Shows / Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts
Spellbinding short stories by established and emerging writers take on a new life when they are performed by stars of the stage and screen. Listen free on your computer or mobile device. Symphony Space, the home of Selected Shorts, was founded almost 40 years ago in the belief that the arts bring people together, transcend barriers, and celebrate both our similarities and our differences. That belief remains our guiding principle and is more important now than ever. Your generosity during the…
Episodes
- Selected Shorts
Meet the Neighbors
Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about neighbors and the unexpected relationships that can develop between people who live adjacent to one another. In Tess…
- Selected Shorts
McSweeney’s 25th Anniversary Extravaganza
Meg Wolitzer presents stories celebrating a quarter century of clever, funny, playful, weird, and literary writing, in print and online, showcased by the…
- Selected Shorts
Perfectly Unmatched
Host Meg Wolitzer presents perfect mismatches. In “The Man and the Moose” by Ben Loory, performed by Michael Cerveris, a man’s best bud has antlers. In “Red…
- Selected Shorts
Come Out Swinging
Meg Wolitzer presents three works about squabbles between people who love one another most. Jenny Allen’s “In the Car” chronicles the European road trip of a…
- Selected Shorts
Classics from The New Yorker
Meg Wolitzer presents three stories featured in the anthology A Century of Fiction in the New Yorker. The magazine celebrates its 100th birthday, and this is…
- Selected Shorts
Reading Between the Lines
Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about the things she loves most: books and words and why they matter. In Ben Loory’s “The Book,” a contrarian volume becomes…
- Selected Shorts
Sizzling Summer Travels
Host Meg Wolitzer presents a quartet of summer stories. Umberto Eco endures trial by mini bar in “How to Travel with a Salmon,” read by Jin Hah. A scenic…
- Selected Shorts
Sleight of Hand
Meg Wolitzer presents stories that take the idea of “the magic of fiction” literally—or literarily. The British writer Penelope Lively offers up a tricky…
- Selected Shorts
Laughing in the Face of Danger
Meg Wolitzer presents four works that consider various forms of risk, and risk taking. In “Clicking on Heaven’s Door,” by Anand Giridharadas, performed by…
- Selected Shorts
Margaret Atwood: Future Imperfect
Meg Wolitzer presents stories by the incomparable Margaret Atwood, drawn from SELECTED SHORTS’ archives and a live performance evening hosted by the author…
- Selected Shorts
The New You
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about personal transformation. In Kenneth Calhoun’s “Mindless in America,” a SELECTED SHORTS commission, a couple…
- Selected Shorts
Romance of the Summer
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works that reflect on the allure—or not—of summer. In Massimo Bontempelli’s “The Miraculous Beach or, Prize for Modesty,”…
- Selected Shorts
Pride Inside
It’s June, time to celebrate Pride privately and publicly. Host Meg Wolitzer presents four works that celebrate the complexities of love family and belonging…
- Selected Shorts
Celebrating the O’Henry Prize, with Amor Towles
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…
- Selected Shorts
Celebrating the O’Henry Prize, with Amor Towles
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…
- Selected Shorts
The New Yorker: A Century of Fiction
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…
- Selected Shorts
Hiding in Plain Sight
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’…
- Selected Shorts
Best American Short Stories 2022
Selected Shorts celebrates this important collection each year, and this show, presented by host Meg Wolitzer, reprises works from the 2022 Best American…
- Selected Shorts
Adios, Sayonara, Goodbye!
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories by contemporary Japanese writers that were featured during a live program created in collaboration with the Japan…
- Selected Shorts
Writers & Readers
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…
- Selected Shorts
No Filter
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about selves obscured and revealed, by characters whose own identities are mysteries to them. In Aimee Bender’s…
- Selected Shorts
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
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…
- Selected Shorts
The Price of Admission
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…
- Selected Shorts
Secret Spaces
Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about secret spaces and what they represent. In N. K. Jemisin’s speculative fantasy “Elevator Dancer,” a security guard in a…
- Selected Shorts
Friendly Advice
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…
- Selected Shorts
Grace Paley Centennial
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…
- Selected Shorts
Out of Bounds
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about women whose social boundaries are changed. In “Somebody’s Daughter,” by Amy Silverberg, a young woman flirts with…
- Selected Shorts
Friendship!
