Meg Wolitzer

For those who don't know it, well, first, Bellatrist is a French word for a writer whose work is beautiful or artistic rather than academic.

The Bellatrist Book Club is the vibrant online community built by two longtime friends, actor Emma Roberts and producer Cara Price.

As bookworms, they regularly shared recommendations and wanted to expand their circle as they passed their favorite new reads back and forth.

As big admirers of the Bellatrist community and their incredible author picks, we asked Price and Roberts to help us curate and host two shows at the Getty, and they said yes.

Today's show, The Stories and the Actors You'll Hear, are a direct result of our collaboration with Bellatrist.

Here are Price and Roberts having a bit of fun prepping the audience on how to listen to Selected Shorts.

Here's a little bit of an intro.

That was Emma Roberts and Cara Price, co-founders of the Bellatrist Book Club from the stage at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Our first story is from writer Tanya James.

She is the author of books including The Tusk That Did the Damage, Atlas of Unknowns, and her latest work, Loot, which was a recent Bellatrist Book Club pick.

Now, to take us into the mind of the modern Gorgon with Tanya James' story Medusa is Constance Zimmer in her short's debut.

Zimmer is a sharp actor who knows her way around a cutting remark, as evidenced by roles in series such as Unreal and House of Cards.

That was Medusa by Tanya James, read by Constance Zimmer.

I'm Meg Wolitzer.

With all the cheeky adaptations of myths and legends these days, this story stands out in that it really wrestles with the legacy of the character, and in the end makes a real person out of a legend created to be a monster.

If you've ever taken a writing workshop, you will know that the word nuance comes up a lot.

We want our characters to have nuance, even those characters who have a follicular reptilian situation going on.

Though Medusa has modest expectations about what will become of her life, in some ways over the course of the story, she gains an extra dimension.

Next up, a story of technology and compromise.

Here are Bellatrist co-founders Cara Price and Emma Roberts introducing it from the stage.