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Selected Shorts
On this show, guest host Kate Burton introduces two stories that look at the joys and complexity of motherhood. They were chosen by the novelist Celeste Ng and memoirist and essayist Mary Karr, each of whom comments briefly on their pick. In “Looking for a Thief,” by Danielle Lazarin, a suburban mother questions her choices. The story is performed by Heather Burns. And Burton reads Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing,” in which another mother wonders if she’s done right by a challenging first child.
Heather Burns’ stage credits include The Kid Stays in the Picture at The Royal Court, Dinner with Friends, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Medieval Play, Will Eno’s Middletown, Fran’s Bed, Lobby Hero, Writer’s Block, the West End production of This Is Our Youth, and Peace for Mary Frances. Her film credits include You’ve Got Mail, Two Weeks Notice, Miss Congeniality I & II, Bewitched, The Groomsmen, Choke, Breaking Upwards, Ashes, What's Your Number?, The Fitzgerald Family Christmas, Brave New Jersey, and Manchester by the Sea. On television, Burns was featured on Blindspot, and other recent credits include Sneaky Pete, Friends from College, Bored to Death, Social Distance, The Politician, and The Good Fight.
Kate Burton was nominated for Tony Awards for her work in Hedda Gabler, The Elephant Man, and The Constant Wife. Additional Broadway credits include Spring Awakening, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Jake’s Women, Company, Some Americans Abroad, and most recently, Present Laughter. Her film credits include Big Trouble in Little China; The Ice Storm; Unfaithful; 2 Days in New York; Liberal Arts; 127 Hours; Where'd You Go, Bernadette?; and Before/During/After. On television, she has appeared in multiple Law and Orders, Empire Falls, Rescue Me, Veep, Grimm, Modern Family, Supergirl, The Gifted, Strange Angel, Scandal, Perfect Harmony, Homeland, Charmed, 13 Reasons Why, and Grey's Anatomy, for which she has received numerous Emmy nominations. Burton has directed at the LA Philharmonic and is a professor at the University of Southern California.
Danielle Lazarin’s debut collection of short stories, Back Talk, is available from Penguin Books. Her fiction can be found in The Southern Review,Buzzfeed, Colorado Review, Indiana Review, Glimmer Train, Five Chapters, Boston Review, and elsewhere. Her non-fiction has been published by The New York Times, The Cut, and Lenny Letter. A graduate of Oberlin College’s creative writing program, she received her MFA from the University of Michigan. Her work has been honored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, the Glimmer Train Family Matters Award, Hopwood Awards, the Millay Colony for the Arts, and The Freya Project. She teaches fiction for Catapult and the 92Y. Lazarin lives in her native New York, where she is at work on a novel.
Mary Karr is an award-winning poet, songwriter, and memoirist. She is the author of the poetry collections Viper Rum and Tropic of Squalor, which was longlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2018, the memoirs Cherry, Lit, and The Liars’ Club, winner of the PEN/Martha Albrand Award, and the nonfiction work The Art of Memoir. Karr is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Whiting Award, the Radcliffe Bunting Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has contributed to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Poetry magazine. Karr is the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.
Celeste Ng’s debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, was a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of 2014, Amazon’s #1 Best Book of 2014, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen publications. It was also the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, the ALA’s Alex Award, and is being adapted for the screen. Her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 Indie Next bestseller, and Amazon's Best Fiction Book of 2017. It was named a best book of the year by more than 25 publications, the winner of the Ohioana Award and the Goodreads Readers Choice Award 2017 in Fiction. Little Fires Everywhere was adapted as a limited series on Hulu, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Ng is a 2016 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, and her work has been further honored with the Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The New York Times, One Story, The Guardian, and TriQuarterly, among other publications.
Tillie Olsen (1912 - 2007) was an author and activist, best known for her short story collection Tell Me a Riddle, the novel Yonnondio from the Thirties, and the nonfiction work Silences. Her work has been widely celebrated and recognized with the O. Henry Award, the Contributions to American Literature Award from the American Academy and the Institutes of American Arts and Letters, the Rea Award for the Short Story, and multiple honorary degrees and fellowships, among other honors. An expanded collection of her work, titled Tell Me a Riddle, Requa I and Other Works, was published posthumously in 2013. She was the subject of the 2007 documentary film Tillie Olsen: A Heart in Action.
Credits
“Looking for a Thief” by Danielle Lazarin, from Back Talk (Penguin Books, 2018). First appeared in BuzzFeed (February 2018). Copyright © 2018 by Danielle Lazarin. Used by permission of The Book Group.
“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen, from Tell Me a Riddle (Lippincott, 1961). First appeared in New World Writing (1960). Copyright © 2013 by the Tillie Olsen Trust. Performed by permission of the Frances Goldin Literary Agency.
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