Best American Short Stories 2021 with Jesmyn Ward

Selected Shorts

Symphony Space

Arts, Fiction, Books, Society & Culture

4.4 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Guest host Jane Kaczmarek presents two stories from the Best American Short Stories 2021 anthology selected by guest editor Jesmyn Ward. Both involve adolescents facing displacement or rejection, but the stories are set in very different environments: One takes place in a surreal, Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, and one inside a junior high school in Tennessee. First, Leo Solomon reads “Playing Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain,” by Jamil Jan Kochai. Then we hear “Biology,” a beautiful story by Kevin Wilson, performed by Mike Doyle. And Ward comments briefly on her approach to creating this year’s diverse anthology.

Transcript

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0:00.0	One of the high points of our live stage performances is our annual collaboration with the Best American Short Stories anthology. This week we're revisiting a great show from 2021, and it's hosted by our longtime reader Jane Kasmaric.
0:16.7	I'm Meg Walitzer.
0:18.4	I'll be back next week.
0:19.7	I just need to finish my novel. Two boys, one in Afghanistan, one in Tennessee.
0:35.0	Play games in an attempt to change reality.
0:38.0	This week on selected shorts, two tales from the Best American Short Stories of 2021, with guest editor
0:45.4	Jesmin Ward. Stay with us. I'm Jane Kasmaric and you're listening to selected shorts where our greatest actors transport
1:02.3	us through the magic of fiction,
1:04.0	one short story at a time.
1:06.0	If you're a TV watcher, you probably know me from series such as Melchum in the middle.
1:12.0	Or if you're a theater goer, maybe you saw me in
1:14.8	long days journey into night with Alfred Molina or in summers at the Williamstown
1:19.4	Theater Festival. But some of you dedicated public radio people know me from Selected Shorts.
1:25.0	I'm a regular, both as a performer and as a host.
1:30.0	I'm grateful for Selected Shorts annual collaboration with Mariner Books, Best American Short Story series.
1:37.0	Even if that anthology is patiently waiting for me unread, I can get a serious taste of the year's best here on selected shorts and that's just
1:46.0	what we'll do. Explore the 2021 edition of Best American Short Stories with the anthology's
1:52.1	editors. If you're a regular
1:54.4	listener of the show, you know that we do a best American show every year. And we've
2:00.0	worked with Steadfast series editor Heidiler, since she began working on the anthology in 2007.
2:08.0	This year, the Bass guest editor was Jesmon Ward, the award-winning writer behind beautiful and heartbreaking titles including
2:15.0	Men We Reaped, Salvage the Bones, and sing unburied, sing.
	...

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