Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for 2011

Shop Talk |

Plotting out "Plot"

by Celeste Ng

How can graphs and charts help you with your writing? Blogger Derek Sivers shares these story grids from Kurt Vonnegut to help you visualize the plot of your story. (via.) Here’s one of the story of Cinderella: And if nothing else, a graph might put things in perspective. Witness blogger Ed Yong’s graph of what the writing process feels like (via). He’s a science writer, but this could apply just as well to fiction writing: My favorite point, and one I’ve been at all too often: “Regurgitated a plate of idea spaghetti. I’ll never extract a single strand from this. […]


Shop Talk |

Furry little muses

by Celeste Ng

Bubba Zo. Pumpkin. Wanita. Marlowe. New York Social Diary has a great series of photos of writers and their dogs (including the above pooches of Amy Tan, Kurt Vonnegut, Amy Hempel, and Stephen King, respectively). Don’t worry, cat-lovers, we’ve got writers and their cats, too. Here’s Joyce Carol Oates and her kitty:


Shop Talk |

Book-of-the-Week Winners: The New Valley

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured Josh Weil’s novella collection The New Valley as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners. Congratulations to: Edward Jarrett (@Edwardjarrett) Daan Kogelmans(@TheVoidComic) J.L. Clyde (@ninsiana0) To claim your signed copy of this collection, 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!


Reviews |

Agaat, by Marlene van Niekerk, trans. Michiel Heyns

by Preeta Samarasan

Preeta Samarasan finds South African novelist Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat to be transformative. The story of an Afrikaner woman and the black servant who has worked for her for most of both their lives, Agaat examines relationships of race and power between the two women by employing a stunning combination of structural intricacy, stylistic range, and daring allegory.


Shop Talk |

Europa Editions celebrates publication of its 100th book

by Sarah Van Arsdale

It was an unbridled love fest. And not only because I was there, Tuesday night in New York City, swooning a little to be in the presence of all those Europa-eans. Author Stacy Schiff described Europa’s Old Filth, by Jane Gardam, as “unforgivably perfect.” Two of the press’s translators, Alison Anderson and Ann Goldstein, spoke of their passion for their work: “If you really love the book, you make it your own,” Anderson said. The event was held at Housing Works Bookstore Café and co-sponsored by McNally Jackson Books—two of New York’s best beloved independent bookstores—and the circle of love […]


Shop Talk |

Short Stories vs. Novels: The Final Smackdown

by Celeste Ng

Just kidding. I don’t mean versus as in fight to the death / zero-sum / there can be only one winner. I mean versus as in: what’s the difference? How are these two forms alike and where do they diverge, and if we’ve been speaking the language of one for a while, how can we shift our thinking so as to be fluent in the other? Because let’s face it: novels are what sell. Send a bunch of agents short stories, and they’ll ask, “But do you have a novel?” That’s the hard-headed, business side of writing—writing a novel is […]


Interviews |

Mishpocha and Beyond: An Interview with Erika Dreifus

by Anne Stameshkin

In conversation with Anne Stameshkin, debut author Erika Dreifus shares true stories that inspired her collection, Quiet Americans; wonders when it’s kosher for authors to write characters from backgrounds they don’t share; explores how reviewing books makes us better fiction writers; and recommends favorite novels and collections by 21st-century Jewish authors.


Shop Talk |

Curl Up with some Good Stories…from Narrative

by Anne Stameshkin

Is SSM really almost over?! Thankfully we can read stories year round, but I still feel the urge (while they’re center stage) to list two recommendations this week. They both come from Narrative magazine, which does require (free) registration. But I promise, these stories are so good, it’s worth filling out a quick form to read them. And Narrative offers a huge, inspiring, and ever-growing archive of fiction from emerging writers to authors as well known as Margaret Atwood and T. C. Boyle; if I weren’t headed to a wedding this afternoon, I might curl up with this site all […]


Shop Talk |

Stories We Love: "Incarnations of Burned Children"

by Lee Thomas

When I first read William Faulkner, in high school, it felt less like reading a book and more like an archeological find—unearthing something long dormant that I’d always known. His cadence, and that humid, repetitious, biblical world of the South, tapped into something in my bones. The first time I read David Foster Wallace’s “Incarnations of Burned Children,” at my brother’s strenuous recommendation, it struck me the same way—whole cloth, True in the capital-letter sense of the word, so perfect I didn’t want to deconstruct it as a writer, lest I drain a bit of its magic. A writing teacher […]


Shop Talk |

This Week in Shorts

by Celeste Ng

For the last weekend of Fiction Writers Review’s Short Story Month celebration, here’s one more helping of short-story-related news (and some gratuitous shorts-related photos&#151you know you enjoy them): READ: Ninth Letter shares a story by Rachel Cantor, “Zanzibar, Bereft,” to read online. At The Millions, Paul Vidich reflects on the livelihood of the short story: “Is today’s short fiction not as good? Hardly. Why aren’t readers holding up their part of the bargain? The answer, let me suggest, is related to how readers are given the opportunity to read – distribution, in commercial terms.” Still not enough short stories for […]




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