Guest host David Sedaris presents two stories about the powerful pull of family. Patricia Highsmith is best known for her taut psychological thrillers, like The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train, but “The Door Is Always Open and the Welcome Mat Is Out” is a brilliant character study of an independent New York [...]

Guest host David Sedaris presents three stories about hard choices. Amy Hempel’s “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” is about life and death, but you wouldn’t know it at first, as two women trade hilarious zingers and rebuild an old friendship. Sedaris calls the story “beautifully devastating.” Amy Hempel’s works include At the [...]

Guest host David Sedaris presents a program of stories by the legendary wit, Dorothy Parker. Parker was the reigning Queen of the Algonquin Roundtable, where writers for the smart magazines of the 1920s and 1930s met for lunch and to skewer each other. Her wickedly funny stories for The New Yorker among other outlets showed [...]

Guest host David Sedaris presents a program celebrating the late writer and actor David Rakoff. Rakoff read often for SELECTED SHORTS, and in this special tribute show, featuring two of his performances, we hear his exceptional ability to pull emotion and meaning out of a text, without getting in its way. David Sedaris, who was [...]

This week, we celebrate Central Park and the wonderful heartbreak of baseball. It’s not easy being green in New York City, but Central Park has been an oasis in a land of high rises since the late 19th century, and its natural beauty and unique character have inspired many writers. Some of those writings were [...]