Short Stories

Short stories are like miniatures: A delicate touch makes all the difference. In Edith Pearlman’s world, that light hand means choosing the perfect phrase to capture a moment or a mood. Often it leaves the reader breathless. In “Binocular Vision,’’ a hefty collection of 34 stories, including 13 new ones, the Brookline-based Pearlman shows her unerring sense for the right words. Sometimes that means she plays with them, as in poetry or music, as in the story “Self Reliance.’’ In this beautiful and hallucinatory offering, a retired gastroenterologist, diagnosed with cancer,...

James Salter, author of prize-winning books including "Dusk and Other Stories," has received a lifetime achievement award for short fiction. The PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced Monday that the 86-year-old Salter has won the 25th annual PEN/Malamud Award. Judges praised Salter for "creating sentences that spark and make stories burn. " Besides "Dusk," his books include the story collection "Last Night," the novel "A Sport and a Pastime" and the memoir "Burning the Days.

STORIES FOR NIGHTTIME AND SOME FOR THE DAY By Ben Loory Penguin, 210 pp., paperback, $15 In Ben Loory's wild, dreamy debut collection of short stories, he explores the deepest recesses of the imagination, where even the most outlandish tales can yield profound insights. "Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day" contains 40 featherweight fables, with a diverse cast of characters that includes erudite octopi, menacing hats, and lovestruck ducks. To say that disbelief must be suspended to appreciate Loory's work would be an understatement; utter credulity is required.

Some reaction to the death of Mexican author Carlos Fuentes: –– "With his parting disappears a writer whose work and whose presence has left a profound mark. His short-stories, novels and essays were primarily inspired by Mexico's problems and history but he was a universal man. " — Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa –– "One of a kind. An era, a genre. A writer for all seasons. To Silvia, all my affection. " — Mexican writer Hector Aguilar Camin –– "I deeply lament the death of our beloved and admired Carlos Fuentes, a universal Mexican...

WHO Ken Tangvik WHAT Tangvik has been teaching English at Roxbury Community College for more than 25 years, and has been teaching and mentoring young people in Jamaica Plain's Hyde Square neighborhood for more than 20. His new book, "Don't Mess With Tanya: Stories Emerging From Boston's Barrios," is a collection of short stories based, in part, on his experiences teaching writing and civil rights to an increasingly diverse group of...

Some reaction to the death of Mexican author Carlos Fuentes: –– "With his parting disappears a writer whose work and whose presence has left a profound mark. His short-stories, novels and essays were primarily inspired by Mexico's problems and history but he was a universal man. " — Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa –– "One of a kind. An era, a genre. A writer for all seasons. To Silvia, all my affection. " — Mexican writer Hector Aguilar Camin –– "I deeply lament the death of our beloved and admired Carlos Fuentes,...

‘I believe in the possibility of unendurable suffering," writes Sarah Manguso in the early pages of "The Guardians. " The affirmation establishes Manguso's credibility as an author capable of real empathy, rather than plain old sympathy - she allows herself a sort of practical acceptance alongside her mourning. The book is an elegy to her late friend Harris, a composer who bore intermittent bouts of "florid psychosis" before jumping in front of a subway car. As she recalls her friend (a summer in Cambridge between college semesters; standing side-by-side at the bank of the...

WBUR, Boston's National Public Radio station, is seeking voices from Lowell to take part in its ZIP-Code Stories project. Run in partnership with The Drum literary magazine, the project aims to share short stories, fiction, or nonfiction, which offer a deeper look into the communities that surround Boston. Each month, four ZIP codes are chosen; for October, one of the four is 01850, which is Lowell. Participants are encouraged to submit short stories of 500 words or less that take place in Lowell.

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Writer Yordan Radichkov, famous for his parodies of human nature and the Communist regime, died Jan. 21 at his home of multiple ailments following a stroke five years ago. He was 75. One of Bulgaria's most prolific writers, Mr. Radichkov had his short stories translated into numerous European languages. His play, "Lazaritsa," tells of a man who wants to kill his dog after it faithfully served him for years, an allusion to the Communist Party's persecution of intellectuals.

At a decisive moment in Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake," her post-apocalyptic novel of a near-future ravaged by global warming and genetic technology run amok, a thought repeats itself in the mind of the main character: "We understand more than we know. " And it's true. We often grasp a situation, instinctually or emotionally, even morally, before we've processed it intellectually. But the inverse, it seems, can also be true. There are moments - and this may be one of them - when we know more than we understand.

