Paul Hendrickson has pursued Hemingway the way I once pursued e.e. commings. The lesson: Don't be shy. If someone has written a poem or a book that means a lot to you, reach out.

Richard Burgin's new story collection, Shadow Traffic, confirms his standing as one of America's masters of short fiction. With a voice uniquely his own, he creates a world of urban anomie and dread that Kafka would recognize.

Evil, Richard Burgin suggests in his new novel, is a radical form of schizophrenia, and the Devil has an address in a Pennsylvania exurb. Burgin writes knowledgeably about the literary scene in New York and Philadelphia and hair-raisingly about sexual predation in his continuing exploration of the underside of American life.