Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for 2010

Shop Talk |

New Audio Lit Mag: The Drum

by Anne Stameshkin

The Drum is a new online literary magazine that bills itself as “a literary magazine for your ears.” Founded and edited by writer Henriette Lazaridis Power, The Drum features short fiction and essays, read aloud by the authors. According to the journal’s website, the goal is to provide literature in portable, sharable, audio form: Each of The Drum’s ten annual issues brings you new literature you can weave into your daily life. Listen online or download the audio to listen to on your mp3 player and/or to share with up to five friends. Use our tags to choose a story […]


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Fiction Meets Baby Names

by Celeste Ng

The Social Security Administration recently released its annual list of most popular baby names, and surprise! The influence of one particular novel—or rather, series of novels—was quite clear. Reports the New York Times: [F]lying up the list was an ancient name with modern fame: Cullen, the surname of one handsome bloodsucker, Edward, in the frighteningly popular vampire films “Twilight,” based on the best-selling novels by Stephenie Meyer. Cullen materialized at 485, leaping almost 300 spots from 2008 for the biggest increase of any boy’s name; it wedged firmly between Braiden and Kason. Other names from the Twilight series also showed […]


Interviews |

The Landscape of Fiction: An interview with Allan Gurganus

by Dana Kletter

Dana Kletter sits down to talk with famed fiction writer Allan Gurganus. Their conversation ranges from sexuality to southerness, from his affinity for the 19th century to how reading the work of fellow writers can be a shaping force in one’s fiction, from gardening between paragraphs to Halloween political activism, and plenty more about teaching and the craft of writing.


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Win a copy of Laura van den Berg's What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

Bob Dylan turned sixty-nine today. And regardless of how you feel about the man’s music, or how you feel about the different incarnations of his work—pre/post electric, pre/post born again, pre/post Victoria’s Secret—you’ve got to give him credit for knowing how to put together an album, which is a lot different than just writing a great song. My favorite is his 1976 album Desire. Maybe it’s the story writer in me, but the narrative quality of “Hurricane” and “Isis” and “Oh, Sister” just knock me out. More importantly, there’s a unity to the songs—in tone, in subject, in approach—that gives […]


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Recently on FWR…

by Anne Stameshkin

In case you’ve missed them, these are the features Fiction Writers Review has been lucky to publish in the last month: In an adaptation of his AWP panel talk, Jeremiah Chamberlin discusses “talking shop” in the age of new media: [O]nline journals like Fiction Writers Review provide a unique place for emerging writers to join the conversation. After all, few print journals accept book reviews from individuals who haven’t yet published a book themselves. And even if they do, they rarely take unsolicited work. So how does an emerging writer enter this critical dialogue? Here they can. Special guest Peter […]


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Win a Copy of Short People, by Joshua Furst

by Lee Thomas

We all had one. It’s one of those universals of human experience, more constant than love or rage or betrayal or grace. I’m talking about a childhood. Still, it’s impressively difficult to capture on the page, pitch the right tone, allow the perfect amount of insight and innocence, or describe the overblown drama of what it feels like to be a kid. From the opening story of his collection, Short People, Joshua Furst nails it. That first story, “The Age of Exploration,” follows the ramblings of Jason and Billy, best friends, both age six. Most of us can remember things […]


Shop Talk |

Short Stories Out Loud

by Lee Thomas

I frequently happen upon Selected Shorts on NPR midway through a story and go through a predictable course of thinking: I’ve missed the first part of the story. I should just download the podcast and hear it from the top. Wow, that sentence was brilliant. What the heck is going on here? And then I end up listening to the conclusion of the story and enjoying it immensely. Now that I’m in New York, I hope to make it to one of the live stage performances of Selected Shorts. If you’re lucky enough to already have a ticket, on May […]


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FWR's Own in Glimmer Train

by Celeste Ng

At Fiction Writers Review, a key part of our mission is to support emerging writers—and hey, we’re emerging writers, too. So I’m especially pleased to report that the current issue of Glimmer Train (Issue 75) contains stories by not one, but TWO of the FWR staff: our Associate Editor, Jeremiah Chamberlin, and our site’s designer/graphic design goddess, Marissa Perry. Both are amazing writers, and we’re not just saying that because we know them. It’s especially appropriate to highlight Glimmer Train this month—Short Story Month—as it’s one of just a handful of journals that publish only short fiction. Moreover, Glimmer Train […]


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Win a copy of Skip Horack's collection The Southern Cross

by Celeste Ng

I am often skeptical of reviews by people who know the author: sometimes they’re a bit too chummy, like Sarah Palin praising Glenn Beck. (Ew. Just—ew.) So let me start off by saying that I do know Skip Horack, but only slightly. We met at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference in 2009, and though we chatted a few times, this is the moment that stands out in my mind. It was a very hot August day, and I was trudging back to the dining hall in search of a cold drink when Skip and his roommate (the poet Matthew Dickman) […]




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