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 |

bring on the lists

by Anne Stameshkin

It’s December, officially List Season. Those long, all-encompassing ones are fun to bitch about and debate, but my favorite lists are short and specific. A short list demands more careful consideration on the part of the list-maker, and readers have a prayer of actually checking out most or all of its best-of books/films/what-have-you. Today Jessa Crispin (aka Bookslut, here for NPR) offers a concise and enticing list of best foreign (or non-American) fiction of 2008, with links to full reviews and excerpts. I, for one, am adding Metropole to my reading pile; Roberto Bolano’s books are already there, waiting for […]


Shop Talk |

Michelangelo: La Dotta Mano at the NYPL

by Anne Stameshkin

It’s not a work of fiction, but some are calling Michelangelo: La Dotta Mano (“the learned hand,” “the wise hand”) the most beautiful book in the world. The 62-pound hand-made volume–which features images of Michelangelo’s work and samples of his poetry, as well as commentary on the artist’s life and work–will be on display at the New York Public Library from Tuesday, December 2 through Monday, December 8. You can also see the book’s marble cover and take a tour of its interior here on FMR’s (its publisher’s) website. It takes six months and Renaissance artisan skills to hand-make a […]


Shop Talk |

2008 Bad Sex Award: the shortlist

by Anne Stameshkin

The Guardian offers some excerpts from this year’s worst sex scenes. Try reading them aloud at your Thanksgiving feast! From Simon Montefiore’s Sashenka: He’s a madman, she thought as he made love to her again. Oh my God, after twenty years of being the most rational Bolshevik woman in Moscow, this goblin has driven me crazy! He eased out of her again, showing himself. ‘Look!’ he whispered as she did. […] He made her forget she was a Communist.


Shop Talk |

yet another reason to love Philip Pullman

by Anne Stameshkin

Writing the His Dark Materials series was awesome in and of itself; now Pullman is fighting, along with a host of other writers, to save school libraries across the UK. He recently wrote to the Meadows Community School, which plans to replace their books–and librarian–with a “virtual learning environment,” whatever that means. From Pullman’s letter (via the Guardian): The idea that fiction is not worth looking after properly and does not need a qualified librarian runs contrary to every experience I have ever had. Are you going to relegate the whole activity of reading fiction to the status of a […]


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recommended event: Periodically Speaking at the NYPL

by Anne Stameshkin

Don’t miss clmp‘s last Periodically Speaking event at the New York Public Library; editors from lit magazines Salt Hill, H.O.W., and Raritan will each introduce new writers. Details: Tuesday, December 9th, 6 – 7:30 pm DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room, The New York Public Library, Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd (Fifth Ave. entrance; admittance is free)


Shop Talk |

on giving books

by Anne Stameshkin

Alan Cheuse, for NPR: Giving a book is not something we ought to do blindly. We give books to people we love because we think they will convey something about ourselves, something about the world as we see it or something about the world as we would like it to be. We only have one life to live, but we have so many lives in literature — giving a book remains an extraordinary gift. Well put. I also think that with the book-as-gift, we try to convey our understanding of the person we’re giving it to; the gift shows we […]


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The Southeast Review's Writing Regimen

by Anne Stameshkin

Writers: if you didn’t have time for NaNoWriMo but are looking for a motivating way to structure and inspire writing time this December, consider signing up for the Southeast Review‘s 30-Day Writing Regimen, which begins on December 1. For only $15, participants receive the following: a free copy of the most recent issue (vol 26.2), daily writing prompts and reading-writing exercises, a Riff Word of the Day, a Podcast of the Day, craft talks, and access to the journal’s online literary companion.


Shop Talk |

recommended interview: Uwem Akpan

by Anne Stameshkin

FWR contributor Jeremiah Chamberlin has an interview in Granta with my dear friend and former MI classmate Uwem Akpan. Uwem, who is also a Jesuit priest and a teacher, saw his first story collection, the remarkable Say You’re One of Them, published by Little, Brown in May. In this conversation with Jeremy, he discusses why fiction is his genre of choice, what challenges he faced (and faces) in creating stories true to the children and regions they depict, what fascinates and “puzzles” him as a writer, and how writing can be a calling: My goal is to get the reader […]




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