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

Shop Talk |

Richard Ford on the Colbert Report

by Celeste Ng

Why don’t we have more writers on talk shows? (Except when they’re begging Oprah’s forgiveness?) Stephen Colbert tackles this issue, and many others, with writer Richard Ford. Watch below to learn why fiction isn’t the same thing as lying, why Ford’s latest novel is called Canada,, and why he keeps his manuscripts in the freezer (hint: it keeps the ideas fresher). The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Richard Ford www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive Further Reading: Also rocking the Colbert Report: Ann Patchett Oh, AND Maurice Sendak. You know, given […]


Shop Talk |

"When you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you are doing. This is great."

by Celeste Ng

This has been making the rounds for a little while now, but it’s so inspiring that if you haven’t seen it yet, you really should. In a commencement address at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Neil Gaiman offers reflections and advice on writing, freelancing, and the artistic life—“everything I wish I’d known starting out… and the best piece of advice I ever got, which I completely failed to follow” You can also read the transcript at the University of the Arts website, but there’s something about hearing in English accent that makes all this sound so encouraging and […]


Shop Talk |

Cozy Classics

by Celeste Ng

Perhaps you’ve heard of “fuzzy math”—now there’s fuzzy literature, as well. Literally. A new series of picture books illustrates works like Moby Dick with adorable felted figures. Brothers Jack and Holman Wang have teamed up to create “Cozy Classics,” explains Tandem Magazine: Holman made wool figures of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet, Mr. Darcy, and Mr. Bingley for Pride and Prejudice as well as figures of Captain Ahab, Moby Dick, and the Pequod for Moby Dick. […] Each image is accompanied by one of the twelve words, previously selected by Dr. Wang, that make up each book of the Cozy Classics […]


Shop Talk |

The ghost in the (writing) machine

by Celeste Ng

Not long ago, we talked about the phenomenon of robots writing books. But those computer-authored tomes—with scintillating subject matter like Saltine Cracker were mish-mashes of text culled together from Wikipedia and other websites. Computers can’t write actual stories. Or can they? Enter Narrative Science, a Chicago-based software company teaching computers to do just that—well, news stories, at least. Wired explains that articles written by the company’s computer algorithm are already out there: The computer-written product could be a pennant-waving second-half update of a Big Ten basketball contest, a sober preview of a corporate earnings statement, or a blithe summary of […]


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Shout-out: Danielle Lazarin wins Glimmer Train’s Family Matters contest

by Celeste Ng

We were delighted to learn that FWR contributor Danielle Lazarin was the first-place winner of Glimmer Train‘s April 2012 Family Matters contest! A full list of winners and top-25 finalists is on the Glimmer Train website. Danielle’s winning story, “Spider Legs,” will be published in Glimmer Train in 2013. In the meantime, you can learn more about Danielle and read some of her work on her author website. Congratulations, Danielle! Read Danielle’s interview with Dan Chaon for Fiction Writers Review Read Danielle’s essay “‘The Mommy Problem,’ and the larger notion of life beyond work“


Shop Talk |

The Unfilmable Novel

by Celeste Ng

I am unreasonably excited to see the film adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Is it because Gatsby is one of my favorite novels? Because Baz Lurhmann is brilliant? Because Leonardo DiCaprio makes me swoon? Mark me down for “All of the Above.” Actually, most of all, I can’t wait to see how this novel comes to life on the big screen. It contains some of the most cinematic scenes I can think of—one of my favorites is the first moment we meet Daisy, in a swirl of white curtains—but I’m not sure how it will translate to film. Which makes […]


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What to do with an MFA?

by Celeste Ng

If you’re a newly-minted MFA wondering what to do with your degree, perhaps you can take inspiration from Eric Wahl, who works at the University of Washington’s surplus store. Wahl puts his writing skills to use by crafting hilarious descriptions of items for sale–and offering proof that pretty much everything gets way better with a dose of creativity. Says the Seattle Times: Wahl, 42, began working at the store in November 2010 as a program coordinator, a job that means he not only works the cash register, he does the Web marketing. He couldn’t help but notice that the descriptions […]


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Harvard Bookstore as Forbes success story

by Celeste Ng

I’m very lucky to live within walking distance of Harvard Bookstore, one of my favorite bookstores on earth. The fact that it’s an independent bookstore is just icing on the cake—the store is just wonderful, with a great staff, and in a decade I’ve never once succeeded in visiting without spending a half-hour or more there. So I was thrilled to see Forbes recognizing the success of Harvard Bookstore and its owner, Jeff Mayersohn. The title of the article—“The Man Who Took on Amazon and Saved a Bookstore”—reminds you how hard it is to run an indie bookstore these days, […]




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