Selected Shorts

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works about losing something, but finding something revealing to take its place. In “Light,” by Lesley Nkeka Arimah, parents differ about how to raise a strong-willed daughter. The reader is Crystal Dickinson. And in Taryn Bowe’s “Camp Emeline,” performed by Edie Falco, a family struggles after a loss, but grief leads to self-discovery for the determined narrator. Th...

In this program, created in collaboration with Waterwell and the New York Immigration Coalition, guest host Arian Moayed takes listeners through a live performance of thirteen stories and one song that vividly bring to life the vital role immigrants play in New York City's past, present and future. Here are their names: Mary Twomey, Sara M., Zead Ramadan and Andy Eng, Mónica Carrillo, Sabelo Naras...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works from an evening with New Yorker author and cartoonist Roz Chast, inspired by Chast’s book I Must be Dreaming. “The Wife on Ambien,” by Ed Park, is a sort of late-night fever dream. It’s read by John Fugelsang. In Tessa Hadley’s “Bad Dreams,” images than begin in dreams envelop a family in real life. The reader is Rita Wolf. Tom Barbash’s “Stay Up With Me” cha...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two O’Henry Prize-winning stories, from the volume guest edited by Edward P. Jones. The Prize was created in honor of the 19th-century writer best known for slyly humorous stories like “The Ransom of Red Chief” and “Gift of the Magi,” but contemporary selections range wide. In “Rosaura at Dawn,” by Daniel Saldaña París, a woman searches for new life, and a new home. The...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two unconventional love stories, one classic, one contemporary, that avoid the usual tropes of “meet cute,” “opposites attract,” or “happily ever after” but are still engaging. In “Love in the Slump,” by Evelyn Waugh, clueless upper-crust newlyweds are sent on a comic odyssey. The reader is Jane Kaczmarek. And Esther Yi’s “Moon” explores something we often mistake for lo...

In the second of two programs created with the podcast Death, Sex, and Money and our live event host Anna Sale, we explore issues of happiness. Host Meg Wolitzer introduces a satirical romance by Oscar Wilde (did he write any other kind?). “The Model Millionaire” is read by Peter Francis James. In Kevin Brockmeier’s “Space,” a grieving widower and his son try to get past their loss, looking for li...

In the first of two programs created with the podcast Death, Sex, and Money and host Anna Sale, we explore issues of identity and connection. In “Sacrament of Confession,” by Ernie Wang, a man struggles with a messy past that is affecting the present. The reader is Richard Kind. And in a touching do-over, a man meets his wife for the first time—again. Amy Ryan reads Seth Fried’s “You Again.”

Host Meg Wolitzer presents four stories, recorded at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, in which characters shape their expectations and dreams to a manageable size. So if you’re “Medusa,” as in our first story, by Tania James, you try to figure out how to live in the world instead of turning it to stone. The reader is Constance Zimmer. Parents in our second story, “We Only Wanted Their Happiness,”...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about social occasions for introverts and extroverts alike, curated with the Belletrist Book Club, founded by actor Emma Roberts and producer Karah Preiss, and recorded at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Humorist Samantha Irby asks “Please Invite Me to Your Party,” but we’re not sure she means it. The reader is Richa Moorjani. Victoria Lancelotta’s “The An...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about characters who find themselves in a place in which they need to make a choice, something that will affect them for the rest of their lives. In Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic, “Direction of the Road,” an ancient being has to make hard choices in its role as a guardian and a force of nature. The reader is Nikki M. James. In Helen Schulman’s “The Shabbos Goy,...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents four works in which nature and the out-of-doors drive both plots and character. Humorist Jenny Allen does battle with her stubborn plants in “Garden Growing Pains,” read by Kirsten Vangsness. The majestic Canadian border separates an Indigenous family in Thomas King’s “Borders,” read by Kimberly Guerrero. A housewife masters one of the elements in “Flying,” by Alyce Mill...

