Suspend Your Disbelief

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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

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The loooooong sentence

by Celeste Ng

When Twitter arrived on the scene, its proponents found themselves defending the very short. James Poniewozik put Twitter in historical context, and, in the New York Times, writer and teacher Andy Selsberg argued that writing short could make you a better writer. Now, in the L.A. Times, Pico Iyer writes a defense of the very long sentence: I’m using longer and longer sentences as a small protest against — and attempt to rescue any readers I might have from — the bombardment of the moment. […] Enter (I hope) the long sentence: the collection of clauses that is so many-chambered […]


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When does a writer become a Writer?

by Celeste Ng

That’s how I’d have capitalized this recent article by The Atlantic, which asked that rather big question. Describing Alex Jenni, a French biology teacher who recently won the Prix Goncourt, France’s top literary award, the article noted, In the Alexis Jenni school of thought, a writer may be someone, anyone, with a compulsion to scrawl or the conviction of having something to say. A writer is not defined by his career, but the simple act of writing regularly. And authors who found success through the muck of making ends meet have taken that approach for some time now, in practice […]


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Literary Missed Connections

by Celeste Ng

Reading the “Missed Connections” section of Craigslist is procrastination worthy of a writer: those missives from one lonely heart seeking another, fleetingly glimpsed, practically beg to be written into stories. BookRiot has done the opposite—taking well-known literary characters and writing their ads—and the results are hilarious: the roof, the roof – w4m (Thornfield Hall) I spotted you from my window as you delivered wood to the house – I swear our eyes locked briefly for a second. Did you feel it, too? Come back to the Hall on Thursday night – I’ll create a diversion so I can escape. I […]


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Optimism for the new year

by Celeste Ng

On New Year’s morning this year, I was sitting at a kitchen table in Cleveland, Ohio. I grew up in Cleveland and love it, but (like most people) in the way you love your old rusty car with the duct-taped mirror and muffler tied up with a string, or your dingy old house with the drafty windows and the sagging roof—both of which are, unfortunately, all-too-common images in the city of Cleveland. To top all this off, we were in town visiting a seriously ill family member and had spent most of the past few days in a hospital room, […]


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Bookish Gift Idea #31: Bartleby tote bag

by Celeste Ng

This bag functions like a secret handshake for readers. Those in the know will understand the words emblazoned on the front: “I would prefer not to.” Those who don’t? Well, they’ll just think you have a cool bag. Available from Melville House Books, these totes boast “enough depth to hold a six-pack” and help support indie publisher Melville House. What more do you need to know? (Okay, maybe this: the bag is also available as part of an “Occupy Wall Street” bundle with a copy of Bartleby, the Scrivener and David Graeber’s Debt. Says Melville House: “This chic tote sports […]


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Bookish Gift Idea #30: Uneek Literary Dolls

by Celeste Ng

The literary blogosphere has been abuzz about these literary dolls, and for good reason: they’re simultaneously adorable, geeky, and creepy. Dollmaker Debbie Ritter creates handmade cloth dolls of dozens of authors–not just those you’d expect, like Herman Melville, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens, but also authors you’ve probably never seen in doll form, like Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, and Flannery O’Connor. Yes. In case you’re wondering, a fan posted about the Uneek Joyce Carol Oates doll to Joyce Carol Oates’s Facebook page. No response yet from Oates herself on what it’s like to see yourself in doll form… The […]


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Bookish Gift Idea #29: Smart Pen

by Celeste Ng

Imagine this: you’re taking notes at a reading or a lecture, or while thinking aloud about your latest work-in-progress. Your pen records the lecture, and later, you can place the pen on the paper at any point in the notes and hear the lecture at that point. Doesn’t that sound like magic? Well, we live in magical times. Smartpens, as they’re called, are a reality and are available for around $100. The New York Times gives the lowdown on one, the LiveScribe Echo, and more have come to market lately as well. Plus, the pens and their programs can help […]


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Bookish Gift Idea #28: Magic Whiteboard sheets

by Celeste Ng

Here’s something to help a writer plot out a novel, organize notes or research, or brainstorm. Magic Whiteboards cling to walls or windows to create an instant, giant whiteboard. You can write on them with dry-wipe markers, wipe them clean, and reuse them as often as you like–and when you’re done, you can peel them off and store them for future use. Here’s a demo video: Available from Magic Whiteboard. And keep checking back here at the FWR blog through December 31–we’ve got three more great gift ideas to go.


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Bookish Gift Idea #27: Movies about fiction writers

by Celeste Ng

Fiction writers in real life are not usually much fun to watch at work–we sit quietly in the corners of coffee shops or in cramped little offices, hunched over our computers or notebooks, quietly talking to ourselves or making faces as we block out our scenes. But in movies, fiction writers are glamorous, exciting, and even heroic. How about one of these movies for the writer in your life? Capote Stranger Than Fiction As Good As It Gets Miss Potter Adaptation Midnight in Paris Wonder Boys Becoming Jane The Hours Breakfast at Tiffany’s Atonement Finding Neverland At the very least, […]


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Bookish Gift #26: Demeter "Paperback" perfume

by Celeste Ng

Yes, Christmas is over, but Hannukah is still in full swing–and plus, you know there’s a book-lover you’ve forgotten to gift. We at FWR are here for you with bookish gift ideas through the 31st. So now we know why old books smell so good. But maybe you’d like to smell great, too? Demeter, which makes single-note perfumes in unusual scents–think Tomato, Bubble Gum, Apple Blossom, and even Dirt (which I owned; it smells just like wet soil)–offers a variety of products in its “Paperback” scent. Says the website: A dusty old copy of a Barbara Pym novel did it […]




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