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About

(…and Masthead)

Mission Statement - After Dinner Conversation® is an award-winning independent nonprofit publisher. We believe in fostering meaningful discussions among friends, family, and students to enhance humanity through truth-seeking, reflection, and respectful debate. To achieve this, we publish philosophical and ethical short story fiction accompanied by discussion questions.

Value Statement - We value curiosity, reflection, and respectful dialogue. Our stories are chosen not only for their literary quality but for their ability to challenge assumptions, raise ethical questions, and spark conversation that makes people think more deeply about themselves and the world.

After Dinner Conversation History

The Origin

After Dinner Conversation was founded in 2019 by Kolby Granville, a former Great Books/Great Hearts style teacher, around a simple conviction: that short fiction is one of the best ways to think through hard questions. The aim was to publish stories where the plot is a vehicle for the thing worth talking about; what it means to live well, to be a good person, and to make a difficult choice.

The first challenge was definitional. The stories we were after could be in any traditional genre, sat instead in a new genre, fiction written to provoke thoughtful discussion and debate, and that was hard to describe to writers (video explanation). To show what we meant, our earliest stories were written in-house as models for the form.

Finding the Format

The website went live on July 17, 2019. At first, stories appeared directly on the website. A few months later, the format shifted to releasing submissions one at a time as individual short stories on Amazon, a model that continued for roughly a year. The first print anthologies of these previously published stories followed, with Season One arriving in March 2020 (six seasons in total).

Becoming a Literary Magazine

The move to a formal magazine came from an offhand email. An author After Dinner Conversation had published, who ran a horror literary magazine, pointed out that releasing a new short story every week was already, practically, like publishing a literary magazine. “We simply needed to bundle them.” After an hour-long call with the director of the Philosophy Documentation Center, Kolby worked through the formatting, ISSN process, and assembled the first issue.

In July 2020, the first digital edition went out to 15 paid subscribers in PDF, MOBI, and EPUB formats. It was also listed on Amazon and distributed through the Draft2Digital network, reaching Apple, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble. More platforms followed, including Libby, Hoopla, Zinio,Readly, Flipster/EBSCO and Bookshop.org. Today the digital magazine is also available in more than 10,000 public online libraries.

Also in 2020, After Dinner Conversation joined the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP).

Expanding the Conversation

To model the type of deep dialogue we hoped our readers would have, After Dinner Conversation launched a weekly podcast in late 2019. We also experimented with virtual discussion groups to bring readers together.

As the community embraced the mission, the publication continued to evolve rapidly. The first print issue was released in September 2022 (we turned the old digital issues into print issues retroactively), establishing a rhythm that evolved into our current monthly digital/print schedule of six new stories, and one republished story, in each issue.

In January 2023, After Dinner Conversation officially incorporated as a nonprofit organization and released our first "Best of" anthology. By July 2023, we began delivering a weekly short story via a Substack email newsletter, a platform that has since grown to well over 150,000 subscribers. In June, 2025, our Story Editor created our sister-Substack, Revisions & Revelations. An author interview section, first in written format, then later as video inteviews, was added to the Substack in March, 2024, starting with a short interview of “The Martian” and “Project Hail Mary” author Andy Weir.

In January 2024, we published our first of many themed collections of previously published stories, Technology Ethics. We also started converting stories into teacher lesson plans. Throughout 2024, we initiated a partnership with Philosophy Now to periodically reprint After Dinner Conversation stories in their esteemed publication. Most recently, in 2025, we successfully relaunched monthly virtual short story discussion groups hosted through the Luma platform.

Growth and Recognition

What began as a solo passion project has grown into a thriving collaborative effort. Today, the organization is supported by a dedicated board of directors, a staff of more than ten members, and a remarkable team of over 200 volunteer submission readers.

Board of Directors

  • Kolby Granville

  • Jeremy Cheek

  • Sarah Houghtelin

  • Ashley Robota

  • Nicole Natale

Masthead

Kolby Granville (Founder, Editor-in-Chief) is a lawyer, teacher, traveler, writer, and trail runner. He spent five years teaching Socratic discussion classes based on primary source literature and just finished spending 3.5 years traveling the world through 20 countries and living the digital nomad life. He now works with his sister as a lawyer at Granville Law doing indigent criminal defense. In 2025, Chillsubs members voted Kolby the #2 “Best Lit Mag Editor.” Members previously rated After Dinner Conversation “Top 10 LitMag of 2023, 2024.”

R.K.H. Ndong (StoryEditor) has almost thirty years of experience teaching, coaching English (EFL) Business Communications, and editing/proofreading. Hoosier-born, she has journeyed through the Caribbean, backpacked through Europe and served a Peace Corps term in Africa. She lives with her family (and four dogs) in their home nestled in sun-soaked hibiscus gardens on the equator.

Angela V. Dicken (Submission Director)  is a speculative fiction writer and developmental editor from Ohio. A Midwesterner at heart, she studied literature and gender studies at Miami University before earning a certificate in developmental editing from the University of Washington.  Angela currently teaches creative writing in her community and is writing a speculative novel that examines selfhood under constraint, alongside a collection of surreal short stories with a domestic fabulist theme. 

