From left to right: Jamil Jan Kochai, Michael Deagler, Danielle Evans, Christine Schutt, Thomas Bernhard, Catherine Niu.
Roundup

Six Stories with First-Person Narrators

Distinctive voices and unforgettable perspectives, by Danielle Evans, Jamil Jan Kochai, Catherine Niu, Thomas Bernhard, Christine Schutt, and Michael Deagler.
From “Stage-Land: Curious Habits and Customs of its Inhabitants” described by Jerome K Jerome with drawings by J Bernard Partridge. Published by Chatto & Windus, London, in 1890. The book is an entertaining account of the types of characters to be found upon the theatre stage and this shifty-looking individual is the ‘stage villain’. Of course, you would know that from his immaculate appearance and the fact that he is always smoking a cigarette. Things which would never happen in real life, naturally. And he does have a distressing tendency to get knocked down by the hero fairly regularly. Sad, really.
Arts & Culture

How to Be a British Villain

In classic British detective stories, villains might be atavistic monsters, foreign menaces, or conniving professionals—all tied to aristocrats’ anxieties.
An illustration of a crocodile head
Arts & Culture

“The Crocodile,” Dostoevsky’s Weirdest Short Story

Why being eaten by a crocodile named Little Karl is really a lesson in the dangers of foreign capital.
Night Before Christmas
Roundup

10 Classic Christmas Stories

We've gathered up some of our favorite literary takes on Christmas.
Viet Thanh Nguyen Photo courtesy of Anna Min
Arts & Culture

An Early Short Story from Pulitzer-winner Viet Thanh Nguyen

An early story from 2016 Pultizer Prize-winner Viet Thanh Nguyen.