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Listen closely and you’ll hear heartbeats throughout this program of SELECTED SHORTS, in tales ranging from a horror classic to a contemporary miniature.

Unusual stories from Yiddish writers, and a contemporary take on Job make up this program.

This program features four contemporary tales with unexpected plot twists and emotional surprises.

The great epics of literature—from those by Homer to "Beowulf" to the "Song of Roland" and Dante’s "Divine Comedy"—are not short stories. For one thing, they are all rather long. But they were intended to be read—or sung—aloud before enraptured audiences. We’ll hear two such readings on this program, as well as a re-telling of"Moby Dick" from the whale’s point of view.  

Three contemporary female authors, three splendid actresses and three rather different stories, each about women in transition—geographically, morally, or emotionally—make up this program.

Finding paradise and fixing the world in stories by promising young writers and established humorists.

A contemporary writer’s two worlds are tenderly revealed.

A comedian tells all in a rib-tickling memoir, and a directionless young man fishes for a life, in this edition of SELECTED SHORTS featuring two tales about young men seeking their fortunes. 

Praying to God, playing God, and mysterious ways in four tales comic and strange.

A man’s past envelops his present in this eerie tale by Dan Chaon.

David Sedaris learns French, and three other tales involving elaborate explanations that only make things worse.

Failing a moral test, and the cost of love and loss in stories by American and Irish contemporary writers. Those are the themes in this week's episode, which features “I Am Not a Jew” by John Biguenet (read by Denis O’Hare), and “Everything in this Country Must” by Colum McCann (read by Amy Ryan).

Ultimate acts in stories selected by Colum McCann, and a sharp-edged fantasy by Molly Giles).

Bolaño's favorites include “The Shape of the Sword”  by Jorge Luis Borges, performed by Charles Keating, and “On the Honeymoon,” by Javier Marias, performed by Ivan Hernandez.

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.

Family is our focus on this edition of SELECTED SHORTS.   One story, Peter Taylor’s “Porte Cochere,” is about an angry father, and his children and his house, and one story, Alice McDermott’s “Enough,” portrays a mother seeking to get the most out of life.

Chance encounters with unusual women in a provocative tale by Meloy and a darkly comic story by Ford.

A family’s trip to Africa changes everything in this excerpt from Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad.

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

Tales by Jonathan Keats, Ilya Kaminsky, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler and Richard Kennedy.