Aria Song Reads William Pei Shih’s “Happy Family,” a Story of a Chinatown Childhood
From the Ursa Short Fiction Podcast with Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton
Listen to an Ursa original audio story: “Happy Family,” by William Pei Shih. It’s the story of a lost childhood, a struggling restaurant, and a bygone era of Chinatown.
Content warning: This story contains an intense depiction of abuse/physical violence.) Read along at ursastory.com/happy.
Credits:
“Happy Family” written by William Pei Shih • Story edited by Dawnie Walton • Audio story produced, directed, and sound designed by Alicia Qian • Illustrated by Christina Chung • Music by Jiro Yoshioka • Performed by Aria Song • Audio Engineering: David Verdugo (Demun Studios) and Deon Vozov (LA Voiceover) • Executive Producers: Dawnie Walton and Mark Armstrong • Distributed by Lit Hub Radio
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William Pei Shih’s stories have been published or are forthcoming in The Best American Short Stories 2020, VQR, McSweeney’s Quarterly, The Southern Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Boston Review, Crazyhorse, F(r)iction, Catapult, The Asian American Literary Review, The Des Moines Register, The Masters Review, Reed Magazine, Carve Magazine, Hyphen, and more. His stories have been recognized by the John Steinbeck Award in Fiction, the Flannery O’Connor Award in Short Fiction, the Raymond Carver Short Story Award, the UK Bridport Prize, The London Magazine Short Story Award, among others. His stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He has been awarded scholarships and support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference, Kundiman, the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, and the Ragdale Residency. He has served on the admissions board for the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (MFA in Fiction), where he was a recipient of the Dean’s Graduate Fellowship. He currently lives in New York City, and teaches at NYU.
Ursa
Join authors Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies) and Dawnie Walton (The Final Revival of Opal & Nev) for author interviews, book club discussions, and immersive short stories — all celebrating fiction from some of today's most thrilling writers, with an emphasis on spotlighting underrepresented voices.
