Guest host Cynthia Nixon presents three works from The Best American Short Stories 2016. An American student meets her Ethiopian relatives in "The Suitcase," by Meron Hadero, read by Renée Elise Goldsberry. A young boy sees something unbelievable in Daniel O'Malley's "The Bridge," read by Joan Allen. And an endangered parrot pleads for compassion in "The Great Silence," by Ted Chiang, read by Elizabeth Rodriguez.
Each year Selected Shorts partners with the distinguished fiction anthology The Best American Short Stories. We feature three of the picks from 2016 on this show, presented by guest host Cynthia Nixon. An American student meets her Ethiopian relatives in Meron Hadero's "The Suitcase." Meron Hadero is an Ethiopian-American writer and a graduate of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. Her work has been published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Zyzzyva, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, Boulevard, Indiana Review, and others. She's a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto and an editor for the online fiction journal The Offing.
Reader Renée Elise Goldsberry is a Tony Award winner for her work in “Hamilton.” Other stage work includes “The Color Purple,” “Rent,” and “The Lion King.” On television she's appeared on “The Good Wife,” “The Following,” and “Law & Order SVU,” among other shows, and and is a Daytime Emmy winner for her work on “One Life to Live.”
Our second story, Daniel O'Malley's "The Bridge," takes us to the rural backcountry, where a home-schooled young boy sees something unbelievable and tries to make sense of it. Daniel O’Malley’s stories have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review (the source of this story), Ninth Letter, Meridian, The Baltimore Review, and Third Coast, among other publications, and his writing about fiction has appeared in Tin House and online at The Millions. He teaches creative writing at Marshall University.
Reader Joan Allen began her New York career off-Broadway in And a Nightingale Sang. Her Broadway credits include The Heidi Chronicles, Impressionism, and Burn This, for which she won a Tony Award. She is an original member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she has appeared in more than 25 productions, including Balm in Gilead, and most recently, The Wheel. Allen is a three-time Academy Award nominee for her roles in Nixon, The Crucible, and The Contender. Additional film credits include Pleasantville, Face/Off, The Notebook, The Ice Storm, The Upside of Anger, The Bourne Identity series, and Room. On television, she is known for her portrayal of Georgia O’Keefe in the 2009 biopic of the same name, and she has had recurring roles in Luck, The Killing, and The Family.
An endangered Puerto Rican parrot pleads for compassion in our final story, "The Great Silence," by Ted Chiang. Chiang is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer (including the Hugo and Nebula awards) and author of the story collection Stories of Your Life and Others, and well as the novellas and novelettes Hell is the Absence of God, The Lifecycle of Software Objects, and The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate.
Reader Elizabeth Rodriguez is best known for her work on the television series “Orange Is the New Black.” She was also featured as a series regular on the first season of “Fear the Walking Dead.”Other shows include “Devious Maids,” and “Chance.” On Broadway she received a Tony Award nomination, and won the Outer Critics Circle Award as well as a Theatre World Award, for her performance in “The Motherfucker with the Hat.”