WHO Ken Tangvik WHAT Tangvik has been teaching English at Roxbury Community College for more than 25 years, and has been teaching and mentoring young people in Jamaica Plain's Hyde Square neighborhood for more than 20. His new book, "Don't Mess With Tanya: Stories Emerging From Boston's Barrios," is a collection of short stories based, in part, on his experiences teaching writing and civil rights to an increasingly diverse group of...

Doris Betts, who wrote novels set in her native South and taught creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has died, her son said Sunday. She was 79. Betts died at her Pittsboro home of lung cancer on Saturday, said Erskine Betts of Apex. Betts's seventh novel, "Souls Raised from the Dead," won the Southern Book Award in 1995. Betts broke out of her native region for her last novel, "The Sharp Teeth of Love," which explored the prickly fellowship of three damaged people in contemporary Reno, Nev. "Southern women...

Moe was the self-appointed boss, the bully who would bonk you on the head, then box your ears, then tell you what you did wrong. Curly was the man-child, the innocent but slightly addled and always mischievous victim. Larry was, as the title of his biography suggests, the Stooge in the middle, the free-spirited guy who was there to react or to get in the way. But there were many more than just three Stooges. The prolific team, which made 190 shorts for Columbia from 1934-59, started out on the vaudeville stage, as fall guys, or stooges, for comic actor Ted Healy in the mid-1920s.

PICK OF THE DAY Real and surreal Mexican surrealist painter, Frida Kahlo, who was crippled for life after a bus accident, is the subject of "Frida. " Screenwriter and Emerson faculty member Diane Lake will introduce the Oscar-nominated film starring Salma Hayek (right, with Ashley Judd) and directed by Julie Taymor at "Emerson Presents!" April 6 at 6 p.m. $10, $7.50 seniors, $5 students. Emerson College's Paramount Center, 559 Washington St., Boston. 617-824-8400. www.artsemerson.org THURSDAY One nation It's all Fenway all the time during this centennial year at our beloved ballpark.

NEW YORK - Simin Daneshvar, who was the most potent surviving symbol of the vibrancy of 20th-century literature in Iran, died March 8 in Tehran. She was 90. Relatives, who confirmed the death, said she had had influenza. Iran's turbulent modern history, defined above all by foreign exploitation, framed Dr. Daneshvar's life. She witnessed the Allied occupation of her country during World War II, which provided the backdrop for her masterpiece, the sprawling family saga "Savushun," published in 1969.

At a decisive moment in Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake," her post-apocalyptic novel of a near-future ravaged by global warming and genetic technology run amok, a thought repeats itself in the mind of the main character: "We understand more than we know. " And it's true. We often grasp a situation, instinctually or emotionally, even morally, before we've processed it intellectually. But the inverse, it seems, can also be true. There are moments - and this may be one of them - when we know more than we understand.

THE ANGEL ESMERALDA: Nine Stories By Don DeLillo Scribner, 213 pp., $24 Don DeLillo is chiefly known by his big novels of public life and the polluted underground streams that contaminate it. "Libra" deals with the Kennedy assassination and the conspiracy theories that swirl around it; "Mao II," with a recluse writer dragged out into the world of terrorism; "White Noise," shorter but more lustrous, with the era of nuclear menace....

Flint Memorial Library will welcome fiction writer Tara Masih of Andover at 7 tonight. Masih will read from her book "Where the Dog Star Never Glows" and lead a writing workshop in flash fiction - very short stories. Her workshop will help warm up people for National Novel Writing Month, which is celebrated in November. Writers who participate in the program begin writing on Nov. 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel by the end of the month. The limited writing window forces aspiring novelists to lower their expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. Registration for Masih's workshop...

‘I believe in the possibility of unendurable suffering," writes Sarah Manguso in the early pages of "The Guardians. " The affirmation establishes Manguso's credibility as an author capable of real empathy, rather than plain old sympathy - she allows herself a sort of practical acceptance alongside her mourning. The book is an elegy to her late friend Harris, a composer who bore intermittent bouts of "florid psychosis" before jumping in front of a subway car. As she recalls her friend (a summer in Cambridge between college semesters; standing side-by-side at the bank of the East River, watching...

In August, Nicholson Baker blurted out a new book, "House of Holes," his adolescent-like narrative of the sexual escapades of several one-dimensional characters frolicking through an extended dirty joke that might've aptly been titled "Smut. " "Smut," though, happens to be the new book by British writer Alan Bennett. If Baker's sense of humor in "House" is unrestrained, and ahem, smutty, Bennett's is subtle and often wry, full of clever word play, innuendo, and decidedly British.