The Rea Award for the Short Story
Twentieth Anniversary Celebration

“The Rea Award is the Nobel Prize of the short story.”
Dana Gioia, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts

On Wednesday, April 11, 2007, Selected Shorts celebrated 20 years of the Rea Award, featuring readings and remarks by Rea Award winners Ann Beattie, Cynthia Ozick, Deborah Eisenberg, Richard Ford, Joyce Carol Oates, Grace Paley, John Edgar Wideman, Joy Williams, Tobias Wolff and John Updike.

Introductions by Isaiah Sheffer, Elizabeth Richebourg Rea and Ann Beatttie

Cynthia Ozick’s The Shawl
read by Lois Smith
A heartwrenching Holocaust tale of a mother and her daughters.
Followed by remarks from the author

Remarks by Ann Beattie

Deborah Eisenberg’s Some Other Better Otto
read by the author

Joyce Carol Oates’ Slow
read by the author
A wife has a sudden revelation about her husband.

Grace Paley’s In This Country But in Another Language, My Aunt Refuses to Marry the Men Everyone Wants Her to
and story-poem Plot on the Poem
read by the author
Advice about life is passed down from feisty aunt to eager niece in this story followed by a poem about the aunt’s past and longings.

John Edgar Wideman’s Coo-Coo
read by the author
A day with the birds in Brittany

Joy Williams’ Escapes
read by the author

Tobias Wolff’s That Room
read by the author
A high school boy’s summer adventures

John Updike’s The Orphaned Swimming Pool
read by the author
The story of a suburban marriage is told through the life of the family pool.
followed by remarks from the author

The Rea Award for the Short Story and this special commemorative CD are sponsored by the Dungannon Foundation.

CD Only (Two CDs) including 24-page color booklet.