Best American Short Stories 2022

Selected Shorts

Symphony Space

Arts, Fiction, Books, Society & Culture

4.4 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Selected Shorts celebrates this important collection each year, and this show, presented by host Meg Wolitzer, reprises works from the 2022 Best American edition selected by guest editor Andrew Sean Greer. Included are “The Little Widow from the Capital,” by Yohanca Delgado, performed by Krystina Alabado, and a second story selected by John Updike for the volume Best American Stories of the Century. It’s Grace Stone Coates’ “Wild Plums,” performed by Mia Dillon.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Coming up, the Best American Short Stories.
0:10.1	No, really.
0:11.2	Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrew Sean Greer edited this year's Best American Collection,
0:16.3	and on this edition of Selected Shorts, we hear one of his picks,
0:20.0	and one that was a favorite
0:21.2	of John Updikes.
0:22.5	I'm your host, Meg Wallitzer.
0:24.2	Stay with us.
0:29.1	You're listening to Selected Shorts, where our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time.
0:41.3	Opinions. We've all got them, and by the time anyone dares to challenge them, they tend to be fully baked in and intractable.
0:48.6	Like that pan you forgot to soak overnight in the sink. All right, that pan I forgot to soak overnight in the sink.
0:55.0	But sometimes it's nice to not think about what you personally feel or believe, but instead
0:59.8	give yourself over to someone else's opinions and worldview and maybe learn something new.
1:05.6	That's why we at Shorts are always grateful for the annual Best American Short Stories collection.
1:11.0	Series editor Heidi Pitler and her myriad cast of guest editors do an excellent job of
1:16.2	seeking out some of the most compelling short fiction in any given year and keeping us
1:20.7	aware of new stories from big names and new writers alike.
1:24.9	In this hour, we celebrate the best American short stories by hearing one of
1:29.0	the stories from the 2022 collection introduced by its guest editor, Andrew Sean Greer.
1:35.2	Greer, the Pulitzer-winning author of Les and Less is Lost, hosted the live show at our home
1:40.4	theater symphony space. He was a witty and charming presence on stage,
1:44.9	as I can tell you he also is offstage,
	...

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