Suspend Your Disbelief

Contributor Types

Celeste Ng

Editor at Large

Celeste Ng is the author of the novels Everything I Never Told You  (2014) and Little Fires Everywhere (2017). She earned an MFA from the University of Michigan (now the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan), where she won the Hopwood Award. Her fiction and essays have appeared in One Story, TriQuarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, the Kenyon Review Online, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Pushcart Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award, the American Library Association’s Alex Award, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


Articles

Shop Talk |

The problem with stories

by Celeste Ng

We love TED here at FWR–which, in case you haven’t encountered it before, you’re welcome, and I hope you didn’t have any work to do this month. This is an old TED talk, but one I hadn’t heard before and one I’ve been thinking about–particularly because it challenges the concept of storytelling. In his TED talk, writer/economist Tyler Cowen talks about why stories make him nervous and why we should be suspicious of stories. Here’s a snippet of the transcript: I was told to come here and tell you all stories, but what I’d like to do is instead tell […]


Shop Talk |

How The Muppets Changed the Course of Self-Publishing

by Celeste Ng

Remember Amanda Hocking, the writer who’s now the poster child for self-publishing success? Well, she might never have been spurred to publish her work at all if it not for… The Muppets. The Guardian has the scoop: To understand the vital Muppet connection we have to go back to April 2010. We find Hocking sitting in her tiny, sparsely furnished apartment in Austin, Minnesota. She is penniless and frustrated, having spent years fruitlessly trying to interest traditional publishers in her work. To make matters worse, she has just heard that an exhibition about Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, […]


Shop Talk |

I CAPTCHA the Castle

by Celeste Ng

You probably know what a CAPTCHA is, even if you didn’t know its name. Those warped words that you sometimes have to type out? That’s a CAPTCHA. Websites use them to prevent spambots from posting (spam) comments. Humans can read CAPTCHAs very easily. Robots, not so much. But did you know that although CAPTCHAs seem like gibberish, they actually help preserve and create literature? Some CAPTCHAs actually help digitize books and magazines: the reCAPTCHA system uses scanned words from old books. Every time a user like you types in the word, it helps the system decipher old books. Explains the […]


Shop Talk |

Help give away 1,000,000 books on World Book Night!

by Celeste Ng

If you love a book, then give it away. Isn’t that how the saying goes? World Book Night launched in the UK in 2011, with thousands of people handing out copies of paperbacks. This year, it’s taking place in the U.S. too, on April 23, with plans to give away a MILLION books for free to “new or light readers.” The list of books includes lots of great titles, including The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Little Bee by Chris Cleave, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colllins, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao […]


Shop Talk |

Maurice Sendak on The Colbert Report

by Celeste Ng

Earlier this week, Stephen Colbert interviewed the fantastically curmudgeonly Maurice Sendak on the Colbert Report. If you like either Colbert or Maurice Sendak, you’ll enjoy it. Like both, and you’ll be chortling with joy. Part 1: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1 www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive Part 2: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2 www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive


Shop Talk |

Slaughterhouse 90210

by Celeste Ng

As you might guess from its name, Tumblr site Slaughterhouse 90210 pairs stills from TV shows with literary quotes—with both hilarious and thought-provoking results: If you think about it, My So-Called-Life and Anne of Avonlea are indeed thematic soulmates. And Mad Men and Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook make an inspired match. Still need convincing? “She felt, in every way it was possible, astonished that she had slept with him.” —Lorrie Moore, Like Life ‘Nuff said. Go check it out.


Shop Talk |

Banned word—or best word?

by Celeste Ng

Did you know that periodically, the French comb through their language and pick out interloping words? The Academie Francaise, charged with publishing an official (if non-binding) dictionary of French, intermittently posts lists of banned English words that have wormed their way into the French language. In previous years, the Academie has suggested banning “le email,” “le blog,” and “le fast-food.” But this kind of linguistic purification isn’t just for the French. Lake Superior State University has come up with a list of banished words for 2012. Topping the list? “Amazing,” “baby bump,” and “shared sacrifice.” Other much-used words made it […]


Shop Talk |

Resolved to write more in 2012? It's not too late.

by Celeste Ng

Perhaps one of your resolutions this year was to write more. (You too?) And now January is two-thirds over, and well, you haven’t done quite as much as you’d hoped. All you need is a gentle kick in the pants prompt to get you started. This year, two great writing sites are each offering tidbits of inspiration: First up, Figment, a digital community for young fiction writers, is offering a new “Daily Themes” newsletter. Between January 2 and March 30, subscribers will receive a prompt via email—what a great way to get writing first thing in the morning! Good offers […]


Shop Talk |

Fiction from the Spam box

by Celeste Ng

Here’s my one tiny complaint about Gmail: it may be a little too good at filtering out the spam. I used to get tremendous joy (uh, no pun intended) out of the badly-phrased, ill-translated, nonsensical requests offering me “Turbines for your meat jet” or the opportunity to become a crude oil dealer. Thank goodness for the Spam Poetry Institute, which describes its mission thusly: The Spam Poetry Institute is an organization dedicated to collecting and preserving the fine literature created by the world’s spammers. Not only do these persistent individuals sell useful products like cable filters and international drivers’ licenses, […]


Shop Talk |

The Joy of Books

by Celeste Ng

Artists/designers Sean Ohlenkamp and Lisa Blonder Ohlenkamp—the same folks who brought you “Organizing the Bookshelf” —have teamed up again to create another exuberant video, “The Joy of Books”. Writes Ohlenkamp: After organizing our bookshelf almost a year ago (http://youtu.be/zhRT-PM7vpA), my wife and I decided to take it to the next level. We spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books at Type bookstore in Toronto. Here’s the result, in which books dance their way around a bookshop after it closes for the night. Enjoy! (My favorite part? The Moleskine carefully turning the pages of the larger book. Adorable!)




Literary Partners