Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘events’

Shop Talk |

Graywolf Press night at BookCourt

by Lee Thomas

The very fine indie bookstore BookCourt in Brooklyn hosts a “Small Press Night” once a month (this is their second). This month they’re featuring Graywolf Press, a nonprofit publisher who I’ve heard takes very good care of their authors. Benjamin Percy, whose latest novel The Wilding was featured recently on FWR’s Book of the Week Giveaway, will be there to read. Jessica Francis Kane will read from her debut novel The Report, a re-imagining of a World War II civilian disaster that has been getting very good reviews. If you didn’t win one of the Benjamin Percy-signed books, and happen […]


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Calling all Bostonians

by Lee Thomas

As a quick follow-up to the One City One Story post last week, we wanted to let you know where you can get your hands on a copy of Tom Perrotta’s “The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face,” courtesy of the Boston Book Festival. They write: Starting Monday September 27th the story will be available at all Boston Public Library branches, several cafes and bookstores from Charlestown to Rozzie and farmers markets from Dewey Square to Mattapan. You can also grab a copy from one of our fabulous volunteers at select T-stops from 7am – 9am September 27th – October 1st. […]


Shop Talk |

One City, One … Story?

by Lee Thomas

Many of us probably live in a city that’s participated in some version of “One City, One Book,” which is a great way to spark a conversation between strangers. This year the Boston Book Festival opted for One City, One Story. The BBF chose local legend Tom Perrotta‘s “The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face” as the tale to get people talking. On September 30th they’ll be giving away 30,000 bound copies of the story at locations around the city. You’ll also be able to download a PDF of the story on the BBF website. Added bonus: on October 16 Tom […]


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3rd Annual Dzanc Books Write-a-Thon

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Take a day off to write next week. Or maybe just an afternoon. Either way, you can disconnect for a few hours, put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, and in the process help raise money for Dzanc Books. Each year Dzanc holds a Write-a-Thon to raise money for their Writer-in-Residence Program and the Dzanc Prize. These charitable programs help put writers into schools and other places like VA hospitals, prisons, and refugee communities. So you’ll not only be helping a great nonprofit organization, but also setting aside some time for yourself and your work. As someone who’s participated […]


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Sharon Pomerantz reads at Women and Children First on Thursday at 7:30pm

by Anne Stameshkin

Chicago friends, don’t miss Sharon Pomerantz’s reading this Thursday at Women and Children First at 7:30pm. Sharon will be reading from her debut novel, Rich Boy. Beginning in the 1970s in a working-class Jewish neighborhood and stretching to the halls of power in Reagan-era Manhattan and beyond, the book chronicles four decades in the life of Robert Vishniak as he struggles to create a new identity for himself. Sharon is a talented writer of short fiction–in addition to publishing stories in such places as The Missouri Review and Ploughshares, “Ghost Knife” was selected for inclusion in Best American Short Stories […]


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Largehearted Lit, with Marie Mutsuki Mockett and Emma Straub

by Anne Stameshkin

NYC-based writers: on Sunday, December 6 at 5 PM, gather for a free and awesome Largehearted Lit event at the Knitting Factory (361 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn). We at FWR are big fans of (and frequent linkers to) David Gutowski’s LargeheartedBoy.com, a music-lit-culture website whose Book Notes column gives established and emerging authors the chance to create and discuss music playlists connected to–or inspired by–their books. Now a new Largehearted Lit series, curated by Brooklyn-based fiction author Jami Attenberg (Instant Love, The Kept Man, The Melting Season), actualizes these playlist interviews into live readings with musical performances. In this interview, David […]


Reviews |

Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia, edited by Mikhail Iossel and Jeff Parker

by T. M. De Vos

Life in Russia, said author Aleksander Snegirev, at Housing Works’ September 21 Rasskazy event, is uncomfortable, but always interesting. So, too, are the stories in this plump new anthology from Tin House: Arkady Babchenko’s beleaguered soldier returns to Chechnya a page away from German Sadulaev’s lyrical descriptions of Chechnya’s devastated countryside. The binding is a veritable trench across which both narrators peek at each other warily.


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Mentors, Muses, and Monsters event at Greenlight Books

by Anne Stameshkin

NYC-based writers, head to Brooklyn’s newest bookstore, Fort Greene’s Greenlight Books (686 Fulton St., at S. Portland), tonight (Monday, November 23) at 7:30 PM for a special event featuring local authors and the editor of Mentors, Muses, and Monsters, a book that we at FWR are excited to read. This is also the bookstore’s first installment of what promises to be an exciting series of events featuring both authors and lit bloggers. On a personal note, I’m thrilled at Greenlight’s birth, if a bit heartsick that I had to leave Fort Greene about a month before it opened; when I […]


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recommended event: short plays by Brian Bartels

by Anne Stameshkin

NYC-based writers: On Tuesday, September 22 at 7 PM, head to the Rattlestick Theater to see a one-night only reading of Mulletfingers: Short Plays on Hands and Fingers by FWR contributor Brian Bartels. I was lucky enough to attend another night of Brian’s hilarious yet thought-provoking plays, Versus, in March, and the short pieces resonated together like a stories in a thematically linked collection. The Rattlestick is located at 224 Waverly Place (2nd Floor). Break a leg, Brian and company!


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Writing Regimen from the Southeast Review

by Anne Stameshkin

The Southeast Review‘s Writing Regimen is a 30-day writing project for poets, essayists, and fiction writers who crave some motivation and structure for a concentrated period of time. Another session (for adults) starts on October 1. (If you’re interested in the Young Writers’ Regimen, the next one begins August 31.) For $15, writers will get the following: daily writing prompts; a daily reading-writing exercise; a “riff word” of the day; a podcast of the day from an editor or writer; a quote of the day from a famous writer; weekly craft talks from established writers; a free copy of the […]




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