One of my favorite short story writers, Jhumpa Lahiri, has a new book coming out in April.  The short story collection consists of eight new stories.  Lahiri's publisher, Knopf, says of the collection that her stories are "longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written—that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers."  If you haven't read any of Lahiri's work, it's worth studying her stories for craft.  She is a master of the form and her stories, I daresay, encompass worlds as vividly as Alice Munro. 

If you happen to be in the Boston area, Lahiri will be reading at MIT on Tuesday March 4th.  Here is a link to the details:   http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/org/h/humanistic/www/writersseries/jhumpa_lahiri.pdf

Those of you lucky enough to go, please be sure to e-mail and let me know how it went.