Maddie Walls (DigitalDistribution Editor) is a writer/editor from southeast Oklahoma. Maddie spent much of her academic career as a writing tutor before graduating with a BA in English and a minor in Business Administration. Currently, she serves as a freelance content and developmental editor while maintaining her own writing through her personal Substack where she challenges herself and her readers to contemplate the many complexities of faith, philosophy, and identity.

Drew Rhodes (Author Interviews Editor) is a former spoken word poetry champion who teaches creative writing and drama. He holds masters degrees in creative writing and education and is a veteran of the US Air Force. Drew also works as a voice actor and has narrated several stories for After Dinner Conversation, as well as The Funcanny Valley Podcast, The Daily Writing Habit, and several commercial spots.

Nalini Jacob-Roussety (Philosopher-In-Residence) is a Melbourne-based writer and educator. With a background in philosophy and literature, she has spent years teaching philosophy through storytelling, her students ranging from primary schoolers to retirees. A periodical nomad and avid traveller, she has worked at magazines across Australia and North America. Her fiction and essays appear online, and you can listen to her ramble on TikTok.

Eric Silveira (Discussion Group Director) is a gardener and writer from New England. He got his bachelors in Sustainable Food and Farming from Umass Amherst and currently works at a living museum. While working with plants is his main passion, writing science fiction, horror and fantasy is a close second. Eric greatly enjoys the creative process and the power that writing has to bring people together. He runs runs our monthly virtual discussion group via Zoom and the Luma platform.

Stephen Repsys (Copy Editor) is a professional with more than 15 years of writing and editing experience. He is the proud father of two girls, Erin and Lizzy. Steve is also a passionate fan of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots.

Kate Bocassi (Copy Editor) is a graduate from the University of Chicago with a certificate in editing. She started with us as the copy editor for our themed books, and has grown into an integral part of our team!

Shawn Winchester (Graphic Designer) is a graphic designer with 20+ years experience and is owner of ArtEscapes.

Emeritus

Tina Lee Forsee (Substack Editor Emeritus) leads a Tucson writing critique group which meets and feasts in an elegant Sonoran desert garden and has been doing so for the past decade. Her debut literary novel, A Footnote to Plato, was published last year (Wipf and Stock). Read her philosophical short story on Daily Philosophy: “A Not Very Philosophical Zombie.” Tina spent three years as a volunteer developing and growing the After Dinner Conversation Substack. It is through her hard work that it is the driving force it is today.

Staff

Associate Acquisition Editors*

  • Joshua Dyer (January, 2025 - Present)

  • Ricard Margineda (January, 2026 - Present)

  • Adam Jishi (January, 2026 - Present)

  • Tamara Luckinbill (January, 2025 - Present)

  • Jennifer Smith (July, 2026 - Present)

    Past Associate Acquisition Editors

  • C. Morris (January, 2026 - July, 2026)

  • Eric Silveira (January, 2025 - July, 2026)

  • Noelle Canty (January, 2023 - December, 2025)

  • Wendy Hayko (January, 2025 - December, 2025)

  • David Searston (July, 2025 - December, 2025)

  • Kate Bocassi (January, 2025 - July, 2025)

  • Deborah Serra (August, 2023 - December, 2024)

  • Corey Smith (April 2024 - December, 2024)

  • Y. Len (May, 2022 - November, 2024)

  • Lisa Lahey (March, 2024 - November, 2024)

  • K. Roberts (January, 2023 - November, 2024)

  • Tina Forsee (May, 2022 - April, 2024)

  • Pyrros Rubanis (May, 2022 - April, 2024)

  • Kiel Gregory (May, 2022 - March 2023)

  • Lessa Goss (May, 2022 - January, 2023)

Social Media Director

  • Tia Waterbury

Grant Writer Director

  • Chelsea Chong

  • Pyrros Rubanis

Magazine Layout Director

  • R.K.H. Ndong

Book Publishing Director

  • Open - Volunteer Position - 2-4hr/week - Six month commitment. Reaching out to small indie publishers and those with indie bookstore relationships to set up a publisher and/or distribution network for After Dinner Conversation books.

Short Story Discussion Group Facilitators

  • Eric Silveira

  • Jonathan Miles

  • Open *2 - Volunteer Position - 2-4hr/month - Three month commitment. Read and facilitate After Dinner Conversation short story discussions once a month via Zoom call. Some experience with philosophy, ethics, and facilitating Socratic discussion required.

Outreach Coordinator

  • Noelle Canty

* If you would like to become an “Associate Acquisition Editor” you will need to have been a volunteer reader for at least 20 stories, over a period of at least 3 months before applying for consideration. Applications are in January and June each year and require a six month commitment.

Partnerships

 
 
 

Special Thanks

Anonymous, Marie Anderson, DB Babak, Brian Bochicchio, Ria Bruns, Brett Clark, Jarvis Coffin, Rebecca Dueben, Tina Forsee, Deb Gain-Braley, Georgi Georgiev, David Gibson, Mercedes Holmes, Ron Koch, Sandra Kolankiewicz, Donna Lormand, Paula Mahone, Rena Ong, Anja Peerdeman, Steven Peterson, Deirdre Rogan, Serena Salinas, Cadmus Sorrell, John Sheirer, David Shultz, Frank Strada, Mitchell Sweet, Annie Thompson, Bill Weston, and Edip Yuksel.

After Dinner Conversation is supported in part by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, which receives support from the State of Arizona and the National Endowment for the Arts.