A burned-out cop named Tweed, a neighbor with a dead horse, nods to John Wayne, Waylon Jennings, Charles Portis, and the Phoenix Suns. These are just a few of the elements of Jonathan Danielson’s The Lowest Basin: Arizona Stories, a purposeful recasting Arizona’s place—and Arizona as place—in contemporary Western fiction. Hailed by Arizona’s Poet Laureate Alberto Ríos as quieter than old Westerns but “louder in the depths of the heart,” the stories fill a real gap in literature of the region. Author of The Cactus League Emily Nemens compared the stories to desert rocks that “hold their warmth long after sundown.”

Dr. Jennifer Jenkins talks in this episode with author Jonathan Danielson, a second-generation Scottsdale denizen and guide to the vagaries of 21st century Arizona in fiction. He holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco and a PhD from Arizona State University, and is an active proponent of Arizona Regionalism as a distinct literary genre. His linked short story collection, The Lowest Basin: Arizona Stories, was long-listed for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and was chosen by the Pima County Public Library as a 2026 Southwest Book of the Year.

Hosted by Jennifer Jenkins, produced by Carlos Quintero