Selected Shorts

Guest host John Lithgow introduces two stories about strong women. The English writer E. Nesbit puts a satirical spin on the Rapunzel story in “Melisande.” The reader is Jane Curtin. In Barbara Kingsolver’s “Fault Lines,” the narrator has lost her husband to an industrial accident, and can’t come to terms with his death until her brilliant son, and an earthquake, realign her with the universe. Jill Eikenberry reads.

Guest host John Lithgow introduces two stories about compulsion. W.W. Jacob’s classic chiller “The Monkey’s Paw” features a sinister relic with a curse. The spine-tingling read is by Lithgow himself. Next, a poor woman who makes living by giving people the right words for every occasion, entrances a guerilla leader. Lisa Fugard reads.

Guest host John Lithgow introduces three stories about reading and writing. First, Walter R. Brooks’ talking horse Mr. Ed learns to read, with hilarious consequences, in “Ed Has His Mind Improved,” performed by Tony Roberts. In Ray Bradbury’s “Exchange,” read by Rochelle Oliver, an overworked librarian has her spirits lifted by a lonely soldier. Finally, late SHORTS host Isaiah Sheffer dreams of tigers in a Jorge Luis Borges short.

Guest host John Lithgow raises the curtain on five funnies, beginning with Dorothy Parker’s hangover from hell in “You Were Perfectly Fine.” Then comic Wyatt Cenac offers up a quirky life story by Simon Rich, “Unprotected,” who also imagines what God would have done on the seven days of Creation if his girl friend had complained, in “Center of the Universe.” More spiritual highjinks from Ron Carlson—could there be a tablecloth of Turin? And Alec Baldwin gives a zesty read of a James Thurber classic, “The Day the Dam Broke.”

Zadie Smith turns back time in this story of a memorable chance encounter between two veterans down on their luck. Colm Toibin and Hannah Tinti talk about Smith’s recreation of post-War Britain, her love of language, and her ear for dialogue before Tony Award-winner Richard Easton reads “Hanwell in Hell.”