Suspend Your Disbelief

Author Archive

Shop Talk |

On the Benefits of Disconnecting

by Celeste Ng

Author Elizabeth Benedict, editor of the recent anthology Mentors, Muses, & Monsters, discusses her experience being forced to unplug: Finding this blank book already so full of hope and history — from Hemingway’s to my beloved sister-in-law’s — was a bit like encountering a bear in the woods: it was just the two of us, and it was up to me to save my skin. I couldn’t hide, couldn’t escape to the computer or connect anywhere but in its cream-colored pages. I began by rereading the manuscript pages from the novel — and I winced two dozen times. It was […]


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Moscow's Dostoevsky-Themed Metro Stop

by Celeste Ng

Subways are not known for being bright and cheerful—but Moscow’s new Dostoevsky-themed station takes subway gloom to a new level. The Dostoevskaya Station opened in June in northern Moscow as a tribute to the famed Russian author and features murals based on his works. Here’s one from Crime and Punishment: But some worry that the grim, black-and-white murals will have negative psychological effects on subway riders. NPR reports: Mikhail Vinogradov, who heads a psychological help center in Moscow, went on Russian TV to complain that the murals will make people “afraid to ride the subway.” Like other psychologists who raised […]


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About

by Anne Stameshkin

Welcome to Fiction Writers Review, an online literary journal by, for, and about emerging writers. We are a community of writers dedicated to reviewing, recommending, and discussing quality fiction from presses big and small, from writers widely revered and little known–with a particular focus on emerging authors. Our goal is to get writers and readers talking not only about how fiction reads but how it works and why it matters. FWR gives due attention to new titles (in hardcover and paperback), but we also revisit the backlist: classics, new classics, and books that add richness to our various writing lives. […]


Shop Talk |

The Problem with "Chick Lit"

by Celeste Ng

Over at the Huffington Post, novelist Diane Meier takes issue with the label “chick lit”: Let me suggest that Chick Lit is what we used to call the “Beach Book.” And that it is its own genre, like mysteries or sci-fi; interesting to a specific audience primarily because of the nature and form of the genre itself. Some good stuff, some bad, no doubt, as in all genre writing, you come across an Ed McBain every now and then. But crossover is not the point, if the targeted reader simply wants a light little fantasy with some kissing scenes and […]


Shop Talk |

Slice Magazine to offer writing workshops

by Celeste Ng

Launched in 2007, Slice is a nonprofit print magazine based in Brooklyn that “aims to bridge the gap between emerging and established authors by offering a space where both are published side-by-side. In each issue, a specific cultural theme becomes the catalyst for articles and interviews from renowned writers and lesser known voices alike.” (The current issue, pictured, focuses on the theme of “villains.”) This fall, Slice will begin a series of in-person writing/publishing workshops, We Who Write. Says the magazine’s website: In a new series of classes and workshops developed exclusively by Slice, aspiring writers will have a chance […]


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Love of A.S. Byatt = basis for a date?

by Celeste Ng

Ever just wish you could find someone who loves Lydia Davis/Milan Kundera/David Sedaris as much as you do? Alikewise is here to help. Describing its goal as “Dating Based on Book Tastes,” Alikewise is a free dating service for literary folk. Says the site: Alikewise is about finding common ground based on what you like to read. Imagine a dinner party where you wander over to your host’s bookshelf, and strike up a chat with the person next to you. You loved The Black Swan? Me too. Other sites say they know what makes people compatible. We’re skeptical of that […]


Interviews |

Consumed by the Country: An Interview with Tatjana Soli

by Tyler McMahon

Tatjana Soli’s debut novel, The Lotus Eaters, takes place during the Vietnam War and focuses on a female combat photographer. Tyler McMahon talks with the author about how we choose our subject matter, the challenges of writing about well-documented history, the role research plays in her process, and why novels matter in an era increasingly dominated by nonfiction.


Shop Talk |

Recently on FWR…

by Anne Stameshkin

In case you missed them, here’s a roundup of recent features from FWR: In an interview with Christopher Mohar, author and teacher Anthony Doerr discusses his curiosity about the world and “engaging with factual information for fictive purposes”: What I work to dispel in my students is the prevailing myth that inspiration comes like a light bulb over the head, a lightning stroke to the spleen, and all we have to do as artists is wait for the lightning and then transcribe it. I think instead work comes from hundreds or thousands of hours of working through things, from pouring […]


Shop Talk |

Sharon Pomerantz reads at Women and Children First on Thursday at 7:30pm

by Anne Stameshkin

Chicago friends, don’t miss Sharon Pomerantz’s reading this Thursday at Women and Children First at 7:30pm. Sharon will be reading from her debut novel, Rich Boy. Beginning in the 1970s in a working-class Jewish neighborhood and stretching to the halls of power in Reagan-era Manhattan and beyond, the book chronicles four decades in the life of Robert Vishniak as he struggles to create a new identity for himself. Sharon is a talented writer of short fiction–in addition to publishing stories in such places as The Missouri Review and Ploughshares, “Ghost Knife” was selected for inclusion in Best American Short Stories […]




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