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!

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.

From James Thurber’s classic story of misunderstanding, “The Night the Ghost Got In,” to Alice Hoffman’s whimsical tale of bad karma turned good, “Examining the Evidence,” to Alan Gurganus’s reverse Annunciation tale, “It Had Wings,” the line between the real and the numinous is both funny and fine. Shorts host Isaiah Sheffer describes Thurber’s mock [...]