Selected Shorts

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories and two poems the celebrate the power and mystery of reading and writing.  Billy Collins contributes magical verse from two perspectives in “Books” read by Kirsten Vangsness, and “Dear Reader,” performed by Dion Graham.   N.K. Jemisin entices us with a tricky narrative that contemplates the cost of literary celebrity. It’s read by Yetide Badaki.And at least one character in Ian McEwan’s “My Pu...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about selves obscured and revealed, by characters whose own identities are mysteries to them.  In Aimee Bender’s “Un-Selfie, a woman reveals her extraordinary past to a stranger.The story was a commission for our 2022 Small Odysseys anthology, and is read by Alysia Reiner.  In our second story, “Best Western” by Louise Erdrich, a young wife struggles to maintain a romantic fiction, until the r...

On the Media’s Brooke Gladstone was our guest for a live Selected Shorts event, and this week, host Meg Wolitzer presents some of the stories Gladstone chose. They all explore the theme of tales we tell ourselves—and others. The title says it all in Mary Gordon’s “My Podiatrist Tells Me a Story about a Boy and a Dog” read by Bebe Neuwirth and Richard Masur. Two imaginative cooks reinvent themselves in a new country in Meron Hadero’...

Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about belonging and sacrifice in two very different kinds of social orders. In Wolitzer’s own “The Summer Reading List” the intensity of youthful bookworms is perfectly captured.  It’s performed by Melora Hardin.  And Marie-Helene Bertino takes us inside a bat cave for a story of love, longing, and immortality.  “Viola in Midwinter” was chosen for the Best American Short Stories 2024 anthology by g...

Host Meg Wolitzer present three stories in which friendly advice is proffered, whether it’s wanted or not.  The title of the first, by Meghana Indurti and Tyler Fowler, says it all: “Relationship Advice from Your Aunt Who Has Been Divorced Six Times.”  It’s read by Jane Kaczmarek.  In Mira Jacob’s “Death by Printer,” a YouTube DIY video seems to have a mind of its own.The reader is Rita Wolf.  And a husband dispenses lavish advice ...

The unique, unquenchable writer and activist Grace Paley would have turned 100 in 2022. On this Selected Shorts, host Meg Wolitzer shares our tribute to the influential and outspoken New Yorker who was a great friend of the series. Paley’s emphasis on friends, family, and doing the right thing are evident in the three stories on this show. In “Wants,” a woman has a chance encounter while returning a lot of overdue library books. It...

"The Ballad of Bagel Rat," is by Jen Spyra. She's written for The Onion, The New Yorker, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. After reading her short story collection Big Time, we not only brought two of Spyra's stories to the stage, but commissioned this one, too. Actor Busy Phillips read this story onstage. She's been in shows from Freaks & Geeks to Cougar Town, though these days you may know her from Girls5Eva or the movie mu...

This piece is by writer Maeve Dunigan. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker and in McSweeney's; and her first collection of humor pieces and essays, Read This to Look Cool, will be published in 2025.  Our reader was none other than Susie Essman, the longtime stand-up comic who spent many years yelling at Larry David while playing Susie Green on Curb Your Enthusiasm. She has also had recurring roles in series including Broad...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works about idealized lives, and ideas about what constitutes an “ideal” life.  “Boy Meets Girl” is Jen Kim’s humorous version of a Hollywood love story.  It’s read by Tony Hale.  In the John Cheever classic “The Worm in the Apple” a couple have the perfect life—but no one can believe it.  It’s read by Anne Meara.  And a harried mother fantasizes about a brand new life in Vanessa Cuti’s “Our Childre...