![public radio international selected shorts public radio international selected shorts](https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/craft-assets/images/_x_small/Hudson-Bay-close.jpg)
The readings are recorded live and become the basis of a one-hour radio program, hosted by actors, authors, and entertainers such as David Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Cynthia Nixon, Wyatt Cenac, Jane Kaczmarek, and Meg Wolitzer, with literary commentator Hannah Tinti of One Story Magazine, and are produced in conjunction with WNYC. Actor BD Wong acts as the host of the live events since the fall of 2012. Sheffer died on November 9, 2012, at age 76. Symphony Space's Artistic Director Isaiah Sheffer formerly hosted the live events, although many Selected Shorts also feature guest hosts, often well-known writers, who also choose which stories will be read. Selected Shorts was originally created by Kay Cattarulla, who in 1995 went on to create another successful literary program in Dallas, Arts & Letters Live, which is sponsored by the Dallas Museum of Art. Evenings are often co-hosted by writers, literary producers, and other interesting characters. The stories are always fiction, sometimes classic, sometimes new, always performed by actors from stage, screen and television who bring these short stories to life.
![public radio international selected shorts public radio international selected shorts](https://atodmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSCF1486-690x607.jpg)
Several stories are presented around each theme.
![public radio international selected shorts public radio international selected shorts](https://media.pri.org/s3fs-public/styles/open_graph/public/program-image/selected_shorts_BLUE.jpg)
There is a theme to each Selected Shorts episode and performance. The annual season of the live events at Symphony Space begins in the mid-fall and ends in mid-spring. The stage show began in 1985 and continues today at Symphony Space's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Selected Shorts is an event at New York's Symphony Space on the Upper West Side, in which screen and stage actors read classic and new short fiction before a live audience.