Suspend Your Disbelief

Author Archive

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Jonathan Franzen on the cover of TIME

by Celeste Ng

Jonathan Franzen is on the cover of the August 23 issue of TIME Magazine, with an article marking the publication of his latest novel, Freedom. Since he’s the first living author to be so featured in over a decade (the last being Stephen King), it’s caused quite a stir in the lit world. In particular, the caption below Franzen’s photo is catching some snark. The L.A. Times notes: Franzen appears on the cover of the upcoming issue of Time magazine — an honor not extended to a living author since Stephen King in 2000 — with the words “Great American […]


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Five Chapters to publish print books

by Celeste Ng

Most of the news lately is about print publishers moving to electronic publishing. So it’s refreshing to hear about the opposite: short story website Five Chapters will soon begin publishing print books. In January 2011, Five Chapters will publish three short story collections by Five Chapters alums: Nobody Ever Gets Lost by Jess Row, Other People We Married by Emma Straub, and “an anthology of stories which have been published on FC over the last four years.” Five Chapters founder David Daley shared the news with Mediabistro’s Morning Media Menu. Click here to listen to the interview with Daley, and […]


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Crazyhorse Literary Journal launches ebook format

by Celeste Ng

Lit journal Crazyhorse now offers its readers two options: print and ebook. But unlike many ebooks, in which font and typesetting may be very different on-screen and on paper, the editors describe the ebook version as “a digital book version of the same Crazyhorse paper-and-print page.” Indeed, the pages are nicely laid out and there’s even a turning-page animation for that printed-page feel. You can see a sample from the current ebook issue here. What’s more, ebook-only subscriptions are half the price of print subcriptions ($8 for one year of ebooks; $16 for one year of print, with free ebook […]


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What this book needs is more whiskey.

by Celeste Ng

Are you looking for more ways to combine drinking with your reading life? (Hey—it’s summer.) This past week, the internet has overflowed with suggestions: First, from Jezebel, there’s “Drink ‘Til He’s Witty: The Reader’s Drinking Game.” Some suggested rules, depending on which author you’re reading: David Foster Wallace: Drink every time a sentence has three or more conjunctions. Jane Austen: Drink every time someone plays whist, goes riding, or gets married. Gabriel García Márquez: Drink every time someone’s name is “Aureliano.” (Note: this only works for A Hundred Years of Solitude) Or, if you prefer to drink while mourning the […]


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FWR on "Living Writers": The Podcast

by Anne Stameshkin

Did you miss FWR Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin on the “Living Writers” show on Wednesday? No worries. You can now stream the podcast on iTunes preview—mouse over the August 11th episode and click play, or click “View in iTunes” to download. The interview starts at about 15:30. “Living Writers” airs every Wednesday at 4:30pm on WCBN-FM Ann Arbor. Each week, host T Hetzel talks with writers who read from their work and talk about their passions and preoccupations. Recent guests include poet Dean Young, author and comedian John Hodgman, fiction writer Yiyun Li, and Granta Editor John Freeman. You can listen […]


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Help during "The Long Haul"

by Celeste Ng

So maybe Tuesday’s post on the 10-year novel got you down. Here’s some encouragement: lit site The Rumpus is introducing a new occasional column, “The Long Haul,” featuring writers reflecting on the (long-term) writing life. Or, as the editors put it: Whether you’re a literary wunderkind whose first book was a bestseller, or one of the thousands of writers who have to claw their way to a sustainable career, the writing life requires patience and resilience, a commitment to faithfully staying the course though the course sometimes offers little encouragement or reward. And yet we do it; we pass up […]


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FWR on WCBN-FM Wednesday at 4:30pm

by Anne Stameshkin

We’re excited to announce that FWR Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin will be this week’s guest on “Living Writers”, hosted by T. Hetzel. “Living Writers” airs every Wednesday at 4:30pm on WCBN-FM Ann Arbor. Tune in to hear him discuss Fiction Writers Review, his own writing, the Inside Indie Bookstore series he publishes in Poets & Writers magazine, and other topics on writing. You can listen to the show at 88.3FM in Ann Arbor, or hear it streamed live at wcbn.org. Recent guests include poet Dean Young, author and comedian John Hodgman, fiction writer Yiyun Li, and Granta Editor John Freeman. Archives […]


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A decade in the making…

by Celeste Ng

On Slate.com, Susanna Daniels reflects on the process of writing her first novel—which she describes as “the quiet hell of 10 years of novel writing”: During my should-be-writing years, I thought about my novel all the time. Increasingly, these were not happy or satisfying thoughts. My “novel” (which had started to wear its own air quotes in my head) became something closer to enemy than lover. A person and his creative work exist in a relationship very much like a marriage: When it’s good, it’s very good, and when it’s bad, it’s ugly. And when it’s been bad for a […]


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Map Your Reading

by Celeste Ng

Google Lit Trips uses Google Earth to show readers important locations in works of literature. For example, if you’re reading The Grapes of Wrath, you can follow the Joads’ travel along Route 66, or while reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, you can track the kid from Texas to Mexico and beyond. The site’s main focus is on children’s and YA lit, with maps for classics such as Make Way for Ducklings, The Slave Dancer, and Paddle-to-the-Sea. But there are a growing number of “trips” for adult literary fiction as well, including The Road by Cormac McCarthy, A Portrait of […]




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