May second is this year’s date for the Mystery Writers of America’s annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards banquet. This month’s podcast is a tip of the hat to Poe, and to the MWA. In “Two Dwarves and Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs” author Eric Cline has reworked a classic Poe story from the point of view of one of its central characters. The tale appeared in EQMM’s June 2011 issue, in the Department of First Stories. Since that fine debut, Eric Cline has sold several more of his imaginative tales. He reads his story for this episode in our podcast series with dramatic flair.

http://www.cruelcline.blogspot.com/

Winner of nearly all of mystery fiction's major awards—including two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America—S. J. Rozan is as accomplished in the realm of short fiction as she is as a novelist. Her reading for this episode in our series is a subtle tale of political intrigue in a beautifully rendered exotic setting. It's from the December 2012 issue of EQMM.

http://sjrozan.net/

Winner of a Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the winner of the 2010 EQMM Readers Award, Dave Zeltserman writes mysteries of both the humorous and noir type. His reading for this episode in our podcast series is of one of his darker tales, from our August 2011 issue.

http://www.hardluckstories.com/

Anthony Award winner Hilary Davidson appeared on the mystery scene in 2007 and since then she’s made quite a mark. Her fourth novel is currently going into production, and she has had more than a dozen short stories published, including the tale she reads for us here, “Hedge Hog,” from the September/October 2011 issue of EQMM. After the reading, Hilary joins editor Janet Hutchings for an interview about her work.

http://www.hilarydavidson.com

Winner of a Best Long Story Derringer Award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society, this month’s featured story, "Brea's Tale," first appeared in EQMM’s Department of First Stories in January 2012. Reading it for us is the author, Karen Pullen.

http://www.karenpullen.com/

2012’s Robert L. Fish Award winner for best story by a new author is featured this month, as read by its author, David Ingram, who also composed and performed the music for the podcast. “A Good Man of Business” (EQMM January 2011) makes use of the author’s background in theater—another of his many talents!

http://davidhingram.com/

Shamus Award-nominated crime writer Jack Fredrickson had his fiction debut in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s Department of First Stories. He joins us this month for a reading of that first short story, “The Brick Thing” (EQMM September/October 2002). It’s the story of a long-ago crime with present reverberations.

www.jackfredrickson.com

It’s October and with Halloween on the horizon we decided to feature a tale with vampires, trolls, and other spooky creatures. Award-winning novelist and short story writer Donna Andrews reads her story “Normal” (from the May 2011 EQMM), in which her not-quite-“normal” private eye and a support cast that includes a wizard solve a classical whodunit.

Edgar and Shamus award winner John Lutz reads his caper story “Safe and Loft” for us this month (EQMM March/April 2008). In a career that has brought him two lifetime achievement awards, the St. Louis author has produced novels and short stories in all of mystery’s subgenres, from tough hardboiled pieces to lighthearted stories like this one.

www.johnlutzonline.com

A haunting suspense story by National Humanities Medal winner Joyce Carol Oates is our featured selection this month. In addition to being one of the nation's most celebrated literary writers, Joyce Carol Oates is a distinguished member of the community of crime-fiction writers. "The Fruit Cellar" first appeared in EQMM's March/April 2004 issue. It is read here by Dorothy Cummings.

Malice Domestic Lifetime Achievement Award winner Simon Brett has a theatrical background that makes his readings especially absorbing. The former TV and radio producer has been the reader for all of the audio editions of his many popular mystery novels. He joins our podcast series with a reading of his humorous September/October 2011 EQMM story “Work Experience.” http://www.simonbrett.com/

Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Mickey Spillane left a number of unfinished manuscripts when he died in 2006. Max Allan Collins, who wrote an Edgar-nominated critical study of Spillane and is also a versatile and celebrated mystery writer, has been completing the Spillane novels and stories. He is also the reader on this collaboration with Mickey Spillane, a story that was first published in the August 2008 issue of EQMM.

http://www.maxallancollins.com/blog/

International Thriller Award winner Twist Phelan joins us this month with a story that draws on one of the successful careers she pursued before becoming a novelist and short story writer. The former lawyer and commodities trader revisits the trading floor in this reading of her story "Floored," from the June 2008 EQMM.

http://www.twistphelan.com/

Three short shorts comprise this month's podcast. First up, one of the U.K.'s most accomplished authors, poet and crime writer John Harvey, who reads his story "Ghosts," from the September/October 2009 EQMM. Next, current Edgar Allan Poe Award Best Short Story nominee David Dean reads his story "Awake," from our July 2009 issue. And finally, we present a story by multi-genre author Dave Raines. His "Suitcase in Slow Time," from the June 2009 EQMM, is read by Mark Lagasse.

http://raineswriter.com/
http://mellotone.co.uk/
http://www.sleuthsayers.org/

Fiction writer, book reviewer, and college professor Art Taylor reads his story "A Drowning at Snow's Cut" (EQMM, May 2011), which is currently nominated for the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Long Short Story Derringer Award. The author is a former Derringer Award winner in the novelette category, and a frequent contributor to EQMM.

http://www.arttaylorwriter.com/