Suspend Your Disbelief

Author Archive

Shop Talk |

First Looks, March 2012: The Pretty Girl and Conversations with David Foster Wallace

Hello again, FWR friends. Welcome to the second installment of our new blog series,  “First Looks,” which highlights soon-to-be released books that have piqued my interest as a reader-who-writes. We publish “First Looks” here on the FWR blog around the 15th of each month, and as always, I’d love to hear your comments and your recommendations of forthcoming titles. Please drop me a line anytime: erika(at)fictionwritersreview(dot)com, and thanks in advance. Here are just two of the many intriguing books scheduled to be released before we meet again one month from now: A few weeks ago, I received an email from […]


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Book of the Week: Sweet Talk, by Stephanie Vaughn

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Stephanie Vaughn’s story collection, Sweet Talk, which has just been re-released by Other Press. The book was originally published in 1990 by Random House, and it garnering critical praise upon its release. Vaughn received her MFA from the University of Iowa (Writers’ Workshop) and was both a Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing at Stanford. She is currently a Professor of English at Cornell University, as well as co-faculty director of “Imagining Rome: Art Studio & Creative Writing workshop in Italy,” a special program run through Cornell Summer Sessions. Her stories have appeared in […]


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Book-of-the-Week Winners: Three Ways of the Saw

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured Matt Mullins’s debut collection, Three Ways of the Saw, as our Book-of-the-Week title. Here are this week’s winners: Deena Drewis (@deenadrewis) Elena Mac (@elenamac) Romina Rovira (@RerryLV) 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!


Shop Talk |

I'd like to thank the Academy…

by Celeste Ng

On Oscar night, no one listens to the thank-you speeches—except the people being thanked. Likewise, no one reads the author acknowledgements of a book—or do they? On The Millions, Henriette Lazaridis Power delves into the stories behind this oft-overlooked section of a book, from the Brontë sisters to Zadie Smith to Robin Black. And Power argues that the acknowledgements are more than polite thank-you notes; they’re an opportunity: Everyone reads the acknowledgements. In fact, for many of us, the first thing we do when we pull a book off the store shelf is to flip to the back. The writers […]


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Perseverance Triumphs Over Despair At AWP

Editor’s note: At AWP 2012, which just wrapped up in Chicago, we were thrilled to hear this wonderful story from one of our contributors, Sarah Van Arsdale, and are delighted to share it with you. It’s a reminder of what conferences are really about: fostering community to buoy a writer’s spirit, helping you hang in there through those the hard months years when it feels like you’re going nowhere. 2009, Chicago. Attended AWP with the single-minded purpose of finding a publisher for my novel; my agent had tried like hell, and failed to place it. Barely made it to a […]


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Jaw-droppingly gorgeous bookstores

by Celeste Ng

Flavorwire has compiled a list of 20 incredibly gorgeous bookstores—like the Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid, housed in a converted theater in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Click over to see the whole post—guaranteed to make you want to visit each and every one. Happy Friday! Further Reading: More amazing bookshelves to inspire (or inspire envy) Coolest bookshelves


Interviews |

Save That Blood! An Interview with Jim Shepard

by Shawn Andrew Mitchell

The title of Jim Shepard’s latest collection, You Think That’s Bad, could also be a creative mantra. Here the veteran writer discusses his research process, the apocalyptic state of the world, the (possible) irrelevancy of literature to the apocalypse, his epic mustache—and other matters of importance.


Shop Talk |

Libraries, libraries, everywhere (and we mean everywhere)

by Celeste Ng

Do you have a cell phone? Of course you do.  Everyone does.  So what will become of all those public pay phone booths that no one needs anymore? Columbia architecture grad John Locke has an idea: turn them into public bookshelves.  Reports The Atlantic Cities: [I]n the past few months, the Columbia architecture grad has slipped around Manhattan with a sack of books and custom-made shelves, converting old pay phones into pop-up libraries. The concept, sponsored by Locke’s imaginary Department of Urban Betterment, is that New Yorkers will pick up unfamiliar titles while running their errands and then, perhaps, replace […]




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