The Life and Stories of Diane Oliver, Part Two (with Michael A. Gonzales)

Ursa Short Fiction

Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton welcome writer Michael A. Gonzales for part two of our deep dive into the life and work of Diane Oliver, who published six short stories before her death at age 22. (Part one of our series is here.)

Gonzales published an essay about Diane Oliver in The Bitter Southerner earlier this year, and he talks about his work digging into the archives to put a spotlight on Black authors who never got the recognition they deserved. His column for Catapult, The Blacklist, has shared stories about authors including Charlotte Carter, Julian Mayfield, Henry Dumas, and Darius James.

Get the full transcript.

About the Author

Harlem native Michael A. Gonzales is a cultural critic/short story scribe who has written for The Hopkins Review, The Paris Review, Longreads, Wax Poetics and Soulhead.com. Gonzales writes true crime articles for Crimereads.com and wrote the series The Blacklist about out-of-print Black authors for Catapult. His fiction has appeared in Under the Thumb: Stories of Police Oppression edited by S.A. Cosby, Killens Review of Arts & Letters, Dead-End Jobs: A Hit Man Anthology edited by Andrew J. Rausch, Black Pulp edited by Gary Phillips and The Root. His latest short story "Really Gone" was published in the Summer 2022 issue of the Oxford American.

Episode Links and Reading List:

• “The Short Stories and Too-Short Life of Diane Oliver” (Michael A. Gonzales, The Bitter Southerner, 2022)
• Ursa Short Fiction, Episode Nine: The Life and Stories of Diane Oliver, Part One
• “Mint Juleps Not Served Here” (Diane Oliver, Negro Digest, March 1967)
• The Blacklist essay series on out-of-print books from Black authors (Michael A. Gonzales, Catapult)
• Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980 (2019)
• “Beautiful Women, Ugly Scenes: On Novelist Nettie Jones and the Madness of ‘Fish Tales’” (Michael A. Gonzales, Longreads, 2019)

More from Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton:

• The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw
• The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, by Dawnie Walton

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