Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for 2011

Shop Talk |

What the end of Borders REALLY means

by Celeste Ng

Borders may be a thing of the past, but does it mean there’s no market for books anymore? The MobyLives blog of Melville House does some pithy analysis: Was this whole thing basically a fifteen-year-long advertisement for Amazon? In a word, no. The story of Borders failure is, first and foremost, a real estate story. Simply, Borders gobbled up a lot of expensive square footage in the real estate boom of the nineties, as did Barnes and Noble, with a seemingly insatiable lust that curdled into craven predatoriness. […] When the economy imploded in 2008, they were locked into severely […]


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Book of the Week: Season of Water and Ice, by Donald Lystra

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Donald Lystra’s debut novel Season of Water and Ice. Lystra, a retired engineer, lives in Ann Arbor and spends part of each summer in northern Michigan, on the Leelanau Peninsula, where this book is set. His short fiction has appeared in many literary journals, including Other Voices, The North American Review, Passages North, and The Greensboro Review. A story called “Family Way,” which eventually grew into Season of Water and Ice, appeared in Cimarron Review in 2006, and an excerpt from the book appeared in Natural Bridge in 2009. This is his first novel. This novel […]


Shop Talk |

Book-of-the-Week Winners: The Swan

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured The Swan as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners. Congratulations to: Chuck A. Stetson (@cstetson) Eliza Weber (@deareliza) J-Dub (@cre8ivepen) To claim your signed copy of this novel, 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!


Shop Talk |

Facebook: the next ebook publisher?

We’re delighted to present another post by FWR’s editorial intern, Nicole Aber. Enjoy! Now that Facebook has conquered the world of social networking, could it be setting its sights on online publishing? Rumors have been spiraling recently about Facebook’s acquisition of e-book publishing company Push Pop Press. But the social networking giant says it won’t be dabbling in the e-book world anytime soon. Instead, it says that it will employ the technological know-how of the company—which released Al Gore’s e-book Our Choice—in its ubiquitous social networking platform. A press release on Push Pop’s site reads: Now we’re taking our publishing […]


Shop Talk |

The essence of a story

by Celeste Ng

Kid-and-design blog OhDeeDoh pointed me to these beautiful, minimalist posters of children’s stories by artist Christian Jackson. Here are a few more: What I love most about these—aside from the obviously amazing graphic design—is the way each poster strips the story down to its most basic elements. It’s the visual version of the old writing exercise: can you tell your story in one paragraph? One sentence? One word? Here, each story is condensed into one image. You can see all of Jackson’s children’s story posters, as well as buy prints (or iphone skins!) featuring the artwork, on his website.


Interviews |

A More Interesting Period of Time: An Interview with Donald Lystra

by Danielle LaVaque-Manty

Donald Lystra, who published his first novel Season of Water and Ice after retiring from a career as an engineer, talks about making the transition from engineering to writing, publishing with a small press, winning a Midwest Book Award, and what people get wrong about the 1950s.


Shop Talk |

2011 PEN Literary Awards Announced

by Celeste Ng

The winners of the prestigious PEN Literary awards were recently announced–and we’re proud to have featured some of the winners and judges right here on Fiction Writers Review. Here are the main winners for fiction: PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize ($25,000): To a fiction writer whose debut work, published in 2010, represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise. This year, the judges have chosen two winners to share the award. Susanna Daniel, Stiltsville (FWR interview here) Danielle Evans, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (FWR interview here) Runner up: Teddy Wayne, Kapitoil Judges: Susan Cheever, Paul Harding, and Yiyun […]


Shop Talk |

The Ultimate Personality Test: Your Favorite Writer

by Celeste Ng

When you’re on a first date, what’s the first question you ask? “What do you do?” “Where did you grow up?” “What did you think of Inception?” Maybe you should ask “Who’s your favorite author?” Thought Catalog presents this handy (though somewhat tongue-in-cheek) guide to personalities based on favorite authors. For example, love Tao Lin? 3. Tao Lin If your favorite author is Tao Lin, you’re the type of introspective person who recognizes absurdity in typical daily behavior. You’re most likely a combination of all or some of the following: hipster, twee, Into Literature, shy/ anxious/ curious/ depressed, Poet, and […]


Reviews |

Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls, by Alissa Nutting

Alissa Nutting has “story” written in ink on every page of Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls, her lively, well-imagined, and jaw-droppingly smart prize-winning debut. Imagine Donald Barthelme writing smart feminine narratives, Mary Gaitskill sans the kinky sex, or Margaret Atwood turning to dry, Colbert-style humor, and you may start to get an idea of what to expect.


Shop Talk |

How to write a book–or how to return to one

by Celeste Ng

Forget New Year’s Day: I think fall might be the time that writers make all their resolutions. As the summer winds to a close, students prepare for a new school year. Teachers polish old syllabi and draw up new ones. Publishers, editors, and agents return from the Hamptons. And writers everywhere make themselves promises to buckle down and get back to work. If you’re one of the latter, you may find these practical tips on writing a book helpful. Culled from 22 established writers, the list has lots of ideas for making THIS the year you finish your book at […]




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