Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for 2013

Shop Talk |

2013 Great Write Off Begins!

by The Editors

Dear Friends, We’re excited to announce that the 2013 Great Write Off is underway! For the next week (9/23 – 9/30) we’ll be participating in our second annual write-a-thon fundraiser, in collaboration with four other literary non-profits: 826michigan, Dzanc Books, the National Writers Series, and the Neutral Zone. Last year FWR and its partner organizations raised nearly $30,000 during our inaugural fundraiser to support the work these literary non-profit organizations do to help nurture the next generation of writers. And we hope to exceed those number this year! Last year the money we raised from the Great Write Off allowed us to […]


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2013 State of the Book Keynote Speaker: Carolyn Forché

by The Editors

Editor’s Note: All this week we’ll continue posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! We’re honored to have poet of witness, teacher, social justice activist, and Detroit native Carolyn Forché as this year’s State of the Book keynote presenter. Forché is best known for engaging with explicit […]


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2013 State of the Book Presenter: Jonathan Cohn

by The Editors

Editor’s Note: For the next two weeks we’ll be posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! Jonathan Cohn, accomplished journalist, author, and United States healthcare policy expert, hails from South Florida, but now that he lives in Ann Arbor he hails to the Victors Valiant. In addition […]


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Book of the Week: Triumph of the Ape

by The Editors

This week’s feature is Todd Dills’ new collection, Triumph of the Ape, which was published earlier this year. Dills is the editor of THE2NDHAND, which was founded in 2000 in Chicago. He’s also the author of a novel, Sons of Rapture (Featherproof Books, 2006), and the editor of two anthologies of stories from THE2NDHAND. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Susannah Felts, also a published novelist and short story writer, and his daughter, Thalia. In his recent FWR interview with Nick Ostdick, the two sit down for a discussion on place in fiction, using Kickstarter to fund a print-run […]


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Book-of-the-Week Winners: The River and Enoch O'Reilly

by The Editors

Last week’s feature was Peter Murphy’s new novel, The River and Enoch O’Reilly, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Amy L. (@spydielives) Sarah Harris (@DrSeharris) Sylvie Writes (@SylvieWrites) 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!


Essays |

That’s Funny

by Debra Spark

Debra Spark on what’s funny in fiction–and what’s not. “The humor that works in literary fiction, the humor I like, is female. I mean ‘female’ in a pretty stereotypical way here. I don’t mean that the literary work is by women per se, but that it is relational.”


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2013 State of the Book Literary Symposium: September 28th

by The Editors

Once again, Fiction Writers Review will be co-hosting our annual State of the Book literary symposium, in partnership with the University of Michigan’s Department of English Language & Literature and the Zell Visiting Writers Series. Last year’s event was a huge success, drawing more than 900 people to Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor for a day of literary happenings, including Dave Eggers’s release of the 2012 Best American Nonrequired Reading anthology and 826michigan’s OMNIBUS anthology, a keynote conversation between famed fiction writer Charles Baxter and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Phil Levine, and panels with writers such as Bonnie Jo Campbell, Doug […]




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