In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with Kathryn Harlan about her book of short stories, Fruiting Bodies (2022, W.W. Norton & Co.).

Across Fruiting Bodies’ eight stories, Harlan deftly blends the fantastic, weird, and macabre with the sensual, tender, and mundane as we follow a cast of characters–mostly queer and mostly young women–as they navigate ever-changing bodies, ever-changing relationships with friends, lovers, and family, and a world rapidly changing due to the effects of climate change.

Kathryn Harlan is a graduate of UW-Madison’s MFA program, and is currently at work on her second book. She now lives in Oregon. Her work has also appeared in Strange Horizons, LitHub, and The Gettysburg Review.

You can find out more about her at kathryn-harlan.com and follow her @kay__harlan on Twitter.