—is dance. Know that I’m working to feature a tie-in with my own new choreography and dance performance.
Occasionally this year, I featured additional articles, new author indices and blurbs and, from Short Stories by Scott Holleran’s inception, a free preview of each story for the free subscriber. New stories—“The Bus Stop,” “Elegy for an Ice Breaker,” “Strapped”—and my novel are current works in progress, some in contention for contest prizes and awards and others under consideration for literary publication, including at the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly and The Paris Review.
The new year’s schedule for this podcast’s second year will be slightly more frequent and I invite you to support and encourage the accelerated schedule and new works. Will you consider trading up to—or giving the gift of—a paid subscription to listen to me read stories I write? If you trade up to a founding subscription, know that this top subscriber level includes private coaching for your writing—a service I’ve offered on a limited basis for years—though it does include grading and homework.
You can listen to Short Stories by Scott Holleran as you drive, cook or fold laundry (which is what I do while listening to a podcast). Otherwise, if you prefer to read my stories and essays, here’s an index of some of the year’s new tales: “Why the War Movie Matters,” “Runaway,” and the story of Pittsburgh’s first skyscraper, “The Oliver Building.” I’m heading back to work—incidentally, I’m writing a new short story about a hero and a skyscraper—so let me leave you here with best wishes, happy listening and reading and goodness at Christmastime.
