Danticat, Groff among contributors to book 'Small Odysseys'

Michael Cunningham, Edwidge Danticat and Carmen Maria Machado are among the prize-winning authors who are contributing stories to a new collection

Books Small Odysseys (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Michael Cunningham, Edwidge Danticat and Carmen Maria Machado are among the prize-winning authors contributing stories to a collection co-sponsored by Manhattan s Symphony Space performing arts center and its nationally aired “Selected Shorts” program.

Algonquin Books is teaming with Symphony Space on "Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Stories," which features previously unreleased work by Cunningham, Danticat and Machado, along with Lauren Groff Dave Eggers Elizabeth Strout Lisa Ko and others. Neil Gaiman is writing a foreword for “Small Odysseys,” which comes out March 22, 2022.

“We cannot wait to get these gorgeous stories out into the world,” Algonquin publisher Betsy Gleick said in a statement Wednesday. “The mix of incredibly talented authors and subjects feels perfect for this moment and will stand the test of time."

The book will help mark the 35th anniversary of “Selected Shorts,” for which such actors as Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman and Cynthia Nixon have read works at Symphony Space by leading fiction writers. Symphony Space plans a special anniversary event in March, featuring stories from “Small Odysseys.”

“The collaboration with Algonquin, and the large-scale Wall to Wall Selected Shorts event we will present just after it is published, will together make for a momentous celebration of our signature series, and of the power and importance of both the written and spoken word,” Kathy Landau, executive director of Symphony Space, said in a statement.