Selected Shorts: Strange But True: Aimee Bender & Etgar Keret

The offbeat, surreal and tender stories of two writers with sympathetic imaginations: Aimee Bender (Willful Creatures) and the Israeli writer Etgar Keret (The Nimrod Flipout).

Performance playlist:

Introductions by Aimee Bender

Drunken Mimi
by Aimee Bender
read by Bernadette Quigley

Your Man
by Etgar Keret
translated by Miriam Shlesinger
read by David Rakoff

Shooting Tuvia
by Etgar Keret
translated by Miriam Shlesinger
read by David Rakoff

Death Watch
by Aimee Bender
read by Bernadette Quigley

Aimee Bender is the author of three books: the story collections The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, a New York Times Notable Book, and Willful Creatures, which was selected by The Believer as one of the best books of the year; and the novel An Invisible Sign of My Own, which was an L.A. Times pick of the year. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper's, Tin House, McSweeney's and The Paris Review, as well as heard on PRI's This American Life. She has received two Pushcart Prizes, was selected for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005 and was also nominated for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2005. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches creative writing at the University of Southern California.

Etgar Keret was born in Tel Aviv in 1967, and started writing in 1992. His books, bestsellers in Israel and France, have received international acclaim and have been published in 26 languages. They include (in English translation) the collections The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and The Nimrod Flipout. The title story of the latter book was published in Francis Ford Coppola's magazine, Zoetrope. Over 40 short movies have been based on Keret's stories. He has received the Book Publishers' Association Platinum Prize several times, as well as the Prime Minister's Prize and the Ministry of Culture's Cinema Prize. Most recently, Keret and his wife, the filmmaker Shira Gefen, won the Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or Award and the Best Director Award of the French Artists and Writers' Guild for their film Meduzot (Jellyfish). Keret teaches creative writing at Ben Gurion University.

Bernadette Quigley recently originated the role of Aviva in The Goldman Project at the Abingdon Theatre. Her other Off Broadway credits include Marina Carr's Portia Coughlan, God of Vengeance and lead performances at the Irish Arts Center in such plays as Billy Roche's Poor Beast in the Rain and Kenneth Branagh's Public Enemy. She played Chris in the National Tour of Dancing at Lughnasa, having understudied the role in the Tony Award-winning play on Broadway. Her extensive regional work includes The Crucible at the Repertory Theatre of St.
Louis and the Cincinnati Playhouse, for which she received the Acclaim Award for Outstanding Actress. Her film and television credits include The House Is Burning, Jim Sheridan's In America, Before and After, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Third Watch. She will be seen in the forthcoming film A Dog Year.

David Rakoff is the author of the books Fraud and Don't Get Too Comfortable. A regular contributor to GQ, Outside, The New York Times Magazine and Public Radio International's This American Life, his writing has also appeared in Salon, Slate, Vogue, Wired, The New York Observer, Gourmet and Seed Magazine, among others. He can be seen (fleetingly) in the film Capote, and also (fleetingly; mutely) Strangers with Candy. He lives in New York City.