Suspend Your Disbelief

Author Archive

Shop Talk |

enduring fictional characters: narrative curse?

by Anne Stameshkin

Check out this NPR blog post to find out who the “longest running fictional character” (in any medium) is. If you want to guess before clicking, here are Glen Weldon’s criteria: Consistent: Makes regularly scheduled appearances — no yawning gaps between adventures. Continuous: The character’s adventures form a central narrative that builds on what has gone before. (Read: Katzenjammer Kids, I know you’ve been around a long time, but you’re a gag strip, not an ongoing narrative. Thanks for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts.) New: The constant churning out of fresh content, not simply adaptations, retellings or reprints. […]


Shop Talk |

recommended lit journal: Waccamaw

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Earlier this month Waccamaw launched its Spring 2009 Issue. This is the third volume of the online literary journal published at Coastal Carolina University. The mission of the journal is to combine the rigorous quality and attention to detail of print journals with the reach and distribution of the Internet. And this attention to detail is visible not only in the quality of the authors being published here, but also little things like font choices (Georgia) and the off-white background that gives the illusion of reading from a “page.” The journal even has an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) and […]


Shop Talk |

new review on FWR: Friend of Mankind by Julian Mazor

Julian Mazor’s wonderful, unsung second collection of stories, Friend of Mankind published in 2004, thirty-six years after his first. Mazor’s elegant language evokes settings that are simultaneously a backdrop for and a mirror of his characters’ inner lives, and his compassion for these characters is almost physical. Click here to read the full review by Helen Mallon.


Reviews |

Unsung Story Collection: Friend of Mankind, by Julian Mazor

Julian Mazor’s wonderful, unsung second collection of stories, Friend of Mankind, published in 2004, thirty-six years after his first. Mazor’s elegant language evokes settings that are simultaneously a backdrop for and a mirror of his characters’ inner lives, and his compassion for these characters is almost physical.


Shop Talk |

recommended event: Guerrilla Lit Reading Series tonight!

by Anne Stameshkin

I’ll be on a plane to San Francisco, but if you’ll be in NYC tonight, head to BAR on A – 170 Avenue A @ 11th – at 7:30 PM to see FWR contributor and fictiontastic writer Lee Goldberg read with Meakin Armstrong and Deenah Vollmeras part of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series. From anywhere, you can follow Guerrilla Lit on Twitter: http://twitter.com/guerrillalit. About the Writers* Lee Goldberg teaches Literature and Composition at LaGuardia Community College. He has an MFA from New School University and is a founding member of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series. He is currently working on […]


Shop Talk |

After the Ann Arbor Book Festival

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

There’s an old adage in these parts: If you don’t like the weather in Michigan, wait five minutes. This was certainly true to form the last several days here at the Ann Arbor Book Festival. Friday dawned beautiful, cloudless and warm. Yet by the cocktail hour the sky was spitting and sputtering. Saturday, too, threatened rain. But other than a few windy gusts that lifted the tents on the Ingalls Mall, the weather held. In fact, by mid afternoon that second day the clouds had gone. And the only rain we received was through the night—the literary Gods were smiling. […]


Shop Talk |

new interview on FWR: Adam Rapp (Punkzilla)

Brian Bartels sits down with Adam Rapp–prolific playwright, musician, director, and novelist–to talk about his latest book, Punkzilla, and the mysterious process by which the words we create are shaped by music. Click here to read the whole interview-essay, “Shadow Sounds: Music as Character.”


Reviews |

Sag Harbor, by Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead’s fourth novel, Sag Harbor, is driven not by plot but by time, by the fleetingness of summer and its constant reminder of that fleetingness. The beginning is slow, with the sense of months ahead, time to digress and ponder and imagine and internalize, with the thickest, most dense prose socked in the middle of July, the more desperate, urgent bursts as we careen toward Labor Day. The writing is wonderfully languorous throughout, like summer itself, and a perfect match for adolescence: unrestrained and indulgent but wonderfully self-conscious as well.


Shop Talk |

recommended event: 5th Annual Hudson Valley Literary Festival

by Anne Stameshkin

From the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) (who are celebrating their 40th anniversary!): Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 — All LIT Up: 5th Annual Hudson Valley Literary Festival Come to the Hudson Valley for a day-long festival produced by the CLMP (with the Hudson Opera House, Fence Books and Hudson Wine Merchants) celebrating literature and literary publishing. **All events free and open to the public.** 11 AM – 4 PM: Bargains! Bargains! Bargains! Literary Magazine & Small Press Book Fair Hudson Opera House, 327 Warren Street, Hudson, NY Hundreds of books and lit mags published by regional and national […]




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