Look­ing for a great, quick read this May (aka Short Sto­ry Month)? Based on your favorite movie or TV show, find the per­fect fit from these six sto­ries pub­lished in Paper Brigade, JBC’s annu­al lit­er­ary journal.

Fid­dler on the Roof (1971) → ​“Noble” by Scott Nadelson

In the vein of the 1971 clas­sic movie, Scott Nadelson’s ​“Noble” takes us back to East­ern Europe and a tight-knit shtetl where every­one knows each other’s fam­i­lies, foibles, and feuds. Like Tevye, Nadelson’s pro­tag­o­nist — a young man named Itsko — is a dream­er. Unlike Tevye, he con­stant­ly shirks respon­si­bil­i­ty, spend­ing most of his days engaged in an affair with the wealthy brewer’s wife. Itsko’s even­tu­al exis­ten­tial cri­sis is a pre­lude to his­tor­i­cal events that threat­en to engulf the small dra­mas of the shtetl forever. 

Jennifer’s Body (2009) → ​“Into the Mud” by Yael van der Wouden

Sap­ph­ic vibes, the super­nat­ur­al, and an unex­pect­ed bond between a pop­u­lar mean girl and her shy friend — ​“Into the Mud” by Yael van der Wouden has it all. This sto­ry is set in an alter­nate real­i­ty where dyb­buks hide in microwaves and Miryam (said mean girl) builds golems down by an aban­doned lake to take out her frus­tra­tion with her unsta­ble home life. When Miryam dis­ap­pears, unas­sum­ing Deb­by must har­ness her own pow­er in order to find her.

The Gold­en Girls (1985−1992) → ​“The Vir­gin Grand­moth­er” by Kate Schmier

The Gold­en Girls series was rev­o­lu­tion­ary in its por­tray­al of a truth (that should be) uni­ver­sal­ly acknowl­edged: a woman’s life doesn’t stop after the age of fifty. It’s a premise with which Fran — the pro­tag­o­nist of Kate Schmier’s ​“The Vir­gin Grand­moth­er” and the proud own­er of a sta­tionery store — would hearti­ly agree. Like The Gold­en Girls’ Dorothy, Fran has been through a dif­fi­cult divorce; like Sophia, she isn’t afraid to speak her mind. When a wid­owed friend starts to show roman­tic inter­est in her, Fran has to decide what is more impor­tant: com­pan­ion­ship or independence. 

Ida (2013) → ​“Our Aunt of the West” by Basia Winograd

The haunt­ing­ly beau­ti­ful Pol­ish film Ida, win­ner of the 2015 Acad­e­my Award for Best For­eign Lan­guage Film, takes place in 1960s Poland. A novice nun is forced to reunite with her world­ly aunt, who sub­se­quent­ly drops a bomb­shell: the novice’s par­ents were Jew­ish, and they were mur­dered in the Holo­caust. Basia Winograd’s ​“Our Aunt of the West” is also set in 1960s Sovi­et Poland. Like the novice in Ida, bud­ding teenag­er Maks Haas­man is forced to con­sid­er his Jew­ish iden­ti­ty when his aunt — for­mi­da­ble yet charis­mat­ic, out­ra­geous yet seduc­tive — comes to vis­it from Milan. 

(And if you like ​“Our Aunt of the West,” check out ​“The Real­ist,” anoth­er sto­ry by Basia Wino­grad, which fol­lows Maks’s father in the imme­di­ate after­math of World War II.)

Cabaret (1972) → ​“Holo­grams” by Adam Schorin

In Cabaret, the patrons of the Kit Kat Klub spend their Berlin nights watch­ing risque dancers and cheer­ing on the Amer­i­can singer Sal­ly Bowles. Out­side this bohemi­an refuge, the Nazis are steadi­ly gain­ing power.

Adam Schorin’s ​“Holo­grams” is set in the Berlin of a much more recent past, and the Amer­i­can pro­tag­o­nist is Sam­my, a young, gay Jew­ish man who exper­i­ments with per­form­ing in drag. Like in the 1930s, the atmos­phere is polit­i­cal­ly and cul­tur­al­ly charged — for Sam­my, who is fetishized by philosemites, and even more so for his fel­low drag per­form­ers who don’t have the option of leav­ing their lives in the city behind. 

The Chair (2021) → ​“Goliath” by Toby Lloyd

The Chair, star­ring San­dra Oh as the new­ly elect­ed chair of a university’s Eng­lish depart­ment, shows the side of acad­e­mia only tan­gen­tial­ly relat­ed to aca­d­e­mics — rumors, scan­dals, pro­fes­sion­al rival­ries, accu­sa­tions of prejudice.

Toby Lloyd’s forth­com­ing ​“Goliath,” which fol­lows an MFA cohort at the fic­tion­al New York uni­ver­si­ty Ver­i­ty Col­lege, explores sim­i­lar themes. Pro­fes­sor Mitzi Hoff­man, a Holo­caust sur­vivor and doyenne of Amer­i­can let­ters, is famous for her class­es on the craft of fic­tion. When one of her stu­dents objects to read­ing Céline because of the French author’s anti­semitism, a con­tro­ver­sy with long-reach­ing con­se­quences erupts. 

“Goliath” will be pub­lished in the spring 2026 Paper Brigade Short, an exclu­sive gift for JBC mem­bers and Nu Reads sub­scribers. Become a JBC mem­ber or a Nu Reads sub­scriber to receive your copy in June!