Suspend Your Disbelief

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After AWP

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

It’s a sunny Sunday morning when we wake and ready ourselves to depart Chicago. Gazing out the the window of our room on the 23rd floor of the Hilton, I can see a host of over-sized snow sculptures across the street in Grant Park—enormous frogs kissing, a six-foot tall hamburger, a gigantic head of Einstein, and an anatomically correct heart the size of a Volkswagen that is now broken in pieces, presumably after a bad Valentine’s Day last night. Beyond the park, stretching toward the horizon line, Lake Michigan is the color of blued, tin siding. It might be sunny, […]


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February/March preview and call for submissions

by Anne Stameshkin

write for us… Fiction Writers Review is seeking to grow our community of contributors. If you’re interested in writing a review, essay, or interview for us, check out our updated submissions guidelines. coming soon… Over the next few weeks, we’ll publish reviews of the following books (and more): Novels The Mayor’s Tongue by Nathaniel Rich, Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen, Beijing Coma by Ma Jiang, and The Women by T.S. Boyle Story collections In the Convent of Little Flowers by Indu Sundaresan and Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff Biography Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis We’ll also offer some […]


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"what they need is a damn good reading"

by Anne Stameshkin

“Books were once subversive things, causing revolutions, and stimulating unimagined sexual awakenings…These days, opening a book – any book – is seen as nothing more than part of good citizenship, and something that might just help you on the path to prosperity to boot.” Alastair Harper gets satirical on the Guardian Books Blog, raising questions about indiscriminate reading and experiments like OUP’s Project X: There is a presumption that if the worst, most delinquent tearaways would just put down their machetes for a moment and sit down to read a good book, they would instantly see the merit in a […]


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Fiction Writers Review at AWP!

by Anne Stameshkin

If you’ll be at AWP in Chicago this Thursday-Saturday, do stop by the University of Michigan table, where FWR will be representing with giveaway magnets and bookmarks; we’re hoping to spread the word about our site, grow our community of writers and readers, connect with publishers, and learn about new and forthcoming books. Sadly I won’t be at AWP myself (this wretched pneumonia forced me to cancel my flight today), but a number of FWR contributors will be in attendance, among them Associate Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin, who has generously offered to coordinate FWR efforts at the conference. If you’re longing […]


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recommended review: Erika Dreifus on How to Write Like Chekhov

by Anne Stameshkin

Apologies for these very short blog entries, FWR readers. I have a bad bout of pneumonia and my drugged brain is not operating on all cylinders. So please, go yonder and read this wonderful review on The Practicing Writer of How to Write Like Chekhov: Advice and Inspiration, Straight from His Own Letters and Work (edited by Piero Brunello and Lena Lencek, translated from the Russian and Italian by Lena Lencek; published Nov. 2008 by Da Capo Press).


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Kindle 2.0

by Anne Stameshkin

Amazon’s brand new Kindle 2 is here, and Brad Stone says it’s “lighter, brighter, and chattier.” I admit it…I want one, and at the same time, I feel guilty for wanting one. It’s hard not to be sucked in by hyperbolic exclamations that this e-book reader is either the savior of publishing or the harbinger of its death. What do you think — is it harmful, helpful, or totally innocuous/inconsequential to purchase one? If you have a Kindle 1.0, how do you like it, and are you considering an upgrade? Here’s Stephen King at today’s launch; King scored a free […]




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