I'm your host, Meg Wallitzer, but this week I'm out at my barbecue,

roasting the corn, flipping the hot dogs, and soaking up the last rays of summer.

So I'm turning things over to Roxanne Gay for a great food themed show, Bon Appetit.

This week on Selected Shorts, recipes for rice, chicken with gravy, and a roast so good it

might keep you out of jail. That's right, this week's fiction offers something for every occasion,

with me, your guest host and hash slinger Roxanne Gay. Stay with us.

I am Roxanne Gay and you're listening to Selected Shorts where our greatest actors

transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time.

I am a writer myself and you may know me from books including Bad Feminist and the short story

collections IED and Difficult Women. I've also written a memoir hunger, and I am a podcaster.

I co-host here to slay with Trussie McMillan-Cottom.

I've hosted Selected Shorts in the past. This time, I'm pleased to be bringing you a program

about something that connects us just as much as writing does. Food. We'll get some monstrous

menus, a family story told through meals, and Road Doll's classic tale about a desperate housewife.

First, the late New Yorker Humor writer, Donald Barthelmy, was a master of taking things to

extremes, and Heath's pulled out all the stops in three great meals, penned, for reasons that

will become obvious, under the pseudonym William White. Imagine James Beard as a paramilitarist and

you might grasp the persona Barthelmy has created for this story. In it, he tells you how to prepare

breakfast, lunch, and dinner from a terrifying medley of fast food and low-end canned goods.

The very clever Nate Cordray is great at sounding clueless. He's known for his work on the television

series Harry's Law and Mom and appearances on Law and Order Criminal Intent, Studio 60 on the

Sunset Strip, and the Daily Show among others. Here he is with three great meals.

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