Best known for his high school dropout tale "Catcher in the Rye" (1951), J.D. Salinger (1919-2010) was also an accomplished short story writer and avid student of Zen Buddhism. Or, at least, his characters were.

Salinger's knowledge of German and French was put to use in his role as a U.S. Army staff sergeant in World War II; unsubtle hints of the horrors he witnessed speckle his fiction. Upon achieving sudden fame with "Catcher in the Rye," he secluded himself in a small New Hampshire town, and his legend grew.

Salinger's collection of short stories, "Nine Stories" (1953), is featured at this month's edition of PT Shorts, the monthly readers' theater produced by Key City Public Theatre.

The lovely "Nine" include the marvelous and ambiguous "Teddy," the perennial favorite "For Esme, With Love and Squalor," and the sad "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut," adapted for the 1949 film "My Foolish Heart," which unsurprisingly bears little resemblance to the story.

PT Shorts organizers have not disclosed which story is to be read. Here's hoping for "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period," declined by the New Yorker in 1951 and offering a prescient view of the perils of online humanities education.

PT Shorts takes place 7:30-8:30 p.m., Saturday, April 4 and 7:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 7, at Northwind Arts Center, 701 Water St.