Event · Upper West Side
On the Upper West Side, NYC: Viet Thanh Nguyen Hosted Selected Shorts at Symphony Space
On October 21, Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen hosted Selected Shorts at Symphony Space on the Upper West Side. Three actors performed stories from The Best American Short Stories 2026, which Nguyen guest-edited. In-person and livestream tickets were offered for the 7pm show.
By NBT Editors · 2026-10-21
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Symphony Space on the Upper West Side hosted a Selected Shorts evening on Wednesday, October 21, at 7pm. The program was built around The Best American Short Stories 2026 and took place in the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at 2537 Broadway. This is a record of the night, which has now ended.
Viet Thanh Nguyen, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer, was the host. He is also the guest editor of this year's anthology, and the evening was the theater's annual collaboration with that series, which Symphony Space describes as one of the premier anthologies of contemporary American fiction. The theater framed the night as a celebration of both established and emerging writers, presented as literature in performance.
The stories on the program were by Nathan Blum, Sigrid Nunez and Akhil Sharma. Three actors performed them: Sanjit De Silva (War Horse, Inventing Anna), Jessica Hecht (Breaking Bad, Eureka Day) and Denis O'Hare (American Horror Story, Here We Are). The theater noted that casting was subject to change.
The show ran an expected 105 minutes with no intermission. In-person tickets cost $19 to $43, and a livestream ticket was $26; a $5 service fee applied to every ticket. Tickets were sold through the Symphony Space website.
Selected Shorts is recorded for national public radio and released as a podcast, and audience members are part of those broadcasts. Stories from the night may therefore be heard again on a local public radio station or on the Selected Shorts podcast; more information is at SelectedShorts.org.
The series continues. On November 18, Meg Wolitzer hosts The Most of Nora Ephron, and on December 9, Roz Chast presents Objects, both at 7pm. Buying three or more Selected Shorts events earns a discount, for in-person and livestream tickets alike. Groups of fifteen or more can arrange discounts through the Box Office at 212-864-5400. Symphony Space is a non-profit, and it says ticket sales cover less than 25% of its costs.
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