Ellen Birkett Morris Explores the Quiet Power of Womanhood in “Lost Girls”
Podcast: Download (Duration: 36:40 — 33.7MB)
In this episode 193, we visit with Ellen Birkett Morris, author of “Lost Girls,” a short story collection which explores the experiences of women and girls as they confront the challenges and expectations of womanhood.
Jenny Offill, author of “Weather,” “Department of Speculation,” and “Last Things,” called this book a “dazzling collection of stories that showcases Morris’ impressive ability to hide devastating truths within seemingly small moments.”
A review of “Lost Girls” in the Southern Review of Books said: “Through vivid snapshots of female struggle, Morris demonstrates the power of women acknowledging one another — and themselves — in a world where they are continually diminished. The women and girls in these stories hold the antidote to their own erasure, and in turn give it to us: Only we can prevent each other from becoming lost girls.”
Connect With the Author
Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Goodreads LinkedIn
About the Author:
ELLEN BIRKETT MORRIS is an award-winning writer, teacher and editor based in Louisville, Kentucky. Morris is the author of LOST GIRLS, short stories, and SURRENDER, a poetry chapbook. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah,Antioch Review, Notre Dame Review, and South Carolina Review, among other journals. Her commentaries have been heard on public radio stations across the United States.
Endorsements
“The stories in Ellen Birkett Morris’s collection, Lost Girls, are memorable for the way they see the lasting truths that reside within the familiar. These stories are full of imaginative leaps that capture the wildness that lies beneath our seemingly ordinary lives. Morris is a writer of extraordinary talent. With elegance and precision, she can turn a story into something luminous and unforgettable.”
— Lee Martin, author of Pulitzer Prize Finalist The Bright Forever
“Ellen Birkett Morris is a skillful literary pointillist. In Lost Girls, her debut collection, each spare sentence is as considered as a poem; step back a little way, and you behold a world.”
— David Payne, author of Barefoot to Avalon
“This collection of stunning and original stories kept me turning the pages, eager to meet the daughter who eats the sins of others, the 30-year-old virgin who rents a breast pump, the bereft mother drumming away her grief. Ellen Birkett Morris’s Lost Girls draws us so close that before long, we are inhaling the same air, making the same unexpected discoveries, and deeply longing for each of these girls and women to find their private rainbows.”
— Masha Hamilton, author of 31Hours and The Camel Bookmobile
“A view into these private moments of wonder and desperation and desire and grief. Small windows into this interconnected community of girls and women and the tragedies and triumphs of their lives. We so often don’t get to experience the minutiae that make up a person’s life, the slow days and the shows they watched on television, the small things that come together and make a person who they are. Lost Girls shows us that we can revel in those moments, tender and fraught as they may be.”
— Trade review, New Southern Fugitives
Additional Works
Surrender – The poems in Surrender explore the coming of middle age and the surrender to circumstances of loss and challenges, as well as the joys of finding new ways to love the world.
Help Us Defray the Costs of this FREE content and Get Exclusive Content in Return
You can help us defray the costs of providing this engaging Free content for as little as $5 per month ($8 a month if you tip) and when you do, you will have access to exclusive audio content and other benefits curated especially for our member supporters.
We provide this exclusive content on our Patreon page. You can explore the exclusive content currently available for our members and see how it works on our Website Preview Page.
Promo Code Deals For Our Listeners:
Use the promo code: Charlottereader (all one word) for the following deal available to Charlotte Readers Podcast listeners.
Deal for Audiobooks:
Libro.fm makes it easy to buy audiobooks and support independent book stores at the same time. Listeners can use the above promo code to get two audiobooks for the price of one upon joining Libro.fm at the $14.99 monthly membership level.
When we use that code and join Libro.fm, we can choose from more than 150,000 audiobooks, including New York Times best sellers and recommendations from booksellers around the country. With Libro.fm you’ll get the same audiobooks, at the same price as the largest audiobook company out there (you know the name), but we’ll be part of a much different story, one that supports community, because we can designate our favorite independent book store when we sign up and the store benefits from every monthly membership charge and every purchase. Kudos to Libro.fm for making it easy for audiobook listeners to support independent book stores. If you’d like to give it a try and feel good about supporting local when you do, plug in the promo code when you sign up at Libro.fm and let us know how you like the service.
Connect with Charlotte Readers Podcast and Get FREE Stuff
One Stop Link to listen, browse, review, join and more.
Get a Free E-Book Here by host Landis Wade when you sign up for the bi-weekly newsletter.
If you sign-up for the Newsletter, we won’t spam you, because that takes too much time. We simply let you know what’s coming, what’s going on and how you can engage with the show.
The free e-book is the first book in the Christmas Courtroom trilogy, books that combine the humor of My Cousin Vinny with the hope of Miracle on 34th Street. The third book in the trilogy won the 12th Annual National Indie Excellence Award in the Holiday Category.
Meet Our Networks:
Queen City Podcast Network is a carefully selected collection of more than two dozen podcasts produced in and centering around Charlotte, North Carolina focused on news, non-profits, entertainment, literature, sports, food, culture, health and wellness, and comedy.
Authors on the Air Global Radio Network is an international digital media corporation comprised of more than two dozen radio talk shows, podcasts, & book reviewers interested in speaking to writers in all genres and other creative people.
Meet Our Team:
Learn About Our Social Media Team – Social Grit Marketing
Learn About Our Publicity Manager – Spellbound Public Relations
Learn about our Web Master – TM Petaccia
Visit Our Recording Studios:
Learn About Our In-Person Recording Studio – Advent Coworking
Learn About Our Remote Recording Studio – Squadcast
Thank you for listening!