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The first story on this program is a Eudora Welty classic about the rebellious daughter of a somewhat bizarre Southern family, “WHY I LIVE AT THE P.O.” The reader, at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, was Stockard Channing, beloved for her long running roll as the First Lady on NBC’s “The West Wing” among many other stage, television and film credits.

Basic questions of identity are at the core of our next story, “OTHER PERSONS,” by Juan Jose Milias.” Are husband and wife one flesh, as Hamlet says to his mother? Or are they strangers? This sensual and provocative story casts a new light on marriage. The reader is the Tony Award-winning actor and director, James Naughton.

SELECTED SHORTS’ annual Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize yields some delightful new fiction, and this year, a story of great delicacy and beauty. Last year’s contest required that the story begin with the words, “I’m not sure I knew I was setting out on an important journey…” and end with the words “I had finally come home.” The winner, chosen by our contest committee from several hundred submissions, was Melodie Edwards, who runs a bookstore, Night Heron Books, in Laramie, Wyoming. Her story “THE BIRD WOMAN” is read by the star of the “Light in the Piazza” and a recent revival of “THE PAJAMA GAME,” Kelli O’Hara.

This program concludes with Lynn Freed’s “MA, A MEMOIR.” A loving but troubled marriage is glimpsed through the eyes of an adult child in this ambivalent tale. Is memoir a non-fiction category only, or can something called a memoir rightfully take its place on our series devoted to reading and celebrating short fiction? Does what you are about to hear SOUND like a real life memoir, or like a carefully crafted work of the storyteller’s art? Listen closely and decide for yourself. The reader is the distinguished American actress Marian Seldes, a multiple Tony Award nominee (“Father’s Day,” “Death Trap,” “Ring Around the Moon”) for many of her distinguished stage appearances.

Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty read by Stockard Channing
Other Persons by Juan Jose Milias, read by James Naughton
Ma, A Memoir by Lynn Freed, read by Marian Seldes
The Bird Woman by Melodie Edwards (07 contest winner), read by Kelli O’Hara

For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit Symphony Space