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Selected Shorts

Broadcast Schedule

Below is the schedule for upcoming and previous Selected Shorts episodes.

Our most recently released shows are available for audio streaming HERE.

  • 12/30/1999

    Lovers and Strangers
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Rembrandt’s Hat,” by Bernard Malamud, performed by Marian Seldes
    “A Recollection,” by Mavis Gallant, performed by Theodore Bikel

  • 12/23/1999

    Self Help
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Psychoanalysis Changed My Life,” by Amy Bloom, performed by Cherry Jones
    “How to Give the Wrong Impression,” by Katherine Heiny, performed by Lillo Way

  • 12/16/1999

    Gatherings
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer
    “A Box of Rocks,” by Tess Gallagher, performed by Mary Beth Hurt
    “A Constellation of Events,” by John Updike, performed by Barbara Feldon
  • 12/09/1999

    Mysteries and Miracles
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Man Who Was the God of Love,” by Ruth Rendell, performed by Cynthia Harris
    “The Green Hills of Earth,” by Robert A. Heinlein, performed by Kathleen Chalfant

  • 12/02/1999

    Politics Made Personal
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Saboteur,” by Ha Jin, performed by Joel Grey
    “Two Words,” by Isabel Allende, performed by Lisa Fugard

  • 11/25/1999

    Old Men and Young Men
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “A Gentleman's C,” by Padgett Powell, performed by Stephen Lee
    “Tea Leaves,” by Janet Burroway, performed by Barbara Feldon
    “Wallet,” by Allen Woodman, performed by Isaiah Sheffer
    “Gold Coast,” by James Alan McPherson, performed by James McDaniel

  • 11/18/1999

    Natural Wonders
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The War of the Wall,” by Toni Cade Bambara, performed by Hattie Winston
    “The Trip to Halawa Valley,” by Lynne Sharon Schwartz, performed by Blair Brown

  • 11/11/1999

    Sly Tricks
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Composition,” by Antonio Skarmeta, performed by Steven Gilborn
    “A Visit,” by Steven Millhauser, performed by Stephen Lang

  • 11/04/1999

    Truth Through Violence
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Brick,” by Katherine Min, performed by Jacqueline Kim
    “The Hammer of God,” by G. K. Chesterton, performed by Malachy McCourt

  • 10/28/1999

    Visions of Love
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “20/20,” by Linda Brewer performed by Stephen Lee
    “Hurray for Hollywood,” by George Garrett, performed by Isaiah Sheffer
    “Eternal Love,” by Karen Bender, performed by Joanne Woodward

  • 10/21/1999

    Magical Apparitions
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Golem,” by Avram Davidson, performed by Leonard Nimoy
    “Naked Woman Playing Chopin,” by Louise Erdrich, performed by Anjelica Huston

  • 10/14/1999

    Fantasy Fulfillment
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Getting Into the Movies,” by Layle Silbert, performed by Barbara Feldon
    “Miami-New York,” by Martha Gellhorn, performed by Joanna Gleason

  • 10/07/1999

    Love on the Move
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Pet Milk,” by Stuart Dybek, performed by Keith Szarabajka
    “The Calling Cards,” by Ivan Bunin, performed by Barbara Feldon
    “How to Talk to a Hunter,” by Pam Houston, performed by Mia Dillon
    “Love and/with Audiocassettes,” by Annie Thoms, performed by Isaiah Sheffer

  • 09/30/1999

    Forces of Nature
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Fault Lines,” by Barbara Kingsolver performed by Jill Eikenberry
    “Pagan Night,” by Kate Braverman, performed by Maria Tucci

  • 09/23/1999

    Perilous Travels
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Ghirlandaio,” by Francine Prose, performed by Frances Sternhagen
    “Make Westing,” by Jack London, performed by Steven Gilborn

  • 09/16/1999

    Love Takes Many Forms
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Lover,” by Judith Felsenfeld, performed by Cynthia Harris
    “A Window,” by Haruki Murakami, performed by Richard Ebihara
    “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, performed by Christina Pickles

  • 09/09/1999

    Writers and Torture
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Writers’ Model,” by Molly Giles, performed by Blair Brown
    “The Pit and the Pendulum,” by Edgar Allan Poe, performed by Stephen Lang

  • 09/02/1999

    New York, City of Ambition
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “New York,” by Edward Field, performed by Isaiah Sheffer
    Jazz (excerpt), by Toni Morrison, performed by Tamara Tunie
    “Goodbye to All That,” by Joan Didion, performed by Mia Dillon

  • 08/26/1999

    Revenge, Old Style and New
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allan Poe, performed by David Margulies
    “Pity,” by Avner Mandelman, performed by Ron Rifkin

  • 08/19/1999

    Baseball Fantasies
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Thrill of the Grass,” by W. P. Kinsella, performed by Jack Davidson
    “The Hector Quesadilla Story,” by T.C. Boyle, performed by Jerry Zaks

  • 08/12/1999

    Bingo
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Bingo,” by Davida Adedjouma, performed by Hattie Winston

  • 08/05/1999

    Women with Problems
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Sister Rachel’s Narrative,” by Padgett Powell, performed by Eleanor Reissa
    “Second-Hand Man,” by Rita Dove, performed by Audra McDonald
    “I Live on Your Visits,” by Dorothy Parker, performed by Celeste Holm

  • 07/29/1999

    Two Guys Who Lose a Decade
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Lost Decade,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, performed by David Margulies
    “In the One-Eyed Giant’s Cave,” by Homer, performed by Thomas Gibson

