Miller Aud-cast #37: Greg November

Hello and welcome to Miller Aud-cast, the Missouri Review podcast where we listen to and discuss the finalists for the 2021 Miller Audio Prize. Here we are at episode 37, featuring the latest finalist for the 2021 Miller Audio Prize in Prose, “Decoys,” by Greg November. Originally from Philadelphia, Greg November grew up also in New York and then Connecticut. For the past decade he's been living and writing in Seattle, after half a decade doing those things in Southern California. If you called him bi-coastal, he'd say you were right. He is a 2021 Jack Straw Writer, teaches writing and film at North Seattle College and Highline College, reads submissions for New England Review, and was a finalist for the 2020 Curt Johnson Prose Award for Fiction. His work has most recently appeared in Boulevard, Carve, Hawaii Pacific Review, Epiphany, and Juked, among other places. He has an MFA from UC-Irvine. From his artist notes: "Decoys" has experienced a few different lifetimes, and is one of the oldest stories I have in terms of how long I've been working on it. The original draft was written while I was in college, somewhere in the early 2000's. A later version made it to the workshop table in grad school. It's been as long as 50 pages and has had a few different titles. Characters have emerged and then disappeared. The current version, I believe, is the right one. Stick around after the piece to hear me and contest editor Bailey Boyd marvel at the constructive elegance and emotional complexity of this story, and then listen to it again. You will be rewarded. Thanks as always to the Missouri Review contest editor, Bailey Boyd, and to Patricia Miller, for her generous support for the Miller Audio Prize. Just as a reminder, TMR is open for submissions year-round, and we remain dedicated to discovering and publishing the best contemporary writing in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Be heard. Give us the opportunity to discover you: subscribe or submit your work today! In addition, we have tons of exhilarating (and free!) creative content to read, listen to, and even watch on our website. Learn more at missourireview.com.