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

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recommended Book Tour podcast: Daniyal Mueenuddin and Justin Torres

by Anne Stameshkin

When Alan Cheuse spoke with FWR last month, he highly recommended Daniyal Mueenuddin’s story collection, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, a book now teetering at the top of my “must-read” pile. In the meantime, we can all hear Mueenuddin read from his work via this NPR podcast from a recent Granta-sponsored event at McNally Jackson. Also on the bill is emerging writer Justin Torres (currently a student at the Iowa Writers Workshop, formerly a McNally Jackson employee), whose fiction has appeared in Tin House, Granta, and other magazines; here, he reads “Lessons,” a three-part story published in Granta 104: Fathers.


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Andrew's Book Club: April Picks

by Anne Stameshkin

Here they are, the April collections Andrew urges us to buy, read, and recommend. This month, all three books are debuts. Viva la short story–and the emerging writer! University Press Pick: Tracy Winn’s Mrs. Somebody Somebody (Southern Methodist UP) Indie Pick: Paul Yoon’s Once the Shore (Sarabande) Big House Pick: Kevin Wilson’s Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Harper Perennial)


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Sunday browsing

by Anne Stameshkin

Take a tour of The Most Interesting Bookstores of the World. And visit Zoomii.com, which offers a “real bookstore” browsing experience but links to Amazon for actual checkout. I wish (1) that you could look inside this book during this part of the process and (2) that you could use such a service to shop at indie stores.


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Jeremiah Chamberlin wins Glimmer Train's Family Matters Fiction Prize!

by Anne Stameshkin

Huzzah and huge congrats to Jeremy, FWR’s Associate Editor, whose story “What We Can” has captured the $1200 first prize in Glimmer Train‘s Family Matters contest. Runners-up were, for second place, Yuval Zalkow for “God and Buses,” and for third place, Adam Theron-Lee Rensch for “Everything in Its Right Place.” The full list of finalists is available as a PDF here. Be sure to check out Glimmer Train‘s Summer 2010 issue, where “What We Can” will appear, or get a jump on it and subscribe now to one of FWR’s favorite literary magazines.


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Henry Sene Yee on designing a cover

by Anne Stameshkin

I love hearing about other writers’ processes, how they perceive of and describe them. There’s always the hope that this will yield some magical secret–or at least a scrap of empathy. And I think it serves writers well to read about how artists in other mediums work through a piece. This post on Henry Sene Yee’s book design blog walks us through his process — including many drafts — in creating the cover design for Columbine by Dave Cullen.


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Jane Smiley vs New York writing scene

by Anne Stameshkin

This may be last week’s news, but the issues it raises are still worth a jaw. From The Daily Beast (via some friends who were at this event: a reception and Q&A with the Man Booker International Prize judges, who met to discuss the finalists for this prestigious biannual award): The book world is generally so polite and civilized, that it’s sort of fun when a kerfuffle breaks open as it did last night at the New York Public Library. […] Up on stage were The Daily Beast’s Tina Brown, acting as moderator, and the three judges: novelists Amit Chaudhuri, […]


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authors v. editors v. agents: Slice's literary trivia showdown!

by Anne Stameshkin

Celebrate Slice Magazine‘s fourth issue launch with a Literary Trivia Showdown event tonight, March 23, from 6:30-9:30 at Dixon Place (161 Chrystie St, between Rivington and Delancey). This first-time event will pit three teams of five agents, five editors, and five authors (including Jonathan Lethem) against each other. The launch party will also feature craft ales, a raffle, and a silent auction. Tickets are $25 and include a copy of the magazine’s Issue 4.


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get workshopped, support writing programs for young students

by Anne Stameshkin

DZANC books and the Emerging Writers Network are offering a a great opportunity for writers seeking feedback on their work: the DZANC Creative Writing Sessions are online one-on-one workshops that you can purchase very cheaply by the hour. Have your work read and commented on by someone from this amazing list of authors–all of whom are volunteering their time to this project. 100% of the proceeds go to support DZANC’s Writers in the Schools program for kids grades 4-12.


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Uwem Akpan wins Africa regional for Best First Book!

by Anne Stameshkin

Warm congratulations to friend and former classmate Uwem Akpan, whose debut story collection Say You’re One of Them has won the Africa regional for the Commonwealth Writers’ Best First Book Award. Africa’s Best Book Award winner is South African writer Mandla Langa, for The Lost Colours of the Chameleon. The authors will each go on to compete for the overall Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in their respective categories.




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