Jamel Brinkley (Witness) on Bearing Witness and How to Write a Good Ending

Origin Story

Jamel Brinkley is the author of a new short story collection called Witness and previously published the short story collection A Lucky Man which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Story Prize, the John Leonard Prize, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; and winner of a PEN Oakland Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.

His writing has appeared in A Public Space, Ploughshares, The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, Guernica, Glimmer Train,The Best American Short Stories, and many more. He was raised in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and now teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

We talk to Jamel about his upcoming collection, Witness, and about what attracts him to short stories as a form.

Hosted by Phillip Russell and Ben Thorp

You can learn more about Jamel Brinkley here.

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