Bret Anthony Johnston, author of ENCOUNTERS WITH UNEXPECTED ANIMALS
From Writers on Writing by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett and Marrie Stone
February 23, 2026 · 60 min
About this episode
Bret Anthony Johnston discusses his latest story collection, Encounters with Unexpected Animals, and shares insights on the craft of writing short fiction.
Bret Anthony Johnston is the internationally bestselling author of the novels We Burn Daylight and Remember Me Like This, as well as the award-winning story collection Corpus Christi. He edited the craft book, Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. His work has been widely translated and appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Paris Review, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. After directing the creative writing program at Harvard University for over a decade, he is now the Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. He joins Marrie Stone to talk about his latest story collection, Encounters with Unexpected Animals. These 12 pieces are masterclasses on managing time in short fiction, showing what dialogue can do, bringing setting to life, playing with POV (including 2nd person), and arranging a collection to read like an album. They discuss it all. For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can help out the show and indie bookstores by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. It’s stocked with…
People in this episode
Host: Marrie Stone
Guest: Bret Anthony Johnston
Topics covered
- short fiction
- creative writing
- story collection
- dialogue
- point of view
- literary craft
Keywords
- Bret Anthony Johnston
- Encounters with Unexpected Animals
- short fiction
- creative writing
- dialogue
- point of view
- literary craft
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Harvard University, University of Texas at Austin
Books & works: Encounters with Unexpected Animals, We Burn Daylight, Remember Me Like This, Corpus Christi, Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Paris Review, The Best American Short Stories
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