In her eighth book—and fourth novel—Leah Hager Cohen explores the dynamics of grief and mourning with her trademark curious mind and loving attention to detail. Steven Wingate and the author discuss “otherness,” withholding judgment on characters, and the importance of ritual.
Reading the “Missed Connections” section of Craigslist is procrastination worthy of a writer: those missives from one lonely heart seeking another, fleetingly glimpsed, practically beg to be written into stories. BookRiot has done the opposite—taking well-known literary characters and writing their ads—and the results are hilarious: the roof, the roof – w4m (Thornfield Hall) I spotted you from my window as you delivered wood to the house – I swear our eyes locked briefly for a second. Did you feel it, too? Come back to the Hall on Thursday night – I’ll create a diversion so I can escape. I […]
In his powerful debut novel, The Art of Fielding, N+1 co-founder/editor Chad Harbach taps into the ephemeral baseball consciousness through a four-person starting rotation of narrators—all characters at a small, fictional, liberal arts school on Lake Michigan.
On New Year’s morning this year, I was sitting at a kitchen table in Cleveland, Ohio. I grew up in Cleveland and love it, but (like most people) in the way you love your old rusty car with the duct-taped mirror and muffler tied up with a string, or your dingy old house with the drafty windows and the sagging roof—both of which are, unfortunately, all-too-common images in the city of Cleveland. To top all this off, we were in town visiting a seriously ill family member and had spent most of the past few days in a hospital room, […]
This week’s feature is Anna Solomon’s debut novel, The Little Bride, which was published in September by Riverhead. Solomon’s short fiction has appeared in One Story, The Georgia Review, Harvard Review, The Missouri Review, and Shenandoah, among others. She is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes and The Missouri Review Editor’s Prize. Her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Slate’s “Double X,” and Kveller. Before receiving her MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop, she was a journalist for NPR’s Living on Earth. For more about this novel, including the story behind its origins, please visit the […]
Last week we featured Aftermath, by Scott Nadelson, as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners. Congratulations to: Carolyn West (@temysmom) Renee Johnson (@writingfeemail) Matt Sullivan (@SEANandMICHELLE) 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!
Character likability. “Plot-driven” as pejorative. Research limits in historical fiction. The mail-order-bride as escape route. The double-edged sword of social media. Anna Solomon tells it straight in this conversation with Sara Schaff.
This bag functions like a secret handshake for readers. Those in the know will understand the words emblazoned on the front: “I would prefer not to.” Those who don’t? Well, they’ll just think you have a cool bag. Available from Melville House Books, these totes boast “enough depth to hold a six-pack” and help support indie publisher Melville House. What more do you need to know? (Okay, maybe this: the bag is also available as part of an “Occupy Wall Street” bundle with a copy of Bartleby, the Scrivener and David Graeber’s Debt. Says Melville House: “This chic tote sports […]
Does the lowly individual stand a chance against the blunt force of the mass? Anita Desai’s novella collection, The Artist of Disappearance, celebrates the wish to be left alone, and the raw agony of the desire to be seen.
The literary blogosphere has been abuzz about these literary dolls, and for good reason: they’re simultaneously adorable, geeky, and creepy. Dollmaker Debbie Ritter creates handmade cloth dolls of dozens of authors–not just those you’d expect, like Herman Melville, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens, but also authors you’ve probably never seen in doll form, like Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, and Flannery O’Connor. Yes. In case you’re wondering, a fan posted about the Uneek Joyce Carol Oates doll to Joyce Carol Oates’s Facebook page. No response yet from Oates herself on what it’s like to see yourself in doll form… The […]
