Colson Whitehead, Walter Dean Myers, and Susan Cheever celebrate Central Park.  Happy spring!

David Strathairn reads a post-Katrina tale of family and friendship by Richard Ford

Tony Award-winner Liev Schreiber reads a dazzling fantasy by Italo Calvino, introduced by Radio Lab's Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich.

Jim Dale reads PG Wodehouse on a program inspired by Downton Abbey.

This week, a story from Karen Russell's new collection Vampires in the Lemon Grove.  "Reeling for the Empire" is a story of oppression, finding freedom, and fantastic transformation.   Broadway and television star BD Wong hosts.

Fractured fairy tales and brotherly love are featured on this program’s trio of stories.

In each of the two stories that make up this program, the traveller encounters someone completely unlike herself or himself, learns something about that person, and perhaps, learn more about themselves.

The new season of SELECTED SHORTS begins with a program devoted to the darkly humorous Israeli writer Etgar Keret, whose playful but subversive stories, in which harsh reality often topples into fantasy, have earned him an international following.  His story collections include The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God, The Girl on the Fridge, and The Nimrod Flipout.

On this program, we get to know a multi-faceted contemporary writer up close, with a story, some poems, and good talk.

We indulge in a bit of word play with this program, a SELECTED SHORTS event featuring two stories about short(er) people, and two fractured fairy tales.

Travelling to find yourself in two stories by contemporary American writers.

Strong needs are met—and not met—in a diverse trio of tales.

A charming quartet of funny, whimsical and poignant family stories. 

Two stories about passionate pursuits—cerebral and visceral.