Selected Shorts

Rachel B. Glaser has been recognized as one of Granta Magazine's Best Young American Novelists, and her work has been showcased in prestigious publications such as The Paris Review and McSweeney's. "Ira & the Whale" was honored with an O. Henry Prize in 2023. Jeff Hiller is an actor who has been a charming anchor of the HBO series Somebody Somewhere. He's appeared in many other funny shows, such as 30 Rock; was on Broadway in the musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; and performs solo shows at Joe's Pub. After the reading, Hiller talked to host Aparna Nancherla about the character, finding your place in the world, and his own book, Actress of a Certain Age, which come out in June of 2025.

Host Meg Wolitzer is presents two stories from a live SELECTED SHORTS evening celebrating the O’Henry Prize, with guest editor Amor Towles, bestselling author of volumes including A Gentleman from Moscow.On today’s show, Allegra Hyde imagines the very near future as a never-ending road trip, in “Mobilization,” read by Jane Kaczmarek.  And a family is disrupted by the arrival of a young woman in “The Import,” by Jai Chakrabarti, read by Arjun Gupta.

Host Meg Wolitzer presents four stories in which characters give, and get, a little assistance, from friends, strangers and family. A daughter copes with a cantankerous parent in “How to Take Dad to the Doctor” by Jenny Allen, performed by Jennifer Mudge. A woman moves to a new town and makes a strange new friend in Laura van den Berg’s “Friends,” performed by Roberta Colindrez. A Tyrolean café improbably situated in South America is home to mysterious strangers and new and old romances, in Isabel Allende’s “The Little Heidelberg.” It’s performed by Kathleen Turner. And a budding singer and socialist gets unwelcome help from Mom in Grace Paley’s “Injustice,” performed by Jackie Hoffman.

Host Meg Wolitzer presents a program celebrating the 100th anniversary of The New Yorker.  One of the magazine’s strengths has always been its fiction, and honor of this winning literary streak, this year saw the release of the collection, A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker. The quartet of stories on this show is drawn from that volume.  The program includes a pithy satire by E. B. White, “Life Cycle of a Literary Genius,” read by Liev Schreiber; “Love,” by William Maxwell, a tender recounting of an collective adolescent crush, read by Fred Hechinger; “Bullet in the Brain,” a powerful reversal of fortune tale by Tobias Wolff, read by Liev Schreiber; and “All Will be Well,” an intriguing tangle of truths and half-truths by Yiyun Li, read by Ann Harada. 

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about secrets that are just beneath the surface of the narratives and lives of the characters.  In Walter Dean Myers’ “The Beast in the Labyrinth” children must conceal their real selves in a hostile society.  The reader is Jelani Alladin.  And the Shirley Jackson classic “The Lottery” demonstrates how the inconceivable can become the norm in a community if everyone accepts it.  The reader is Amy Ryan. 

Selected Shorts celebrates this important collection each year, and this show, presented by host Meg Wolitzer, reprises works from the 2022 Best American edition selected by guest editor Andrew Sean Greer. Included are “The Little Widow from the Capital,” by Yohanca Delgado, performed by Krystina Alabado, and a second story selected by John Updike for the volume Best American Stories of the Century.  It’s Grace Stone Coates’ “Wild Plums,” performed by Mia Dillon.

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories by contemporary Japanese writers that were featured during a live program created in collaboration with the Japan Society. Each touches on the idea of letting go.  In “Hawaii,” Aoko Matsuda imagines a afterlife for garments.  It’s read by Maria Dizzia.  In “Sunrise,” by Erika Kobayashi, a woman’s life parallels the world of nuclear power.  The reader is Rita Wolf.  And Hugh Dancy meets a mermaid in Hiromi Kawakami’s “I Won’t Let You Go.”

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 Purple Scented Novel” wants celebrity at all costs.  It's read by Tony Hale. 

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 real world crashes in on her.  It’s read by Patricia Kalember.

"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 musical Mean Girls. Also, she is the best at social media—which gave her a strange kind of insight into this story. This episode is hosted by Aparna Nancherla.