Guest host Sonia Manzano presents three works about entering uncharted territories. An early John Updike fable, “The Different One,” imagines a bold bunny. It’s read by Michael Emerson. A gentrified town morphs into a dreamscape in Steven Millhauser’s “Coming Soon,” read by David Morse. And Kirstin Valdez Quade’s essay “Youth From Every Quarter” looks at the harsher side of assimilation. It’s read by Manzano.
Guest host Sonia Manzano presents three works about entering uncharted territories. An early John Updike fable, “The Different One,” imagines a bold bunny, unlike the timid suburbanite in his early bestseller, Rabbit Run. "The Different One" was first published in The Harvard Lampoon, and was re-printed in the anthology The Best of the Harvard Lampoon: 140 Years of American Humor. It’s read by Michael Emerson. Emerson has won two Emmy awards for his work on “The Practice” and “Lost.” He is also known for his starring role on “Person of Interest” and guest roles on “The X-Files,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “ Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” and “Parenthood.” Emerson played Zep Hindle in the first “Saw” film. On stage he has appeared in “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde,” “Le Misanthrope” with Uma Thurman, Hedda Gabler and Give Me Your Answer, Do! with Kate Burton, and Will Eno's “Wakey, Wakey.” He will be appearing in the forthcoming television pilot “Evil.”
Fantasy writer Steven Millhauser usually starts small, and escalates to something unsettling. "Coming Soon" is a perfect example, as a busy consultant finds his gentrified upstate town morphing into a dreamscape. Millhauseer’s works include the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Martin Dressler, Edwin Mulhouse, and In the Penny Arcade. Story collections include The Barnum Museum, Little Kingdoms, Dangerous Laughter, and We Others: New and Selected Stories, winner of The Story Prize. “Coming Soon,” was first published in The New Yorker.
It was read by David Morse at Lafayette College. Morse’s long television career includes roles on “St. Elsewhere,”” Hack,”” House,” and “Treme.” Films include “The Hurt Locker,”” Collaborator” and “Concussion.” He’s a multiple award winner for the role of Uncle Peck in Paula Vogel’s play “How I Learned to Drive.” Other stage work includes “On the Waterfront,” “The Seafarer,” and the 2018 revival of “The Iceman Cometh” (Tony nomination).
Sometimes, territory is defined by class, or ethnicity. In her essay “Youth From Every Quarter,” the final work on this program, Kristin Valdez Quade identifies with a young Mexican student who is struggling at an elite summer school. Valdez took that journey herself. Quade’s debut short story collection is Night at the Fiestas. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Narrative, Guernica, The Southern Review, The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and elsewhere. She teaches at Princeton University.
“Youth From Every Quarter” was part of program inspired by John Freeman’s book, Tales of Two Americas, and was read by Sonia Manzano, whose career as Maria on “Sesame Street” spanned forty years. She is also a published children’s book author.