Host Meg Wolitzer celebrates Jane Austen’s 250th with works by, and inspired by, the enduring romance novelist. Ann Harada performs an early Austen piece, “Edgar and Emma;” Sophie Carmen-Jones reads a letter from Austen to a mentor, James Stanier Clarke. Then things get playful in the T.C. Boyle parody “I Dated Jane Austen,” performed by Wyatt Cenac. And Hugh Dancy reads from an Austen classic, “P...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works with unusual family dynamics. In Zadie Smith’s “Grand Union,” the mother-daughter bond transcends death and brings with it a whole family history. The reader is Kaneza Schaal. And Richard Bausch’s “What Feels Like the World,” read by James Naughton, explores the bond between a grandparent and a grandchild.

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works about scaling the outsized real world down to manageable proportions. A couple brings the Papal seat home in Ben Loory’s “The Vatican,” read by Santino Fontana; In “I Love Betty,” by Kaitlyn Greenidge, communication problems invite interesting solutions, in a story read by Nathan Hinton. And in Shirley Jackson’s “The Beautiful Stranger” a wife and mother wond...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works that crossed the boundaries between fiction and film for our collaboration with this prestigious New York film Festival. An eerie game has unexpected consequences in Richard Matheson’s “Button, Button,” performed by Marin Ireland. Michael Stuhlbarg gives a rousing performance of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky;” and Andrea Martin reads the story that inspired th...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories from the volume Best American Short Stories 2025, selected by guest editor Celeste Ng. In “An Early Departure,” by Jessica Treadway, a family relationship is altered in a moment at the train station. The reader is Cynthia Nixon. In “Third Room,” by Julian Robles, an apartment, and its mysterious tenant, take on lives of their own. The reader is Ivan Hernandez...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two humorous stories about marriages not made in heaven. In James Thurber’s classic “The Breaking Up of the Winships,” a long-married couple fall out over Donald Duck. The reader is Kristine Nielsen. And in Louise Erdrich’s “The Big Cat,” read by Keir Dullea, two powerful wives, a bemused husband, and a symphony of bone-jarring snores. The program also features an interv...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories with unlikely scenarios, rare events that have, at least fictionally, come to pass. Naomi Kritzer uses the idea of “The Little Free Library”—one of those impromptu structures that facilitate the swapping of books—to imagine an exchange of quite a different sort. The reader is Melora Hardin. And Ling Ma imagines how winning the lottery—292.2 million to one—act...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories in which reality contrasts with the dreams, perceptions, and actions of the characters. In “The Leap,” by Louise Erdrich, a mother’s unusual skill set changes the outcome of events. The reader is Elizabeth Reaser. In “Death and the Lady,” by Ben Loory, even the Grim Reaper harbors illusions. And his parents’ damaged marriage haunts an adult child in Delmore...

Meg Wolitzer Talks with Denis O'Hare by Symphony Space

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories by the extraordinary Japanese writer Haruki Murakami that demonstrate the breadth of his emotional imagination over a career of 35 years. In an early story, “The Window,” a professional letter-writer recalls an intimate encounter with a woman, and a hamburger steak. The reader is Mike Doyle. In the later story, “Kahu,” read by Jennifer Ikeda, a woman goes on...

This week on SELECTED SHORTS, guest host DeRay Mckesson presents four works that consider the Black experience in America from bold perspectives. Former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm recalled her historic victory in her essay “Unbought and Unbossed.” An excerpt is read by Crystal Dickinson. James Baldwin’s powerful letter to his nephew, “My Dungeon Shook,” is read by Christopher Jackson. Poet Son...

This week on SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about problems without solutions. In Elif Batuman’s “The Board,” read by Cindy Cheung, the protagonist has found the perfect apartment, but he has to satisfy a Kafka-esque co-op committee. Jesse Eisenberg imagines an irritating sibling with problems of global proportions in ““My Little Sister Texts Me with Her Problems,” read b...

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories that demonstrate the ways in which characters—like all of us—can play many different roles in one another's lives, and in the world around us. Cherline Bazile’s “Tender,” which guest editor Min Jin Lee included in Best American Short Stories 2023, reflects the contradictory nature of friendship. It’s read by Anna Uzele. And our second story, Grace Paley’s “Th...

perils of sharing your troubles with a stranger. In “Therapy,” by J. Robert Lennon, the patient follows a recursive loop of doubt about the whole process. The reader is Troy Iwata. In “Fable,” by Charles Yu, the issues that arise in therapy sessions morph into a revealing personal fairy tale. The reader is BD Wong. With comments by comedian Gary Gulman, who hosted the live show where these stories...