On this show, host Meg Wolitzer gets friendly, and shares three stories about friendships of all kinds. Kelly Stout’s zinger “Let’s Get Drinks,” offers up the…
- Selected Shorts
Peas in a Pod
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about perfect pairs, and what happens if and when they split up. A friendship unravels in “Mrs. Carrington and Mrs…
- Selected Shorts
A Celebration of Langston Hughes
Host Meg Wolitzer hands off to stage and film actor Teagle F. Bougere, our guest host for a show that celebrates the protean literary master and social…
- Selected Shorts
Stephen King: A Half Century of Scares
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories from a live evening at Symphony Space celebrating the prolific writer Stephen King. It was hosted by Pulitzer…
- Selected Shorts
Slippery Roads and Fancy Shorts
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories in which some things are saved and some are left behind. In Haruki Murakami’s “Lederhosen,” performed by Aasif Mandvi…
- Selected Shorts
Banned Books with Judy Blume
Host Meg Wolitzer presents stories that were presented as part of an evening with the writer Judy Blume that explored the issues around book banning, and…
- Selected Shorts
The Road Not Taken
On this Selected Shorts program, host Meg Wolitzer presents stories about journeys—physical and emotional—that end in unexpected places. In “A Woman Driving…
- Selected Shorts
Keeping Score
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories in that look at some of the ways we “keep score” in life even though we know it’s not a game. Simon Rich explores the…
- Selected Shorts
Holidays with Mom
Guest host Meg Wolitzer presents our holiday show--two stories about being home for the holidays and how you can count on your Mom to be there for you—and…
- Selected Shorts
Playing Games
Guest host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories in which games are featured. Brian Agler’s “The Rules of this Board Game Are Long, But Also Complicated” speaks…
- Selected Shorts
Work of Art
Host Meg Wolitzer presents stories of inspiration small and large. In these tales, writers investigate moments in which art inspires life, or life inspires…
- Selected Shorts
Pushed from the Nest
On this week’s SELECTED SHORTS, Meg Wolitzer presents three stories that offer unpredictable life lessons, from characters who are adolescent, and those who…
- Selected Shorts
School Misrule
On this week’s SELECTED SHORTS, we're going to hear stories about students and schools that abandon the usual rules to follow their own, unusual, codes of…
- Selected Shorts
Handle with Care
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories that reflect on the beauty and vulnerability of the natural world. In “Joyas Voladoras,” by Brian Doyle, we hear the…
- Selected Shorts
Domestic Rearrangements
A routine that never changes can get old. So this week on Selected Shorts, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories that shake up domestic life, teaching the…
- Selected Shorts
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Host Meg Wolitzer presents works that reflect on the loss of love, creatively imagined by a quartet of thoughtful writers. In “The Space,” by Christopher…
- Selected Shorts
Love Object
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about objects of love, and feelings that can't be returned, for very different reasons. In “A Love Letter” by Greg Ames…
- Selected Shorts
History’s Clown Car with Andy Borowitz
Meg Wolitzer presents four works drawn from an evening of satirical stories about American political history, hosted by Andy Borowitz. Nothing is sacred…
- Selected Shorts
When Push Comes to Shove: Stories by George Saunders
Rarely do we devote one show to just one writer, but on this Selected Shorts, we turn the show over to universally beloved author George Saunders. Saunders…
- Selected Shorts
Grass is Greener
Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about the tricky subject of envy that question whether the grass is in fact always greener somewhere else. In Alexandra…
- Selected Shorts
Didn't See It Coming
Meg Wolitzer presents two stories with surprises the characters didn’t anticipate. A smart Mom defies expectations in “Agouti,” by Brenda Williams, performed…
- Selected Shorts
A Full Plate
Meg Wolitzer presents two favorite Selected Shorts works in which food and nourishment figure both literally and symbolically. The narrator of Haruki…
- Selected Shorts
The Stand-Ins
Meg Wolitzer presents a show of stories about replacements and stand-ins. While we tend to crave the original, sometimes a substitute can bring more happiness…
- Selected Shorts
Unexpected Guests
Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about unexpected guests. In Carlos Greaves’ “A Visit from the Tune Squad,” a procrastinating writer gets a surprise…
- Selected Shorts
Prove Your Love
Meg Wolitzer presents a show of stories about our need to have “proof of love”—some demonstration by those nearest and dearest of exactly how much they care. A…
- Selected Shorts
Best Laid Plans
Meg Wolitzer presents three stories in which plans go awry, or alter completely. In Ben Loory’s “Dandelions,” read by Wyatt Cenac, a suburb is invaded, and…
- Selected Shorts
The New American West
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works that reassess and redefine our ideas of “the West.” It’s both a landscape of awesome beauty, and the scene of cultural…
- Selected Shorts
Out of Their Element
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works in which characters are out of their element. This is quite literally the case in Robert Coover’s witty reworking of the…
- Selected Shorts
Up in the Air with Radiolab
SELECTED SHORTS host Meg Wolitzer presents four works that were presented as part of our live evening with WNYC’s Radiolab and hosts Lulu Miller and Latif…
- Selected Shorts
The Me I Used to Be
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works about change. Yalcin Tosun’s “Muzaffer and Bananas” explores the awkward rites of passage of two teenaged boys. It’s…
- Selected Shorts
Beyond Leprechauns
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works in which characters have unusual friends who change their lives—whether they like it nor not. In “Unicorn Me,” by…
- Selected Shorts
Building Worlds With N.K. Jemisin
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works of speculative fiction curated by best-selling author N.K. Jemisin. In John Scalzi’s “When the Yogurt Took Over” a…