Hannah Tinti

The Good Thief goes to Brazil! Thanks to Editora Rocco for taking a chance on Ren.

I waited tables and bartended for years, working at night after my low-paying publishing jobs in order to make rent. I’d be on my feet for 8-10 hours shifts, constantly moving and lifting heavy trays, keeping the orders of 8 or 9 tables straight in my head and negotiating with the chef, the dishwashers, the bartender, the manager and the hostess, all while handling the customers–who were sometimes wonderful and fun and interesting, other times awful, grabbing for my ass or skipping out on the check. You never knew who was going to sit down at your table. But waiting taught me how to multi-task, how to listen, how to smile in the face of someone cursing me out, and how to make mistakes and clean up after them. It was the hardest work I’ve ever done, but it was a good job–and I liked my fellow waiters. By the end of the night, when the place was closed and we were cashing out, exhausted and sweaty and lined up with our after-hour drinks at the bar, we were like soldiers after battle, a quiet camaraderie falling over the group. We’d made it through the night, we had cash in our pockets, and none of us had been fired. If you’ve never personally waited tables, we’ve got two stories on Selected Shorts this week that will give you a small taste: “Bayonne,” by John Cheever, performed by Mary Kay Place, which follows a waitress in a diner, jealously guarding her turf. The other story is “Fjord of Killary,” by Kevin Barry, performed by James Naughton, and focuses on the owner/bartender of a local tavern, trying to keep his staff and his customers happy as the waters literally rise around them. You can listen on your local public radio station, or download our podcast. Until then, remember to tip your servers well–20 or even 30%. They are working harder than you think. They are also the people who stop the chef from putting that steak that fell on the kitchen floor back onto your plate.

As everyone heads home for Thanksgiving, Selected Shorts is packing two great stories for you to listen to on your trip, either as a free podcast or on your local public radio station. The first is David Schickler’s “Jamaica,” performed by our very own Isaiah Sheffer, and features a domestic situation gone horribly and hilariously wrong, when a husband gets his head stuck in the bannisters overlooking the family living room. The second is Ron Carlson’s whimsical “On the U.S.S. Fortitude,” performed by Laura Esterman, which imagines home as an aircraft carrier, with the mother gamely flagging her children in for a landing. Hope everyone has a great time off with their families this week. And if you’re going to be in New York next February, be sure to get tickets for a very special stage performance of Selected Shorts to celebrate One Story’s 10th anniversary on February 22, 2012.

This week’s edition of Selected Shorts is dedicated to one author and one story: “Wildwood” by Junot Díaz. This story originally appeared in The New Yorker, and later became a part of Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which tells of a fukú (curse) that follows Oscar and his family from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey and back again. I could go on and on about this book, which I read in practically one sitting–the heartache tempered with humor, the dexterous use of footnotes and literary touchstones, from Tolkien to Marquez, to the single best use of an m-dash I have ever seen (p.322) that, after my eyes fell upon it, made me well up and start crying (I still think about that m-dash). Or I could talk about Díaz’s previous book, a razor-sharp collection of stories called Drown, which includes “Fiesta, 1980″ (a story on just about every undergraduate English major’s reading list) and “Ysrael” (which I first read when it appeared in  Story magazine in 1995–it was my introduction to Díaz’s work, and it both intimidated the hell out of me [in a good way] and knocked my socks off–sealing my fate as an extreme fan of his work–not quite stalker-y, but close). In any case folks, my point here is: if you are a fan like me, or if you are one of the few readers out there who haven’t experienced Junot Díaz yet, tune in to this week’s show. The amazing actress Sonia Manzano (Maria from Sesame Street!) brings “Wildwood” to life, and you will thank me when it’s over. Go here to find your time/station, go here for podcasts.

We’ve got two wonderful authors and two great stories this week on Selected Shorts, both about people in trouble. The first is “Red from Green,” by Maile Meloy, performed by Patricia Kalember. “Red from Green” follows a teenage girl on a dangerous camping trip, where trouble comes not from the great outdoors, but from the desires of men, as she negotiates the road from child to sexual object. The story appears is Meloy’s collection Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, which was named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by the New York Times. The second story in this week’s episode is “It’s Six A.M., Do You Know Where You Are?” by Jay McInerney, performed by Jeremy Shamos. This story originally appeared in The Paris Review, and later became the first chapter in McInerney’s bestselling novel, Bright Lights, Big City. Famously written in the second person, it follows a smart, drug-addled young man, making his way through the city after leaving a lower east side club. He’s down and out, but there is magic in those pre-dawn hours of New York. A sense that anything can happen. Go here to listen for yourself on podcast, or here to find your local time/station.

Never Perfect. But occasionally, Erfect.

One of the most exciting lit mags publishing today (besides One Story, of course) is Electric Literature. Their mission? “To use new media and innovative distribution to return the short story to a place of prominence in popular culture.” Last season Selected Shorts hosted an event at Symphony Space celebrating Electric Literature with some great actors reading work from the magazine, as well as animated shorts created for each piece, focusing on a single sentence. This week’s radio program features two stories from that special night, including Lydia Millet’s “Sir Henry,” read by the wonderful John Lithgow, and “Some Contemporary Characters” by Rick Moody, read by Mike Birbiglia and Aya Cash. One of my favorite aspects of Electric Literature is the way they bring fiction to life by pairing work with artists. Go here to see some of their single sentence animations, then head over to Selected Shorts to listen in.

This week on Selected Shorts we feature two stories by the great Irish writer Edna O’Brien, celebrating the release of her latest collection of stories, Saints & Sinners (which won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize last month). O’Brien began her career nearly 50 years ago with the publication of her first novel (part of a trilogy), The Country Girls, which spoke so frankly of women’s sexuality that it was banned and publicly burned. The writer Thomas McCarthy (one of the judges for the O’Connor prize this year) said of O’Brien: “She is the Solzhenitsyn of Irish life – the one who kept speaking when everyone else stopped talking about being an Irish woman. It was the magisterial honesty of her work that came across more than anything else – her ability to be both contemporary and, yes, to carry all of the wagons and trailers of Irish life over 50 years behind her.” To learn more about the fierce and fearless O’Brien and her work, go here. In the meantime, you can listen to this week’s show, which features O’Brien’s story “Sinners,” performed by Cynthia Nixon and “Black Flower,” performed by Colum McCann. As an added bonus, keeping with the Saints & Sinners theme, you’ll also hear our own Isaiah Sheffer performing one of my favorite Robert Coover stories, “Going for a Beer.” Go here to find your local time/station, here for podcasts!

Earlier I was talking about The Post-It Note Diaries by Arthur Jones, and now it is finally out in the world. Click on the video below to find out more. And if you’re interested in reading about my near-death in a graveyard, get your copy of the book here.