Enter the 2012 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Contest for a chance to have your work read at a Selected Shorts performance, and recorded for possible broadcast as part of the Selected Shorts public radio series. The winner will also receive 1000 bucks and a free 10-week creative writing class with Gotham Writers’ Workshop. All submissions must be received by 5pm, March 2, 2012. Click here to learn more.

Love has been the inspiration for many stories, often romantic and rose colored, but on this program, we’re featuring two stories that are about the tougher side of love, or how you sometimes have to go through tough times to find true love.

Two stories by internationally acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami that demonstrate what Shorts literary commentator Hannah Tinti calls his gift for “capturing the strangeness and hidden mystery of everyday life.”

A Russian troika—humor, tragedy, and magic are featured in three stories that come from an evening at Symphony Space entitled Russian Tales: Classic and New, two by the classic writers Anton Chekhov and Isaac Babel, and one by a contemporary Russian woman.

James Joyce’s classic story, “The Dead”, takes place at a New Year’s dinner-dance in Dublin in 1904. It is filled with colorful personalities, and is a glimpse of a bygone era.”The Dead” continues with part 2 this week!