Fresh from a relationship with a feminist scholar, I was on guard against Shann Ray’s American Masculine before I even cracked its spine. With a title like that, I thought, you’d better have a gay man in Chelsea, a drag queen in Flint, a straight man watching a hired man wash his yacht, a man [...]

This week’s feature is Robert Garner McBrearty’s new collection, Let the Birds Drink in Peace, which was published last fall by Conundrum Press. McBrearty is the author of two previous collections of stories: A Night at the Y (John Daniel & Company, 1999) and Episode (Pocol Press, 2009). He received his MFA in creative writing [...]

The Dutch author Nescio wrote little, quite rarely, and under a pseudonym that means “I don’t know” – yet he’s quite famous in Holland. In the first English translation of his major stories, a group of poor artists struggle to make sense of Amsterdam between the wars. The world is changing out from under them – sound familiar?

Last week we featured Stephanie Vaughn’s Sweet Talk as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners:

Amber Sparks (@ambernoelle)
Thomas Hill (@launchpadpress)
Howard Megdal (@howardmegdal)

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! [...]

The title of Jim Shepard’s latest collection, You Think That’s Bad, could also be a creative mantra. Here the veteran writer discusses his research process, the apocalyptic state of the world, the (possible) irrelevancy of literature to the apocalypse, his epic mustache—and other matters of importance.

Last week we featured Jack Driscoll’s new collection, The World of a Few Minutes Ago, as our Book-of-the-Week title. Here are this week’s winners:

Emilia Fuentes Grant (@EmiliaFGrant)
Roz Morris fiction (@ByRozMorris)
Adria Haley (@adria_haley)

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 [...]

The uncanny controls the palette in Stay Awake, a short-story collection showcasing a writer in mid-career who is not simply at the top of his game, but who refuses to settle.

Prodigals on a grand scale who don’t want to go home. Matt Mullins packs 25 stories into his high-velocity debut Three Ways of the Saw. Don’t be misled by the Zenlike title, these characters come at you like a karate chop to the windpipe. Read on to find out exactly why you’ll be thanking him for that bruised trachea.

This week’s feature is Jack Driscoll’s new collection, The World of a Few Minutes Ago, which was released by Wayne State University Press this month. Driscoll is the author of four books of poetry and four previous books of fiction. His first story collection, Wanting Only to be Heard, won the AWP Award for Short [...]

Like a hard layer of permafrost, longing and grief lie beneath the surface in Jack Driscoll’s new collection, The World of a Few Minutes Ago. Driscoll’s richly flawed characters toe that fine line between optimism against long odds and outright delusion.