Happy birthday, Denver! Have some short stories.

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This month the city of Denver turns 150. To celebrate, the Rocky Mountain News -- which itself turns 150 in April -- has published the short story series ‘A Dozen on Denver.’ Eleven Colorado authors were commissioned to write stories about the city; the 12th was selected from an open submission contest.

Authors had a few requirements: They were asked to choose different decades, so the series would stretch over the city’s history. They had to keep it to about 2,500 words. And they had to include Larimer Street -- that’s where the Rocky Mountain News is located.

The contributors come from a range of traditions: Pam Houston (‘Cowboys Are My Weakness’) is best known for humorous short stories, Nick Arvin wrote ‘Articles of War,’ a work of serious literary historical fiction, and Connie Willis has won dozens of awards for her science fiction writing. It’s a nice approach, a pretty cool birthday present.

‘A Dozen on Denver’ is online -- there are author interviews, original artwork and the stories themselves, which can also be downloaded as PDFs.

-- Carolyn Kellogg