Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for 2012

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Cozy Classics

Perhaps you’ve heard of “fuzzy math”—now there’s fuzzy literature, as well. Literally. A new series of picture books illustrates works like Moby Dick with adorable felted figures. Brothers Jack and Holman Wang have teamed up to create “Cozy Classics,” explains Tandem Magazine: Holman made wool figures of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet, Mr. Darcy, and Mr. Bingley for Pride and Prejudice as well as figures of Captain Ahab, Moby Dick, and the Pequod for Moby Dick. […] Each image is accompanied by one of the twelve words, previously selected by Dr. Wang, that make up each book of the Cozy Classics […]


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Book of the Week: Signs and Wonders, by Alix Ohlin

Our new feature is Alix Ohlin‘s most recent collection, Signs and Wonders (Vintage), which was simultaneously published last month with her new novel, Inside (Knopf). Additionally, she is the author of the novel The Missing Person (Knopf, 2005) and the collection Babylon and Other Stories (Knopf, 2006). Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories and Best New American Voices, and has also appeared on public radio’s Selected Shorts. Born and raised in Montreal, she currently lives in Easton, Pennsylvania, and teaches at Lafayette College. She is also on the faculty of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for […]


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Book-of-the-Week Winners: Aerogrammes, by Tania James

For the last two weeks we’ve been featuring Tania James’s new story collection Aerogrammes, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Tiffany Alexander (@alexandervision) Stacey Joy Netzel (@StaceyJoyNetzel) Kay Glass (@kglass112406) Congrats! To claim your free copy, 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! Thanks to all of you who are fans. We appreciate your support. Let us know your favorite new books out there!


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The ghost in the (writing) machine

Not long ago, we talked about the phenomenon of robots writing books. But those computer-authored tomes—with scintillating subject matter like Saltine Cracker were mish-mashes of text culled together from Wikipedia and other websites. Computers can’t write actual stories. Or can they? Enter Narrative Science, a Chicago-based software company teaching computers to do just that—well, news stories, at least. Wired explains that articles written by the company’s computer algorithm are already out there: The computer-written product could be a pennant-waving second-half update of a Big Ten basketball contest, a sober preview of a corporate earnings statement, or a blithe summary of […]