New Yorker Fiction To Hit Audio Shelves

The New Yorker Magazine and Mercury Records’ spoken-word imprint, Mouth Almighty, are releasing three audiobook collections that feature short stories culled from the special fiction issues of the magazine.

Titled “The New Yorker Out Loud,” the first collection is set to arrive Nov. 25 and will be available in double CD and cassette formats.

“We’ve had a very strong response to our fiction issues, whose newsstand sales (for those issues) have doubled,” says Tom Florio, president of The New Yorker. “We’d been looking at ways to extend the brand of the magazine, and we felt the opportunity to feature the work in The New Yorker with Mercury, whose distribution system - not just in record stores, but book stores and cybercafes - we like, was a good move.”

The featured short story selections for the collection are chosen by Bill Buford, literary and fiction editor at The New Yorker, and the series is being produced by Russ Titelman, who provides bits of mood music.

The first set includes Martin Amis’ “What Happened To Me On My Holiday,” Ian McEwan’s “Us Or Me,” and John Updike’s “New York Girl.” Each selection is read by the author. The set also features two other short stories - Seamus Deane’s “Maths Class,” read by actor Gabriel Byrne, and Lorrie Moore’s “People Like That Are The Only People Here,” read by actress Frances McDormand.

Work on the second audio is scheduled to begin shortly. David Silver, vice president at Mercury and executive producer for the series, expects that collection to drop in early summer, and the third set will debut next fall.

Both the double CD and two-cassette package are priced at $19.98.