How Fiction Works: Discussion Review
by Anne Stameshkin
Anne Stameshkin, Greg Schutz, Celeste Ng, Natalie Bakopoulos, and Jeremiah Chamberlin lead a series of discussions on critic James Wood’s latest collection of essays, How Fiction Works.
Anne Stameshkin, Greg Schutz, Celeste Ng, Natalie Bakopoulos, and Jeremiah Chamberlin lead a series of discussions on critic James Wood’s latest collection of essays, How Fiction Works.
If you’ll be at AWP in Chicago this Thursday-Saturday, do stop by the University of Michigan table, where FWR will be representing with giveaway magnets and bookmarks; we’re hoping to spread the word about our site, grow our community of writers and readers, connect with publishers, and learn about new and forthcoming books. Sadly I won’t be at AWP myself (this wretched pneumonia forced me to cancel my flight today), but a number of FWR contributors will be in attendance, among them Associate Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin, who has generously offered to coordinate FWR efforts at the conference. If you’re longing […]
Apologies for these very short blog entries, FWR readers. I have a bad bout of pneumonia and my drugged brain is not operating on all cylinders. So please, go yonder and read this wonderful review on The Practicing Writer of How to Write Like Chekhov: Advice and Inspiration, Straight from His Own Letters and Work (edited by Piero Brunello and Lena Lencek, translated from the Russian and Italian by Lena Lencek; published Nov. 2008 by Da Capo Press).
Amazon’s brand new Kindle 2 is here, and Brad Stone says it’s “lighter, brighter, and chattier.” I admit it…I want one, and at the same time, I feel guilty for wanting one. It’s hard not to be sucked in by hyperbolic exclamations that this e-book reader is either the savior of publishing or the harbinger of its death. What do you think — is it harmful, helpful, or totally innocuous/inconsequential to purchase one? If you have a Kindle 1.0, how do you like it, and are you considering an upgrade? Here’s Stephen King at today’s launch; King scored a free […]
William Trevor is a God anyone can believe in–ever-loving and omniscient, but not omnipotent. Even as he reveals lives destroyed or halted, one is calmed by his authority, safe in his hands. It’s true; there is nothing he can do to save his characters from themselves. But in his latest collection, Trevor does not just bear silent witness: unlike most contemporary short-story writers, he spells out his stories’ moral lessons, traces them to their furthest conclusions, and even ties up loose ends.
Yay FWR! We’re one of ten sites listed here under the “Fiction Writing” subhead on this list by Best Colleges Online. Check out the list , which features a host of great writing-themed blogs and websites.
Jack Boughton returns home to Gilead, Iowa after a twenty-year, largely silent absence, offering his family no details about those lost years or the cause of his return. Home is a quiet book, one without dramatic plot devices; Robinson’s characters carry out the pure weight of life–playing the piano, going to the store, washing dishes– all while facing the ever-present sense of life’s brevity.
This sounds like an Onion article. It’s not. From now on, no sign produced by Birmingham City Council will contain the punctuation mark. Debates over whether Kings Norton really should be King’s – or even Kings’ – Norton may rage on, but they will be useless. And nearby Druids Heath – which was never actually home to one, let alone many, druids – will never take on the possessive, no matter how furious local apostrophe advocates become. The council said the move had been taken for the purposes of consistency and to avoid costs and confusion over whether place names […]
If you need extra motivation to put more words-to-screen during a writing session, Dr. Wicked‘s web app Write or Die might help. From Dr. Wicked’s site: Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences. […] The idea is to instill in the would-be writer a fear of not writing. Depending on the mode you choose, consequences are: […]
