When Brian Bartels wasn’t writing or managing Fedora, the Greenwich Village bar and eatery that he co-owns with Gabriel Stulman, he spent 2012 trying to avoid the narcotic glow of his cell phone so he could spend more time reading. Here are the books that caught his attention last year.
Bulgarian Writer Zachary Karabashliev and Steve Wingate discuss the pleasures of semi-autobiographical fiction and the pain of trying to laugh in a foreign language.
Next Stop
Is this real or is this a late-night re-run? Hester Kaplan’s characters navigate past traumas, has-been TV-stars, and small town casinos.
Two years ago, I invited Charles Baxter, Stacey D’Erasmo, Gemma Sieff, and Keith Taylor to join me on an AWP panel in DC to discuss the future of book reviewing and criticism, as well as their own work with The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Harper’s, and the Los Angeles Times, respectively. It seemed a pressing question to ask at a time when newspapers were shuttering and what print publications remained were either eliminating or drastically reducing their book coverage, while at the same time the Amazon.com review was reaching near ubiquity. What would criticism look […]
Our current feature is William Gillespie’s new novel, Keyhole Factory, which was just published by Soft Skull Press. Gillespie is the author of several small-press books, an award-winning hypertext novel, and the world’s longest literary palindrome. He was granted an MFA from Brown, where he received one of the first MFAs in Electronic Writing. His work has appeared in American Book Review, Context, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, and the &Now Award Anthology. He is also the founder of Spineless Books, an innovative literary press “with an emphasis on collaborative writing, formal experimentation, and utopian thought.” Gillespie lives in Urbana, […]
Our most recent feature was Steven Schwartz’s new collection, Little Raw Souls, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Lydia Netzer (@lostcheerio) MRS. CareFree MEL (@melskepko) Kevin (@kswinterwrites) Congrats! To claim your free copy, please email us at the following address: winners [at] fictionwritersreview.com If you’d like to be eligible for future giveaways, please visit our Twitter Page and “follow” us! Thanks to all of you who are fans. We appreciate your support. Let us know your favorite new books out there!
Brian Allen Carr and Dylan Nice chat about structure, process and the influence of Jesus’ Son.
This week, the National Book Foundation revised the procedures for choosing National Book Award winners. Previously, lists of five finalists were announced in the weeks leading up to the awards. The new template involves “long-listing” ten finalists in each category, to create more buzz about the possible winners, NBF representatives say. The pool of judges will also expand to include critics and booksellers. Does this sound familiar? It should. The NBF has borrowed ideas from the Booker Prize as well as the Oscars. Initially, Morgan Entrekin, the vice president of the NBF board and Grove/ Atlantic Press CEO, caused a […]
First, try not to think of Diane Williams’ latest short story collection, Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty, as a short story collection. Think of the book as a cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammer.
