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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Snacks of Great Writers

by Celeste Ng

I think deep down, every writer believes that there’s some magic formula for inspiration. Get the right time of day, the right location, the right kind of pen, even the right sitting or lying position, and bing! Writing Happens. But for some writers, food is part of the magic formula. One of my writing teachers used to swear by Cherry Coke—and wouldn’t drink it unless she was writing, for fear of using up the magic. For me? Red candy: Swedish fish are best, but Twizzlers will do in a pinch. To that end, artist Wendy MacNaughton provides this illustrated guide […]


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How to write more: Blackmail yourself?

by Celeste Ng

Perhaps, like many of us, you’re the kind of person who won’t do anything without a (proverbial) gun to your head. But it’s hard to type while holding a gun to your own head, no? Leave it to technology to solve this problem: enter Aherk!, which describes itself as a free “goal-oriented self-blackmailing service.” Now in beta testing, Aherk! has three basic steps: Define a goal. Tell us what it is that you want to achieve and set a deadline. Put your ass on the line. Upload a compromising picture that will be posted to Facebook in case you fail […]


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A Public Service Annoucement About Book Suicide

by Celeste Ng

So we know how books are born, how they fall in love, and what they’re up to after the bookstore closes for the night. But did you know that books sometimes think about ending it all? It’s sad but true. What drives them to despair? This display I spotted in Porter Square Books has the answer: The Origami Poems project suggests a poem as a cure—but perhaps you’d better add a short story too, just to be on the safe side? Further Reading: Jersey Shore a la Oscar Wilde Lit and TV have a clandestine affair at the brilliant Slaughterhouse […]


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A Moveable… Writer's Workshop

by Celeste Ng

Lots of people read on the subway. But how about writing on the subway? The NY Writers Coalition recently offered many the chance to do just that–by transforming a subway car into a free writing workshop! With pens and paper in hand, a group of writers on the #7 train wrote from Times Square to Flushing, reports the New York Times: After leaving Manhattan, the train emerged from its tunnel and rose along elevated tracks into the bright sunlight in western Queens. It was an unconventional writer’s space, with the train rumbling into a new station every few minutes and […]


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Short Story Month 2012 Roundup

by Celeste Ng

Alas, it’s May 31, so this concludes your Short Story Month 2012 coverage here at Fiction Writers Review! Miss a post—or need something to carry you over until we do it again next year? Here’s a mini-index: Reviews: This Will Be Difficult to Explain, by Johanna Skibsrud: “Although the book feels light in the hand, the stories pack a concentrated, emotional punch.” This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, by John McGregor: “This collection takes the reader in hand, big, sometimes-inexplicable things happen and you may not make it out alive. McGregor’s stories are anything […]


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Thoughts on shorts: Daniel Orozco

by Celeste Ng

Every story that I write feels like a kind of experiment. The challenge in crafting a story is how to engage a reader emotionally, intellectually, experientially. I’m always looking for some kind of challenge, some kind of structural or narrative constraint to try and figure out. […] I mean, the story “Orientation” is a gimmick. […] But so what? All that matters is that a story, whatever the structure, must be grounded in the humane. ~ Daniel Orozco Further Reading: Read more about Daniel Orozco on Fiction Writers Review Looking for something to read? Check out the Stories We Love […]


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Shout-out: Daniel Wallace on Air Schooner

by Celeste Ng

We were delighted to learn that FWR contributor extraordinaire Daniel Wallace made an appearance on Prairie Schooner‘s podcast, Air Schooner, this past week. Along with travel writer Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Daniel reads from his work on his traveling to Syria and living in the Old Quarter of Damascus under the Assad regime. You can listen to Air Schooner #9 on the Prairie Schooner website. Congratulations, Daniel! Further Reading: Like what you heard?  Read more of Daniel Wallace’s work on FWR, and visit Daniel’s blog to learn more about him.


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Thoughts on shorts: Danielle Evans

by Celeste Ng

“[T]he value of a short story is the same as the value of all literature—that it allows a person to confront the world in a new way, that at its best it has the power to act as a transformative experience, and to leave the reader changed—smarter and more empathetic. I think there’s something especially lovely about being able to have a complete, meaningful emotional experience in the time it takes to read ten to twenty pages.” ~ Danielle Evans Further Reading: Read more about Danielle Evans on Fiction Writers Review Looking for something to read? Check out the Stories […]


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Stories We Love: "The Showrunner"

by Celeste Ng

I’ll be totally honest: I really did not expect to like Frankie Thomas’s “The Showrunner” at all. It starts off at a casting session for a fictional Disney-esque tween series, and not only am I biased against stories that saturate themselves in current pop culture—I tend to like a little patina on my cultural references—I expected the story to be as flimsy as the TV show at its center. I was completely wrong. Within half a page, I was unable to put the piece down. (No joke: I was late to pick up my son from daycare, I was that […]




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