Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for 2010

Shop Talk |

Andrew's Book Club: April 2010 Picks

by Anne Stameshkin

There’s still a week left in April: spend it reading one of these new collections recommended by Andrew Scott. INDIE PICKS: – Strange Weather (Press 53), by Becky Hagenston. Winner of the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. Praise from Antonya Nelson: The sensibility overseeing these fine stories is curious, clever, quick, hilarious, and heartbreaking. The world contained between the covers of Strange Weather is both realistic and magical, silly and sublime, ‘romance and raunch. Just like real life.’ When a character working a desk job in a toxic chemical plant announces wistfully that ‘nothing’s blown up,’ the reader completely understands […]


Shop Talk |

The Upside (?) of Melancholy

by Celeste Ng

We’ve discussed the links between depression and creativity on this blog before—from a report that some schools on Nantucket were banning “depressing” literature in response to high rates of teen suicides to Anne’s reflections on “When Writers Stop Drinking (or Start Taking Meds, or Start Reading Peter Kramer).” Jonah Lehrer’s recent essay in The New York Times Magazine investigates this question from a different angle: whether depression has an evolutionary purpose. For some unknown reason, the modern human mind is tilted toward sadness and, as we’ve now come to think, needs drugs to rescue itself. The alternative, of course, is […]


Shop Talk |

50 Book People to Follow on Twitter

by Celeste Ng

The Huffington Post recently published a list of “The 50 Best Book People to Follow on Twitter.” Those on the list include everyone from veteran authors Margaret Atwood and Anne Rice to up-and-comers like Colson Whitehead. There are plenty of agents, editors, and book bloggers, too, as well as book sites like GalleyCat and Guardian Books. These bookish Twitterers offer thoughts on current events and life in general and favorite writing-related links you might never find otherwise. A representative smattering: from Mokoto Rich, New York Times book editor: Looking at questions asked and not asked about latest incident of flawed […]


Essays |

Shop Talk: From the 2010 AWP Panel "Evolution of the New Media"

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

“During my years as a bookseller, I cherished the opportunities to talk with fellow readers who were enthusiastic about books: how we read them, why we read them, where we read them—you name it. And whether mysteries or metaphysics, non-fiction or nature writing, Chaucer or children’s literature, there was a world of writing to discuss, much of which I had never heard of. I loved nothing more than learning and contributing to that community. It is this same sense of community that we try to foster at Fiction Writers Review. One that is made up of tastes and interests as divergent and varied as our contributors. But if there’s one unifying element, I have to say it’s that very same enthusiasm for books. An unabashed, unapologetic, earnest love of ‘shop talk.'”


Shop Talk |

FWR's Latest Features: The Biweekly Roundup

by Anne Stameshkin

Here’s a recap of the reviews, interviews, and essays you may have missed on Fiction Writers Review lately. Charlotte Boulay reviews The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, calling it “serial narrative of the best kind—the kind that gets richer and more complex as it develops” and adding, “Even among YA fantasy novels, The Thief is exceptional because it’s a story about adults. These are not the sudden inheritors of magical powers, but people who have carried the weight of responsibility for their entire lives.” Brian Short reviews Swimming with Strangers, the second collection by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum. “Lunstrum […]


Shop Talk |

P&W's Inside Indie Bookstores: Women & Children First

by Anne Stameshkin

In the newest installment of Poets & Writers magazine’s Inside Indie Bookstores series, FWR Associate Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin profiles Chicago’s fabulous Women & Children First bookstore, featuring an interview with the bookstore’s co-owner Linda Bubon. The online version (along with a slideshow of images from the store) is available at no cost on P&W‘s website…but if you want a print copy, Poets & Writers‘ special offer to Fiction Writers Review readers (only $12 for a year-long subscription) is still up for grabs; if you order through this page before May 15, you’ll get the current issue featuring Women & Children […]


Interviews |

New Ways of Looking at Old Questions: An Interview with Heidi Durrow

“I don’t mind that when I’m interviewed I am speaking as a representative of biracial women. I’m heartened that people are interested. I do wonder, though, when the book is critiqued as being not enough about the biracial experience. To that criticism I say, Well, okay, but it’s not a position paper. It’s a story. … I have had a number of people “come out” to me, for lack of a better word, about their blended families, or about their grief, or about simply being a young person struggling against the labels, like geek or nerd, that they’d been assigned by peers. … They’ve connected their own stories to the stories I’ve told and suddenly feel empowered to talk about it.”


Shop Talk |

Should You Get an MFA in Creative Writing?

by Anne Stameshkin

Are you currently weighing the benefits of an MFA? If you heard Michael Chabon’s take on MFA programs in his amazing AWP keynote, you’re probably hitchhiking to UC Irvine, a typewriter strapped to your heart — but even so, you might be wrestling with important questions like these: Will an advanced degree help you with your particular goals as a writer — and if so, when is the right time to go? How important is full or partial funding? What about opportunities to teach or work on a journal? What are program directors and committees looking for in MFA students, […]


Shop Talk |

Book Design Nerdery, Part I: Designing a Cover

by Celeste Ng

Have you ever wondered how book covers get designed? This video shows how Orbit Books’ Creative Designer Lauren Panepinto designed the cover for an upcoming novel. The whole process took over 6 hours, but the video condenses that into just under two minutes: On Orbit’s webpage, Panepito explains: Trust me, no one wants to watch it in real-time…and even then I left out the not-as-riveting-onscreen stages of my cover design process, such as reading the manuscript, sifting through Alexia photoshoot outtakes, background photo research, etc. And since this is a series look that has already been established for Soulless and […]




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