Elements of Nature
4/30/202657 min
Host Meg Wolitzerpresents four works in which nature and the out-of-doors drive both plots and character. Humorist Jenny Allen does battle with her stubborn plants in “Garden Growing Pains,” read by Kirsten Vangsness. The majestic Canadian border separates an Indigenous family in Thomas King’s “Borders,” read by Kimberly Guerrero. A housewife masters one of the elements in “Flying,” by Alyce Miller. The reader is Kirsten Vansgness again.And a sudden storm creates a sense of abandon in the Kate Chopin classic “The Storm,” read by Jane Curtin. “Garden Growing Pains,” “Borders,” and “Flying,” were presented in cooperation with CacheArts and Utah Public Radio, KUSU-FM.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMeg Wolitzer· Host0:00
[jazzy music] You know that phrase "a force of nature"? On the next Selected Shorts, we've got four strong stories to blow you away. From our gardens to our weather, the great outdoors tests and defines us. I'm Meg Wolitzer. Brave the elements and stay with me. You're listening to Selected Shorts, where our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time. [jazzy music] Sometimes the setting of a story can matter as much as the characters, creating challenges for them, helping to define them, and giving the reader a visceral context for the narrative. On this program, we share four stories in which nature has an impact. I am not someone who spends a lot of time in nature, and as a result, I don't have too many nature metaphors to rely on when I write fiction. Instead, my fiction tends to include nature's indoor parallel, by which I mean families in their native habitat gathering around the dinner table or sitting on the grassy plains of the shag carpeting in the den. But I do appreciate writers who make the actual natural world vivid and original, using it in ways that amplify the emotional tension in a scene. Landscape can sometimes be the most memorable character of all.