CHARLES BAXTER is the author of the novels The Feast of Love(nominated for the National Book Award), First Light, Saul and Patsy, Shadow Play, The Soul Thief, and The Sun Collective, and the story collections Believers, Gryphon, Harmony of the World, A Relative Stranger, There’s Something I Want You to Do, and Through the Safety Net. His stories have appeared in several anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and The O. Henry Prize Story Anthology. He has won the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Baxter lives in Minneapolis.

Charles Baxter | Penguin Random House

Conversation location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Charles' Books on the Bed:

"The Night of the Hunter" by Davis Grubb

"The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov

"If I Survive You" by Jonathan Escoffery

"The Collected Stories Katherine Anne Porter"

"So Long, See You Tomorrow" by William Maxwell

"The Widow's Children" by Paula Fox

Matt's gifts for Charles:

"The Librarianist" by Patrick deWitt

"The Mountains Have Come Closer" by Jim Wayne Miller

Episode timeline:

0:00 - 4:05 — Intro

4:06 - 31:47 — GIfts for Charles, Backstory to "The Soul Thief", and discussing Charles' new book "Blood Test"

31:48 - 1:24:51 — Charles' Books on the Bed