Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for 2011

Shop Talk |

Valerie Laken at KGB Bar this Sunday, 4/3!

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

FWR contributor Valerie Laken‘s story collection, Separate Kingdoms, has just come out, and those of you in NYC can hear her read from it live at KGB Bar this Sunday, April 3, at 7:00 pm. Laken will read with Cat Valente as part of KGB’s Sunday Night Fiction series. And stay tuned next month, when we’ll be giving away three copies of Separate Kingdoms in honor of Short Story Month! Further reading: Learn more about Valerie Laken and her work through this FWR interview Follow Valerie through “The Magical, Dreadful First Hundred Pages,” her essay adapted from the 2010 AWP […]


Shop Talk |

Books as dominoes

by Celeste Ng

Earlier this month, this video celebrated Library Ireland Week: Notice how everyone is too engrossed in reading to notice the books falling all around? That’s how great reading is! Want more book-dominoes? Check out this run by “bookman”:


Shop Talk |

When are you big enough to handle the bad review?

by Celeste Ng

Last week, a personal book-review blog called BigAl’s Books and Pals posted a review of a self-published novel by Jacqueline Howett. Howett took exception to the review and posted a series of ranting comments, eventually deteriorating into obscenities—but not before the thread had gone viral, and not in a good way. Some insist that any publicity is good publicity, but the writing blogosphere unanimously agrees that Howett shot herself in the proverbial foot with her behavior. But for writers who don’t have public meltdowns over bad reviews, is any publicity good publicity? How do bad reviews affect book sales? David […]


Shop Talk |

Thursday Morning Candy: Newcity Lit

by Celeste Ng

Welcome to Thursday Morning Candy, where we highlight a sweet online journal or writely resource. Attention, Chicago writers! Newcity Lit is a website devoted to the Windy City’s writing scene. Says the site: We start with the core coverage found each week in Newcity magazine, Chicago’s only locally owned and operated cultural weekly, where we’ve been covering the turf for more than 22 years, and extend it with your input on this site. Please sign up and join the conversation! Recent topics include the School of the Art Institute’s second annual Small Press and Comics Symposium, a writeup of Columbia […]


Reviews |

Reading Responsibility and Friendship in Bragi Ólafsson’s The Pets

by Aaron J. Cance

In Icelandic author Bragi Ólafsson’s The Pets, the narrator spends the novel hiding under his bed as his “friends,” who assume he isn’t home, gather in his apartment. Aaron Cance reviews this voyeuristic tale, its quirky narrative, and its debt to Moby Dick.


Shop Talk |

Trade your books with BookMooch

by Celeste Ng

How have I not heard of this site before? BookMooch allows you to trade books you don’t want for books you do—by mail, with a little help from the internet. Here’s how it works, according to the site: You earn points when you: Type books in: enter books you own and want to give away. Each book typed in gets you 1/10th of a point. Give books away: respond to a mooch request, and send your book to them. 1 point awarded, 3 points if sent to another country. Acknowledge Receipt: after you receive a book, leave feedback for the […]


Shop Talk |

Bizarro Fiction: literature of the weird

by Lee Thomas

AWP provided a perfect opportunity to discover what has captured the imaginations of fellow writers with vastly different viewpoints. One such writer is Eric Hendrixson, who introduced me to Bizarro fiction. As Hendrixson described his novel, Bucket of Face, I realized I’d been completely unaware of this genre that Horror World calls “the literary equivalent of a David Lynch or a Tim Burton film.” Hendrixson kindly offered to answer some of my novice questions. Define Bizarro fiction. Bizarro is literature of the weird. This isn’t the same thing as experimental fiction, which is weird in its structure and sometimes unreadable. […]


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Journal of the Week: Ploughshares

by Michael Rudin

Rebecca Makkai’s Professor Alex Moore is one of the most memorable characters in 2010’s Best American Short Stories. Not just because she accidentally kills an albatross while hunting ducks in Australia, or because as a teacher of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” she becomes a minor celebrity on campus due to the ironic crime, but because that one pull of the trigger sets forth a steady unraveling of her personal and professional lives—so thorough a deconstruction that the reader soon joins Moore in doubting its authenticity. The conclusion to Makkai’s “Painted Ocean, Painted Ship” does what you would expect a […]


Shop Talk |

Book of the Week Winners: The House on Salt Hay Road

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured Carin Clevidence’s debut novel The House on Salt Hay Road as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Stephen Long, Linda White, and Alexandra Timm. Congratulations! To claim your signed copy of this novel, please email us at the following address: winners@fictionwritersreview.com To anyone who’d like to be eligible for our future drawings, visit our Facebook Page and “like” us. No catch, no gimmicks–just a great way to promote books we love. To everyone who’s already a fan, big thanks!


Shop Talk |

Can Discovereads predict which books you'll like?

by Celeste Ng

How do you decide what books to read next? Do you judge by the cover? Do you buy what’s handy and cheap? You could get a recommendation from a friend, but that can be risky. Enter Discovereads, a startup now run by Goodreads. Rate at least 10 books, and the site uses an algorithm to “learn your personal tastes” and recommend books it thinks you’ll like. Goodreads plans to add Discovereads to its own site soon, as well. The New York Times’s “Bits” blog reports: Otis Chandler, Goodreads’s founder and chief executive, says the site [Goodreads] has been an online […]




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