On this SELECTED SHORTS, hosted by Jane Kaczmarek, we explore emotions and secrets that rise to the surface unexpectedly. In Patrick Dacey’s “Patriots,” suburban lawn ornaments stand for something larger, and threaten a friendship. The gifted actor Wendie Malick brings out all the subtexts. Seth Fried is a writer who nudges ordinary life in unexpected directions. In his “Sea Monster,” a wife has a secret that may affect her marriage. This visceral tale is smoothly rendered by Natasha Rothwell. Host Jane Kaczmarek reads our final story. In “Mistress” by Gina Berriault, a woman meets her former lover’s son.
Artists and Writers
Gina Berriault (1926-1999) was the author of several novels, including The Descent and Conference of Victims and the story collections Other Stories, The Infinite Passion of Expectation, and Women in Their Beds. Her work has been honored with the Rea Award for the Short Story.
Patrick Dacey is the author of the short story collection We’ve Already Gone This Far and the novel The Outer Cape. His fiction has been featured in The Paris Review, Zoetrope All-Story, Harpers, LitHub, Guernica, and BOMB Magazine, among other publications. Dacey currently teaches English at the College of William & Mary.
Seth Fried is the author of the short story collection The Great Frustration and the novel The Municipalists. He is a contributor to The New Yorker’s “Shouts and Murmurs,” and his writing has been featured in Tin House, One Story, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Vice, The Pushcart Prize anthologies, and The Better of McSweeney’s Vol 2, among other publications.
Jane Kaczmarek is best known for her role as Lois on Malcolm in the Middle, for which she received 7 consecutive Emmy nominations. A graduate of U. Wisconsin and Yale School of Drama, she debuted in The Paper Chase and Hill Street Blues. Recent television credits include This Is Us and in Netflix's 6 Balloons. Recent theater credits include Long Day's Journey Into Night, Our Town with Deaf West Theatre, and Tell Me I’m Not Crazy at the Williamstown Theatre Festival 2019.
Wendie Malick, two-time Emmy and Golden Globe nominee, is best known for her work on Dream On, Just Shoot Me, Frasier, and Hot in Cleveland, and in recurring roles on This Is Us, American Housewife, Mom, and The Ranch. She will star in the upcoming film The Surrogate. Malick was last seen onstage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Big Night.
Natasha Rothwell is a series regular and co-producer on HBO’s Insecure, for which she was nominated for a 2019 NAACP Image Award. She wrote and stars in Netflix Presents: The Characters, and previously wrote for Saturday Night Live. Additional credits include Love, Simon; Brooklyn Nine-Nine; DuckTales; Bojack Horseman; Bob’s Burgers; and the upcoming films Sonic the Hedgehog, Wonder Woman 1984, and Wyrm.
