The New Yorker: Fiction

Edwidge Danticat reads "Girl" and "Wingless," by Jamaica Kincaid. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Francisco Goldman reads "Clara," by Roberto Bolano. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Tony Earley reads "Love," by William Maxwell. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Hisham Matar reads "Shakespeare's Memory," by Jorge Luis Borges. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

David Sedaris reads "Roy Spivey," by Miranda July. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Sherman Alexie reads "The Lesson," by Jessamyn West. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In this month's fiction podcast, Tessa Hadley reads "City Lovers," a story by the South African writer and 1991 Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer. The story, which was published in The New Yorker in 1975, focusses on a love affair between a white man and a "colored" woman in Apartheid South Africa. It's deeply political in its details--the man is a geologist at a mining company, the couple's affair is illegal, and they cover it up by pretending that she is his servant. But Gordimer writes with a focussed intimacy that makes the piece a tragic love story rather than a political morality tale. "One of the things I think she can teach us," says Hadley, "is how to write politically without becoming shrill." Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Maile Meloy reads Laurie Colwin's "Mr. Parker" and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. "Mr. Parker" was published in the April 14, 1973, issue of The New Yorker and can be found in "Passion and Affect." Maile Meloy's novels include "Liars and Saints" and "A Family Daughter." Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

James Salter reads Reynolds Price's "His Final Mother" and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. "His Final Mother" was published in the May 21, 1990, issue of The New Yorker and can be found in "Reynolds Price: The Collected Stories." James Salter's novels include "The Hunters" and "Light Years." Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Dave Eggers reads Roddy Doyle's "Bullfighting," and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. "Bullfighting" was published in the April 28, 2008, issue of The New Yorker and can be found in "Bullfighting: Stories." Dave Eggers's new novel, "A Hologram for the King," comes out this month. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices