On today's selected shorts, we celebrate two O'Henry Prize-winning stories presented by a gentleman in Moscow author Amor Tolls. I'm Meg Wallitzer.

Stay with us for stories about road warriors of the near future

and a marriage crowded by ambition and tradition.

You're listening to Selected Shorts,

where our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction,

one short story at a time.

Thank you. at a time. The short story came of age in the early 20th century, and the country's oldest continuous literary

prize for short fiction, the O'Henry Prize, was established in 1919.

Named, of course, for the writer who gave us the ransom of Red Chief and the gift of the Magi,

the prize has celebrated the breadth of the form.

As it's the oldest major prize dedicated to the short story,

it has been a platform for writers at all stages of their careers

and a beacon that shines a light for the

genre as a whole. And we've often drawn on its winners and its authors in programming

selected shorts. Given that we were always including O'Henry Prize stories in our lineups,

this year we went one step further and crafted an entire show composed of 2024 prize winners.

The awards guest editor for 2024 was novelist Amor Tolls, author of such bestselling works as a

gentleman in Moscow and the Lincoln Highway. We asked him to host an evening celebrating

this latest volume, and this program includes two of his choices.

One is a comic take on dystopian futures, the other a nuanced exploration of contemporary

marriage and assimilation. Both suggest rites of passage. Here's Amortals introducing the

evening from the stage at Symphony Space. I was going through the process of selecting these stories

...