Congratulations to the winner of the first Bill Hallberg Rock ‘n’ Roll Short Story Contest in the general submissions category, Mark Baumgartner! Listen to Mark read his winning story, “Last Chance for a Slow Dance,” in this episode.

Mark D. Baumgartner’s fiction has been published in many literary journals, including ‘The Southern Review’, ‘Confrontation’, ‘Best of Ohio Anthology’, ‘Bellingham Review’, ‘Silk Road’, ‘Yemassee’, ‘Wisconsin Review’, ‘Phoebe’, and ‘Tampa Review’, among others. His story, “The Great Siwash Shoe War,” won the 2014 ‘Fugue’ prize in short fiction. His writing has twice been nominated for inclusion in the Pushcart prize anthology. His story collection, ‘Last Chance for a Slow Dance: Stories’, is forthcoming from JackLeg Press in 2026. He teaches creative writing and American literature at East Tennessee State U.

MUSIC IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:

• Rock is Lit theme music
• [Guitar Instrumental Beat] Sad Rock [Free Use Music] Punch Deck—“I Can’t Stop”
• “Fascination Street” by The Cure
• “Last Chance For a Slow Dance” by Fugazi
• “Remember Tomorrow” by Iron Maiden
• [Guitar Instrumental Beat] Sad Rock [Free Use Music] Punch Deck—“I Can’t Stop”
• Rock is Lit theme music

LINKS:

Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Goodpods: https://goodpods.com/podcasts/rock-is-lit-212451

Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rock-is-lit/id1642987350

Mark Baumgartner on Facebook: @MarkBaumgartner

Christy Alexander Hallberg’s website: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislit

Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube: @ChristyHallberg

Rock is Lit on Instagram: @rockislitpodcast

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Christy Alexander Hallberg Podcaster, Author

Christy Alexander Hallberg is the author of the award-winning novel 'Searching for Jimmy Page' (Livingston Press, 2021) and host of Rock is Lit, the first podcast devoted to rock novels. She is a Teaching Professor of English at East Carolina University and serves as Senior Associate Editor of 'North Carolina Literary Review'. Her fiction, creative nonfiction, book reviews, and interviews have appeared in many journals, including 'storySouth', 'Still: The Journal', 'Fiction Southeast', ‘Litro’, ‘STORGY’, ‘Entropy’, and 'Eclectica'.