Showing results by publisher "Symphony Space" in Arts & Entertainment

The author of the critically acclaimed Half of a Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus presents her newest novel Americanah, a story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria facing challenges in the countries they come to call home.

Claire Messud discusses her New York Times Best Book of 2006 with fellow novelist Valerie Martin. The Emperor's Children is a brilliant contemporary novel of manners that puts under a magnifying glass the flawed ambitions of three college friends on the verge of their 30s, trying to make a place for themselves in New York. To set the tone for this enticing discussion, actress Hope Davis reads an excerpt from the book.

Selected Shorts: Falling in Love presents a collection of stirring tales of love and longing. Selected Shorts is an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by acclaimed actors. The Selected Shorts radio series is a co-production of Symphony Space and WNYC, New York Public Radio, and is heard on public radio stations nationwide.

A rollicking conversation between British author Brian Jacques and Jon Scieszka about the newest installment in Jacques' beloved Redwall series, Eulalia!. Redwall's heroes are peace-loving mice, moles, shrews, squirrels, and their friends who exhibit human characteristics in a medieval setting. They face the dark side of the animal world, represented by rats, weasels, stoats, foxes, and their villain allies, in the day-to-day struggle of good versus evil.

The author of An Invisible Sign of My Own, whose work has been presented at Selected Shorts performances, discusses her second novel, a lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse. She is interviewed by Heidi Julavits (novelist and co-editor of The Believer). A selection is performed by Lillo Way.

Kaye Gibbons talks about her long awaited sequel to the beloved favorite Ellen Foster. Interviewed by Elissa Schappell. Selections read by Andrea Marcovicci.

Moving stories about married couples' powerful and complicated loves, read by actors Frances Sternhagen, Robert Sean Leonard, Keir Dullea, Joanna Gleason, Harold Gould and Joanne Woodward. A native couple's rocky college love affair lasts a lifetime in Do You Know Where I Am by Sherman Alexie. In Karen E. Bender's Eternal Love, a mother nervously chaperones her retarded daughter's honeymoon.

Chandler's dark first novel is full of endlessly inventive wordplay, with the wry, cynical, private detective Philip Marlowe. Join the investigation with Jonathan Lethem ( Gun, With Occasional Music and Fortress of Solitude), Judith Freeman ( The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and The Woman He Loved), and Rich Cohen ( Sweet and Low: A Family Story) as they compare notes on Chandler's grand style, its place in the mystery canon, and its influence on their work.

Author Zadie Smith discusses her much-anticipated third novel, On Beauty. Set on both sides of the Atlantic, the novel follows the chain of events when the son of a liberal British academic family falls in love with the daughter of an American right-wing icon. A brilliant analysis of family life, the institution of marriage, and the intersection of the personal and political, the book is also very funny indeed. Interviewed by Laura Miller of salon.com.

The mysterious author of the New York Times best-selling book The Name of This Book is Secret, as well as the other dangerous and daring adventures in the hugely popular The Secret series makes a rare appearance to talk with Matthew Cody ( Powerless) about the latest installment. Performance playlist: Reading by the Author followed by a conversation with Pseudonymous Bosch and Matthew Cody.

Selected Shorts is an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by acclaimed actors. The readings are recorded live at Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. The Selected Shorts radio series is a co-production of Symphony Space and WNYC, New York Public Radio, and is heard on public radio stations nationwide.

Beloved author Roger Angell discusses his memoir, which includes reflections on his family and growing up that have recently appeared in The New Yorker, with Mark Singer, staff writer for The New Yorker.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author talks candidly about his celebrated trilogy of novels, and his approach to writing the character of Frank Bascombe over 20-plus years, overthrowing some of his readers' assumptions in the course of the conversation. Symphony Space Artistic Director Isaiah Sheffer interviews Mr. Ford, whose "pitch-perfect voice takes us as close as we can get to experiencing another person's inner life" ( Newsweek).

Selected Shorts is a weekly public radio show broadcast on over 130 stations to about 300,000 listeners. It is produced by Symphony Space and WNYC Radio and distributed by Public Radio International. The radio show is recorded live at the popular New York City stage show which began in 1985 and still enjoys sell-out audiences today at the Peter Sharp Theater at Symphony Space on Broadway and 95th Street in New York City. Selected Shorts is one of the premiere reading series in New York City.

The award-winning author of Esperanza Rising talks about her stunning new book, a fictional biography of Pablo Neruda's younger years that combines elements of magical realism with poetry, history and literary fiction. This inspirational book beautifully depicts how the awkward, shy, imaginative Chilean schoolboy Neftali Reyes, mesmerized by the natural world, became the world-renowned poet Pablo Neruda. Rita Wolf will perform an excerpt from the novel.

Novelist and essayist Mallon talks with Freeman, critic and American editor of Granta, about the great, lost art of letter writing and the current frenzy of electronic messaging. A discussion with the audience ensues.

In 14 sublime stories, Edward P. Jones turns an unflinching eye to the ordinary citizens of Washington, DC: men, women, and children caught between the old ways of the South and the temptations that await them in the city. With the legacy of slavery just a stone's throw behind them and the future uncertain, Jones' cornucopia of characters will haunt the reader for years to come.

An all-star line-up of children’s book authors, including Holly Black, Justine Larbalestier, Libba Bray, and Maureen Johnson, debate the question, “Which are better: zombies or unicorns?”

Hilarious and colorful episodes in the lives of families, many depicted from a kid's-eye-view, are the theme for this compilation. Being part of a family is often trying, and stranger than any fiction, but never dull and always worth it in the end. Join these very different families as they face the shrinking of parents, the pre-emptive guilt of First Confession, the secret worlds of children, and more!

Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story has toured to the Mount, the stately and elegant home of the great American writer Edith Wharton, for the last several summers, presenting Broadway and Hollywood actors reading stories by Wharton and other writers. Selected Shorts now presents a collection of four of Edith Wharton's short stories, recorded live at the Mount, and featuring acclaimed actresses Kathleen Chalfant, Christina Pickles, Maria Tucci, and Brenda Wehle.