Suspend Your Disbelief

Contributor Types

Anne Stameshkin

Founding Editor

Anne Stameshkin lives in Brooklyn. Her fiction has been published in the Chattahoochee Review andNimrod, and her book reviews have appeared inEnfuse magazine. Anne holds an MFA (fiction) from the University of Michigan. She pays the bills as a freelance editor, writer, and writing teacher, most recently at Connecticut College. While in-house at McGraw-Hill, Anne edited a number of literature and composition texts and two craft books—Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola and The Sincerest Form: Writing Fiction by Imitation by Nicholas Delbanco, among other projects. She is currently at work on a novel. Some recently published collections she recommends include If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This by Robin Black, The Theory of Light and Matter by Andrew Porter, and Boys and Girls Like You and Me by Aryn Kyle.


Articles

Shop Talk |

What are you doing this summer?

by Anne Stameshkin

FWR’s contributors are participating in some very cool programs, and we’re eager to know what other writers are up to over the next few months. Leave a comment here, or email fictionwritersreview@gmail.com to tell us where you’ll be writing, teaching, or otherwise fictionizing. (And check in tomorrow to hear more about the Catskill Studio for Writing.) 1. Natalie Bakopoulos is currently teaching a week-long writing workshop on the Greek island of Andros as a part of the Aegean Arts Circle, which was founded in 2003 by Amalia Melis. Stratis Haviaris, a poet and the founding editor of the Harvard Review, […]


Shop Talk |

recommended reading: L.A. Times's "Writers on Writing" series

by Anne Stameshkin

Thanks to Erika/Practicing Writing for alerting FWR to the L.A. Times‘s new “Writers on Writing” feature, which publishes every Friday. This week’s upcoming installment will the the fifth, but there are already some very interesting essays, including a piece by Taylor Antrim on writing the second novel and last week’s essay by Rich Cohen: “Will Facebook kill literature’s ‘leave the past behind’ themes?” Read more about (and excerpts from) Taylor Antrim’s debut novel, The Headmaster Ritual, here, and more about Rich Cohen’s books, The Avengers and Tough Jews, here.


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FWR dinner party, San Francisco-style

by Anne Stameshkin

FWR Associate Editor Lee Thomas and I finally met face-to-face at this lovely dinner at Lee’s apartment. Behold her (amazing) homemade lasagna and plum cake! Not pictured: excellent conversation, graphic novel recommendations, and happy plotting for our website’s future.


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In Protest of Dullness, or Why I'm Glad Our President Reads Novels

by Anne Stameshkin

This nearly week-old David Brooks op-ed is infuriating for many reasons (such as its writer’s blatant scoffing at and outright denial of–despite the current economic disaster–the notion that to run a truly successful company or country, a leader should have the prescience to realize that the world around him or her is always changing, the ability to connect with and understand that world and the people in it, and the imagination and flexibility to adjust to that world’s advancements and its people’s diverse and changing needs), but in the name of this website and our shared passion for fiction, dear […]


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enduring fictional characters: narrative curse?

by Anne Stameshkin

Check out this NPR blog post to find out who the “longest running fictional character” (in any medium) is. If you want to guess before clicking, here are Glen Weldon’s criteria: Consistent: Makes regularly scheduled appearances — no yawning gaps between adventures. Continuous: The character’s adventures form a central narrative that builds on what has gone before. (Read: Katzenjammer Kids, I know you’ve been around a long time, but you’re a gag strip, not an ongoing narrative. Thanks for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts.) New: The constant churning out of fresh content, not simply adaptations, retellings or reprints. […]


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recommended event: Guerrilla Lit Reading Series tonight!

by Anne Stameshkin

I’ll be on a plane to San Francisco, but if you’ll be in NYC tonight, head to BAR on A – 170 Avenue A @ 11th – at 7:30 PM to see FWR contributor and fictiontastic writer Lee Goldberg read with Meakin Armstrong and Deenah Vollmeras part of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series. From anywhere, you can follow Guerrilla Lit on Twitter: http://twitter.com/guerrillalit. About the Writers* Lee Goldberg teaches Literature and Composition at LaGuardia Community College. He has an MFA from New School University and is a founding member of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series. He is currently working on […]


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recommended event: 5th Annual Hudson Valley Literary Festival

by Anne Stameshkin

From the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) (who are celebrating their 40th anniversary!): Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 — All LIT Up: 5th Annual Hudson Valley Literary Festival Come to the Hudson Valley for a day-long festival produced by the CLMP (with the Hudson Opera House, Fence Books and Hudson Wine Merchants) celebrating literature and literary publishing. **All events free and open to the public.** 11 AM – 4 PM: Bargains! Bargains! Bargains! Literary Magazine & Small Press Book Fair Hudson Opera House, 327 Warren Street, Hudson, NY Hundreds of books and lit mags published by regional and national […]


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Blog Tour! Bridget McNulty, author of Strange Nervous Laughter

by Anne Stameshkin

FWR is thrilled to host South African debut novelist Bridget McNulty for a stop on her book blog tour. In addition to sharing an excerpt from her book Strange Nervous Laughter, Bridget has also written a great post about the story and process behind it. (And if you haven’t yet seen “The Lonely Cupcake,” a one-minute whimsical fable/preview of the novel, watch it today; and check out behind-the-scenes photos from that project.) An excerpt from Strange Nervous Laughter: He arrived at her house in a hearse, which was perhaps not the best omen for a first date. What was unusual […]


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recommended event: Ann Arbor Book Festival

by Anne Stameshkin

FWR will have a table at the 2009 Ann Arbor Book Festival (in the Writing Conference), which begins this Friday! Michigan-based writers, stop by and say hello to Jeremy, and also check out the Emerging Writers Network and Hobart. In addition to a book fair, this festival will feature an array of exciting panels (the one on the Future of the Book sounds especially interesting!), readings from authors like Colson Whitehead (Sag Harbor) and Sung J. Woo (Everything Asian), and other events, such as this exploration of how a play comes to life “from page to stage,” a breakfast with […]




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