Suspend Your Disbelief

Contributor Types

Lee Thomas

Editor at Large

Lee Thomas is a fiction writer. She was the Managing Editor of FWR from 2010-2013. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Charlotte Observer, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is finishing a story collection.


Articles

Shop Talk |

LWC } NYC

by Lee Thomas

Big thanks to Anne for alerting me to what looks like a great conference in New York on November 12 – 13. The Literary Writers Conference bills itself as: A two-day conference for fiction, poetry, and creative-nonfiction writers learning how to maneuver in the marketplace. Meet writers, editors, agents, publicists and publishers from Publishers Weekly, Oxford University Press, Scribner, Hachette Book Group, Graywolf, the Poetry Society of America, Bloomsbury, Knopf, the Academy of American Poets and more. The lineup of editors, publicists, bookstores and lit mags – not to mention writers – looks stellar. The dozen programs include a Working […]


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Lit map your city

by Lee Thomas

The hip folks over at The Rumpus recently posted a map of San Francisco drawn by Rumpus contributor Ian Huebert comprised entirely of literary quotes. The powerful triumvirate of map + literary quotes + very cool handwriting has me sold. According to The Rumpus, you can get your hands on the map through Electric Works Gallery. While I can think of a half-dozen books set in San Francisco off the top of my head, I wonder if this project could be turned toward your hometown? How about a literary map of Charlotte, North Carolina or Lincoln, Nebraska? The fictional locale […]


Interviews |

Sabotage and Subversion: An Interview with Joshua Furst

by Lee Thomas

Joshua Furst grapples with the human condition by creating characters on the edge. They inhabit the fringes of society, sanity and cultural norms, but remain incredibly grounded in a common American experience, with all its oddball rituals and quirks.


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Graywolf Press night at BookCourt

by Lee Thomas

The very fine indie bookstore BookCourt in Brooklyn hosts a “Small Press Night” once a month (this is their second). This month they’re featuring Graywolf Press, a nonprofit publisher who I’ve heard takes very good care of their authors. Benjamin Percy, whose latest novel The Wilding was featured recently on FWR’s Book of the Week Giveaway, will be there to read. Jessica Francis Kane will read from her debut novel The Report, a re-imagining of a World War II civilian disaster that has been getting very good reviews. If you didn’t win one of the Benjamin Percy-signed books, and happen […]


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The Wonder of translation

by Lee Thomas

Translation gives those of us who are not linguistic polymaths access to the great books being written all over the planet. A good translation doesn’t simply convey the story being told – it pays attention to original voice of the author, picking up on nuance and subtleties. The judges of the 2010 PEN Translation Prize found just those shades of meaning in Michael Henry Heim’s translation from the Dutch of Hugo Claus’s Wonder (Archipelago Books). They write: Michael Henry Heim’s outstanding translation has succeeded masterfully in mirroring Hugo Claus’s many voices in this novel that reflects a complex, complicated vision […]


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Calling all Bostonians

by Lee Thomas

As a quick follow-up to the One City One Story post last week, we wanted to let you know where you can get your hands on a copy of Tom Perrotta’s “The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face,” courtesy of the Boston Book Festival. They write: Starting Monday September 27th the story will be available at all Boston Public Library branches, several cafes and bookstores from Charlestown to Rozzie and farmers markets from Dewey Square to Mattapan. You can also grab a copy from one of our fabulous volunteers at select T-stops from 7am – 9am September 27th – October 1st. […]


Shop Talk |

One City, One … Story?

by Lee Thomas

Many of us probably live in a city that’s participated in some version of “One City, One Book,” which is a great way to spark a conversation between strangers. This year the Boston Book Festival opted for One City, One Story. The BBF chose local legend Tom Perrotta‘s “The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face” as the tale to get people talking. On September 30th they’ll be giving away 30,000 bound copies of the story at locations around the city. You’ll also be able to download a PDF of the story on the BBF website. Added bonus: on October 16 Tom […]


Shop Talk |

Mischief + Mayhem (and a party)

by Lee Thomas

Ever wonder if ‘power to the people’ is just a pipe dream? A few years back, writers Lisa Dierbeck, Joshua Furst, DW Gibson, Dale Peck and Choire Sicha decided to put art to the test and formed a collective called Mischief + Mayhem. From their site: The collective came together in response to the increasingly homogenized books that corporate publishers and chain retailers have determined will sell the most copies. We recognize that there are readers who want to be challenged instead of placated. The collective intends to promulgate writing unconcerned with having to please conservative editorial boards or corporate […]


Shop Talk |

Trailer as Logical Argument

by Lee Thomas

The book trailer is a relatively new phenomenon, but innovation has quickly become the rule. Take the trailer for Gary Shteyngart’s new novel, Super Sad True Love Story, which features cameos by James Franco (a former MFA student of Shteyngart at Columbia), Jay McInerney, Edmund White, Mary Gaitskill, and Jeffrey Eugenides. It’s tongue-in-cheek, as to be expected from the author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, and contains some very funny non sequiturs – like how to blend in at a Paris Review party – and I knew virtually nothing about the book by the end. But conveying actual information is […]




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