Suspend Your Disbelief

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Book of the Week: Three Ways of the Saw, by Matt Mullins

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Matt Mullins’s debut collection, Three Ways of the Saw, which was just released by Atticus Books, a small literary press in Maryland that specializes in “genre-busting literary fiction—i.e., titles that fall between the cracks of genre fiction and compelling narratives that feature memorable main characters.” Mullins is a writer, musician, experimental filmmaker and multimedia artist. His fiction and poetry have appeared in such places as Mid-American Review, Pleiades, Hunger Mountain, Harpur Palate, Descant, Hobart, as well as other print and online literary journals. He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Ball State University, where […]


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Book-of-the-Week Winners: The World of a Few Minutes Ago

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured Jack Driscoll’s new collection, The World of a Few Minutes Ago, as our Book-of-the-Week title. Here are this week’s winners: Emilia Fuentes Grant (@EmiliaFGrant) Roz Morris fiction (@ByRozMorris) Adria Haley (@adria_haley) 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.


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How to Succeed In Business? Read fiction.

by Celeste Ng

There are lots of reasons to read fiction. But did you know it can also make you a better businessperson? In the Harvard Business Review, Anne Kreamer makes “the business case for reading novels.” She argues: Over the past decade, academic researchers such as Oatley and Raymond Mar from York University have gathered data indicating that fiction-reading activates neuronal pathways in the brain that measurably help the reader better understand real human emotion — improving his or her overall social skillfulness. […] In one of Oatley and Mar’s studies in 2006, 94 subjects were asked to guess the emotional state […]


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Police Composite sketches for literary characters

by Celeste Ng

Like most readers, you probably have your own mental image of Humbert Humbert, or Emma Bovary, or the Misfit. But if you’re the kind of person who likes a visual, check out The Composites, a Tumblr site that plugs literary descriptions of characters into police composite sketch software. The results are… well, take a look below and decide for yourself. Here’s how the police sketch program portrayed the three characters I mentioned above, along with the passages that generated them. (All images via The Composites.) Humbert Humbert, from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: Gloomy good looks…Clean-cut jaw, muscular hand, deep sonorous […]


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Great Literary Things You Can Do Because You're Not at AWP

by Celeste Ng

Not at AWP—and wishing you were?  Don’t.  Here are 3 great literary things you can do this weekend because you’re not at AWP: 1. Go to a reading. Hear Alice McDermott at Hofstra, Karen Joy Fowler in San Francisco, Jodi Picoult in Boston, or any of a dozen other great readings.  Poets & Writers has a handy calendar, searchable by state or city, or check your local bookstore’s website. 2. Take a writing class. Many writing centers offer one-night classes, so take advantage of them while others are away. Happening AWP weekend: in Boston, Grub Street offers classes such as […]


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Cooler than AWP

by Celeste Ng

So you’re not at AWP right now, and you’re wondering what kind of highjinks you’re missing?   I can promise you, you’re not missing anything as fun as the sessions on Full Stop’s mock AWP schedule, which I must confess looks way more exciting than the original. Here are the sessions I’d be attending at this alterna-AWP: 4 Over 400: The Gutenberg Problem. Noted grimoire authors Merlin, Gandalf, Conor MacLeod, and Albus Dumbledore discuss the potentially disastrous consequences of printing presses. Will the grimoire survive this radical new development in publishing? How should scroll hawkers best adapt to the new […]


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2012 Sozopol Fiction Seminars Application Deadline March 7th

by The Editors

Reminder: There are still a few days left to apply for the 2012 Sozopol Fiction Seminars. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Seminars, which take place each year in the historic, seaside town of Sozopol, on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. Famed fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and naturalist Barry Lopez will be the distinguished English language guest lecturer this season. Lopez is the author of many books, including Arctic Dreams, which received the National Book Award, Of Wolves and Men, which was a National Book Award finalist and the recipient of the John Burroughs and Christopher medals, and numerous […]


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FWR at AWP 2012!

by The Editors

We here at Fiction Writers Review are excited to hit AWP and catch up with our friends and contributors. All throughout the conference, you can find us at our Bookfair table (N16)—come by and say hi! And here’s a partial list of FWR-related events: Thursday, March 1st: 12 pm – “Beyond the Workshop”: Contributor Margaret Lazarus Dean and other panelists explore new ways of teaching creative writing.  (Private Dining Room 2, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor) 7 pm – University of Michigan Reception: Contributor Valerie Laken reads along with Darcie Dennigan.  (Marquette, Hilton Chicago Hotel 3rd Floor<) Friday, March 2nd: 9 […]


Reviews |

Three Ways of the Saw, by Matt Mullins

by Lee Thomas

Prodigals on a grand scale who don’t want to go home. Matt Mullins packs 25 stories into his high-velocity debut Three Ways of the Saw. Don’t be misled by the Zenlike title, these characters come at you like a karate chop to the windpipe. Read on to find out exactly why you’ll be thanking him for that bruised trachea.




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