Briefly

Denis Johnson, the prizewinning fiction writer, poet and playwright best known for his surreal and transcendent story collection Jesus’ Son, died last week of liver cancer at age 67. “Denis was one of the great writers of his generation,” Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, said in a statement Friday. “He wrote prose with the imaginative concentration and empathy of the poet he was.” Johnson won the National Book Award in 2007 for his Vietnam War novel Tree of Smoke and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Tree of Smoke and, in 2012, for his novella Train Dreams.

Carly Rae Jepsen is giving listeners all the right emotions, yet again. The Canadian pop singer, who rose to fame with the megahit “Call Me Maybe,” released “Cut to the Feeling” as a single on Friday to a rousing response. Her name quickly became a trending topic on Twitter and some high-profile tastemakers were touting it as a possible “song of the summer” candidate.

Ben Stiller and his wife, actress Christine Taylor, announced Friday that they are separating after 17 years of marriage. They have two children. Star wire services