  • 07/22/1999

    American Visions
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Sphinx,” by Edgar Allan Poe, performed by Kathleen Widdoes
    “A Gravestone Made of Wheat,” by Will Weaver, performed by John Shea

  • 07/15/1999

    Wanting Things
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Wanting an Orange,” by Larry Woiwode, performed by Michael Keck
    “The Way Things Always Happen,” by Rand Richards Cooper, performed by James Naughton

  • 07/08/1999

    Nervous Women
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “New York Day Women,” by Edwidge Danticat, performed by Laurine Towler
    “Janus,” by Ann Beattie, performed by Fionnula Flanagan
    “Heart and Soul,” by Molly Giles, performed by Joe Spano

  • 07/01/1999

    I Got Shoes, You Got Shoes
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Heart of Harlem,” by Langston Hughes, performed by Isaiah Sheffer
    “Implausible,” by E. B. White, performed by Isaiah Sheffer
    “The Shoe God,” by Mary Flanagan, performed by Christina Pickles
    “Shoes,” by Sharon Pomerantz, performed by Maia Danziger

  • 06/24/1999

    All-American Athletes
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The H Street Sledding Record,” by Ron Carlson, performed by Keith Szarabajka
    “Raymond's Run,” by Toni Cade Bambara, performed by Hattie Winston

  • 06/17/1999

    Going Crazy?
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Company,” by Roberta Silman, performed by Cherry Jones
    “Loopy,” by Ruth Rendell, performed by Isaiah Sheffer

  • 06/10/1999

    A Storm and a Drowning
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Storm,” by Kate Chopin, performed by Jane Curtin
    “The Drowning,” by Edward Delaney, performed by Malachy McCourt

  • 06/03/1999

    Odysseus' Wife and Mistress
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea,” by Homer, performed by Joanna Gleason
    “Penelope and Her Guest,” by Homer, performed by Isaiah Sheffer
    “The Great Rooted Bed,” by Homer, performed by Isaiah Sheffer

  • 05/27/1999

    Europe and America
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Violin,” by Bernard Gotfryd, performed by John Rubinstein
    “A Wedge of Shade,” by Louise Erdrich, performed by Frances McDormand

  • 05/20/1999

    Nervous Guys
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Tearing at the Grapes,” by Thomas Beller, performed by John Rothman
    “The Falls,” by George Saunders, performed by René Auberjonois

  • 05/13/1999

    Trips by Land and Water
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Trip in a Summer Dress,” by Annette Sanford, performed by Mia Dillon
    “The Swimmer,” by John Cheever, performed by John Rubinstein

  • 05/06/1999

    Love's Agonies
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Gone Fishing,” by Tereze Gluck, performed by Roxanne Hart
    “Black Holes,” by Elizabeth Tallent, performed by Dana Ivey
    “Silk Stockings,” by Mina Foster, performed by Blair Brown

  • 04/29/1999

    Two Marriages
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “TA Blank Page,” by Isak Dinesen, performed by Lois Smith
    “Flood Show,” by Charles Baxter, performed by Paul Hecht

  • 04/22/1999

    Eccentrics
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Relic,” by Robert Olen Butler, performed by Ron Nakahara
    “Gimpel the Fool,” by Isaac Bashevis Singer, performed by Joseph Wiseman

  • 04/15/1999

    Gothic Readers' Tales
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “A Continuity of Parks,” by Julio Cortazar, performed by Alan Rachins
    “The Man Who Liked Dickens,” by Evelyn Waugh, performed by Leonard Nimoy

  • 04/08/1999

    Play Ball!
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “Attitude,” by Garrison Keillor, performed by Stephen Lang
    “The Green Hills of the Mind,” by A. Bartlett Giamatti, performed by A. Bartlett Giamatti
    “Game Six,” by Roger Angell, performed by Roger Angell
    The Glory of Their Times (excerpt), by Lawrence S. Ritter, performed by John Rubinstein

  • 04/01/1999

    Questing Travellers
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “I Did Not Learn Their Names,” by Ralph Ellison, performed by Joshua Wolf Coleman
    “The Lipstick Tree,” by Kiana Davenport, performed by Andrea Marcovicci

  • 03/25/1999

    Speak Your Mind
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “From an Abandoned Work,” by Samuel Beckett, performed by Mary Beth Hurt
    “In the Garden of the North American Martyrs,” by Tobias Wolff, performed by Jane Curtin

  • 03/18/1999

    Marriage Plots
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Magic Barrel,” by Bernard Malamud, performed by Joseph Wiseman
    “Boa Constrictor and Rabbit,” by Anton Chekhov, performed by David Margulies

  • 03/11/1999

    Unknown Terrain
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “A Run of Bad Luck,” by Annie Proulx, performed by Cherry Jones
    “Snow,” by Ann Beattie, performed by Lee Grant
    “This Morning,” by Raymond Carver, performed by Lois Smith
    “The Fields,” by Raymond Carver, performed by Cherry Jones
    “Happiness,” by Raymond Carver, performed by Lois Smith
    “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, performed by Lois Smith
    “On the Sale of My Farm,” by Robert Frost, performed by Lois Smith
    “A Patch of Old Snow,” by Robert Frost, performed by Isaiah Sheffer

  • 03/04/1999

    Here and Gone
    HOST: Isaiah Sheffer

    “The Road There,” by Isaac Babel, performed by Michael Wager
    “American Dreams,” by Peter Carey, performed by David Strathairn