Npr: Selected Shorts

Arts
It's story time for adults with NPR's award-winning series of short fiction read by the stars of stage and screen. Recorded live at Peter Norton Symphony Space in NYC and on tour. A co-production of Symphony Space and WNYC, New York Public Radio. (Author: Selected Shorts)
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Recent episodes from Npr: Selected Shorts

  • Published: Sep 8, 08
    This week our readings focus on war and the effect of war on the family.First Benjamin Percy's story "Refresh, Refresh" which was chosen as a Best AmericanShort Story of 2006. Our story is read by the actor, Ted Marcoux. His many televisioncredits include stints on shows such as Law and Order, 24 and Boston Public. Writersoften write about war but this week we get to hear from soldiers who have been towar. Operation Homecoming is the result of hundreds of writing workshops conductedwith sold
     
  • Published: Sep 1, 08
    Two stories about love and loss: The award-winning actress, Stockard Channing, reads Lyudmilla Ignatenko's "A Solitary Human Voice" a touching memoir of her last days with her husband, a victim of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. "Do You Know Where I Am," by the noted Native American writer Sherman Alexie is about a middle class Native American couple struggling with the difficult but rewarding job of craftingan enduring marriage. His story is read by the actor Keir Dullea, and is followedby an
     
  • Published: Aug 27, 08
    This week we listen to a story from that established master of short stories, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Cheever, as well as new writers from our adult literacy program, "All Write!" John Cheever's story "The Trouble of Marcie Flint" is read by Tony Award winner Fritz Weaver.
     
  • Published: Aug 25, 08
    This week we listen to a tale from the established master of short stories, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, John Cheever and new writers from, Selected Short's adult literacy program, "All Write!" John Cheever's story, "The Trouble of Marcie Flint," is read by the Tony-award winning actor Fritz Weaver. "All Write!" stories are read by Sydia Cedeno, Ruben Santiago Hudson, and Shorts host, Isaiah Sheffer.
     
  • Published: Aug 18, 08
    In David Means' "The Secret Goldfish" the life of the family fish seems to parallel that of the family itself. The story is read by Charles Keating. Winesburg, Ohio author Sherwood Anderson's "The Other Woman" is a tale of true love and temptation. It is read by Keir Dullea.
     
  • Published: Aug 11, 08
    The humorous stories in this week's program are about wine and wine culture. Roald Dahl's (a well-known children's book author) tale is set at an elegant dinner party, and involves a high stakes wager. The story, "Taste," is read by the Tony- and Emmy-award winning actor, John Lithgow. James Thurber's "How to Tell a Fine Old Wine," pokes fun at wine snobbery, and was read by television actor Raphael Sbarge.
     
  • Published: Aug 4, 08
    Both stories on this week's program recall old friendships. Edith Wharton's "The Debt," is a tale of character, loyalty, and cutting edge science (for its time). The reader is Tony Award-winner James Naughton. Maile Meloy's poignant "Acqua Boulevard," set in Paris, was read by SELECTED SHORTS host Isaiah Sheffer.
     
  • Published: Jul 28, 08
    "Justice Shiva Ram Murthy," by Rishi Reddi, is an incisive, tender and humorous tale of personal dignity and an old friendship put to the test. The reader is stage and screen star Aasif Mandvi. The program concludes with Leigh Allison Wilson's brief but evocative "Bullhead," a dreamlike recollection of past love and its impact on love in the present. It is read by performance artist Dawn Akemi Saito,
     
  • Published: Jul 21, 08
    This special SELECTED SHORTS features works drawn from the remarkable volume Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families. The book may be the first documenting a war as it is still underway, in the words of ordinary men and women pushed to extraordinary insights by the weight of their experiences. The remarkable ensemble cast reading these works includes award-winning actors Joan Allen, Chris Chalk, Stephen Lang, and Matthew Modin
     
  • Published: Jul 14, 08
    In Edith Wharton's gripping fantasy, "The Eyes" a group of gentlemen has just finished telling ghost stories for their own amusement when their host irrevocably alters things with a personal narrative both gripping and grotesque. SHORTS host Isaiah Sheffer calls reader Charles Keating "a master of the macabre"—listen to how he comes to grips with Wharton's densely layered work.
     
  • Published: Jul 7, 08
    Award-winning actress Stockard Channing reads the classic Grimm's fairy tale, "The Old Woman in the Wood," followed by three works featuring food: Molly Giles' "Pie Dance," read by Kate Burton, maps the territory between two women involved with the same man. Host Isaiah Sheffer reads food essayist Calvin Trillin's tribute to takeout, "Grandfather Knows Best." Finally, the late Laurie Colwin's charming essay, "Why I Love Cookbooks" read by Jane Kaczmarek.
     
  • Published: Jun 30, 08
    Two stories by great American humorists begin this program. First, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," James Thurber's whimsical tale of a hen-pecked husband who escapes into the adventurous recesses of his mind, is read by Dick Cavett. Second, SHORTS host Isaiah Sheffer reads Roy Blount Jr.'s "Things in the Wrong Hands," a saga about how the simplest objects can turn against you. In a change of mood, the third work is poet Edna St. Vincent Millay's first great work, "Renascence,"read by SHORT
     
  • Published: Jun 23, 08
    All three of the works on this program's "menu" are food focused. "The Long Way Home" is a lovely memoir of a mother's love and sense of place by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri. It is read by Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo. Anton Chekov's "Indigestion"—the title says it all—is read by West Wing alum Bradley Whitford. The final item on the menu is a classic by the American comic master Damon Runyon. "A Piece of Pie" chronicles an epic eating contest and is read by John Shea.
     
  • Published: Jun 16, 08
    A special program in honor of the return of Edith Wharton's personal library collection to The Mount, her home in the Berkshires in Lenox Massachusetts. In Italo Calvino's "A General in the Library," read by SHORTS host Isaiah Sheffer, a team of military men sent to weed out subversive literature find themselves disarmed. Ray Bradbury's "Exchange" documents a twilight encounter between an overworked librarian and a lonely soldier, and is read by Rochelle Oliver. Finally, Brenda Wehle offers a
     
  • Published: Jun 9, 08
    Brian Evenson's "Mudder Tongue," a grotesquely funny, and deeply sad odyssey of a man whose brain and tongue have, as he puts it, "got out of alignment," was published in McSweeney's. Reader David Strathairn is the Oscar- nominated star of Good Night and Good Luck. From a world no longer know-able, to a wonderful imaginary one: generations have grown up with the fabulously anthropomorphized inhabitants of the Wild Wood—prankish Ratty, sincere Mole, paternal Badger and pompous Toad—