![](https://www.thresholdsarchive.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/FEATURE_Harare-Travis-Lupick.jpg)
('Harare' © Travis Lupick, 2011)
SHORT STORY MASTERCLASS
with PETINA GAPPAH
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In the first instalment of this series of Short Story Masterclass podcasts, Jac Cattaneo interviews award-winning author Petina Gappah at the 2016 Small Wonder Festival. In the podcast, Gappah talks about method writing, addressing pain through stories, writing on philosophy and religion, and the voices of a writer.
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Petina Gappah was born in Zambia, in Copperbelt Province, and raised in Zimbabwe. Her debut short story collection, An Elegy For Easterly, published in 2009, won the Guardian First Book Award, while her debut novel, The Book of Memory (2015), was longlisted for the inaugural Financial Times/Oppenheimer Funds Award. Earlier this month, her brand new short story collection, Rotten Row, was published by Faber. She writes in both English and her native ChiKaranga, also called Shona.
Gappah is lives in France with her son, and works as an international lawyer in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Listen to the
Short Story Masterclass
with Petina Gappah
(40 minutes)
In the podcast, Gappah reads from ‘News of Her Death’, ‘Copacabana, Copacabana, Copacabana‘ and ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, Bob Marley and the Wailers!’.
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Jac Cattaneo is an artist, writer and lecturer in Fine Art and Creative Writing. Her prize-winning short stories and poems have been published in a wide range of journals and anthologies. Jac is currently studying for her PhD at the University of Chichester and writing a novel. She tweets @jaccattaneo
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An exclusive THRESHOLDS collaboration with the SMALL WONDER SHORT STORY FESTIVAL, held by the Charleston Trust, East Sussex. With thanks to the organisers.