Short story savant Katherine Heiny plays for keeps in ‘Games and Rituals.’

On this week’s episode, Katherine Heiny joins us to discuss Games and Rituals (Knopf, April 18), an exquisite second collection from one of the best in the business: “With this irresistibly amusing, bighearted collection,” Kirkus writes in a starred review, “Heiny again proves she is a master of the short story form.”

Heiny made a splashy debut in 1992, with the publication of “How To Give the Wrong Impression,” a story accepted by the New Yorker the day after she submitted it. In 2015, she published her first collection, Single, Carefree, Mellow,followed by two novels, Standard Deviation(2017) and Early Morning Riser(2021)—each garnering a starred review from Kirkus.

Here’s a bit more from our review of Games and Rituals: “Heiny approaches her disarmingly charming characters with tenderness, empathy, and humor, even (perhaps, especially) when they meander outside the bounds of good behavior. Lighthearted and amusing yet deeply resonant, these stories offer sly insights about human connection and can, in the space of a single sentence, take your breath away. In ‘Chicken-Flavored and Lemon-Scented,’ which captures the curiosities of office culture, driving examiner Colette falls for a handsome co-worker.…‘Twist and Shout’ begins with Ericka’s cranky elderly father confusing ‘his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew’ and eating it.…For Heiny fans and those just discovering her naughty, generous-spirited fiction, this collection is bound to spark considerable joy. It’s a keeper.”

Heiny and host Megan Labrise recall their initial meeting in 2014, at a prepublication party for Single, Carefree, Mellow; how Heiny celebrated the publication of Games and Rituals; the inspiration for “Chicken-Flavored and Lemon-Scented”; incorporating identifiable details from real life into fiction; the importance of killer opening lines; how the book’s title story was written in the 1980s and gently updated for publication in 2023; whether Heiny considers this collection represents a “return” to short stories after publishing two novels; the story “561”; and much more.

Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, Eric Liebetrau, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

Editors’ picks:

You: The Story: A Writer’s Guide to Craft Through Memory by Ruta Sepetys (Viking)

When You Can Swim by Jack Wong (Orchard/Scholastic)

Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story by Julie Wertz (Black Dog & Leventhal)

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (Morrow/HarperCollins)

Also mentioned on this episode:

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott (Pantheon)

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craftby Stephen King (Scribner)

Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different by Chuck Palahniuk (Grand Central Publishing)

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka (Knopf)

Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster)

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Atria)

Thanks to our sponsors:

The Prophecy of the Heron: An AI Dystopia Novel by Craig W. Stanfill

The Ultimate Investment: A Roadmap To Grow Your Business and Build Multigenerational Wealth by Mark B. Murphy

This May Be Difficult To Read: But You Really Should (For Your Child’s Sake) by Claire N. Rubman

Love Letters From an Arsonist by David van den Berg

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.