…Jenna Blum, and Mameve Medwed. Each piece is helpfully tagged as an essay, short fiction, or novel excerpt and categorized by length—under ten minutes, under twenty minutes, etc. A few pieces are designated as premium content, and available only to subscribers, but most are free, and all are available to download for a small fee ($2) once they’ve moved to the site’s archives. Upcoming issues will include work by Lauren Grodstein, Lynne Barre…
…” The narrator asks: “What could [Aimee] know about the waves of time that simply come at a person, one after the other? What could she know about life as the temporary, always partial survival of the process?” This is one of the narrator’s most stirring statements, reminiscent of W. E. B. Du Bois’s ideas of double consciousness. Aimee “believed in her own good timing, in timing itself, as a mystical force, a form of fate, operating at the global…
…resist? Or does my premise not ring true? I don’t believe in standing the test of time. I hope CITRW becomes irrelevant as soon as possible. Then it will have done its job. I think—and this is the point the book makes—that we should write for the world we live in. I don’t understand writers who write for when they are dead. It’s morbid. Plus, what “stands the test of time” is what speaks to power. Given the host of problems it can create, why use…
…leafs through the sections – so that a sports fanatic might read about the latest opera diva or a foodie might stumble upon a business section piece about vineyards – an online format (like Fiction Writers Review) devoted specifically to book reviews is unlikely to attract the golf fan, economist or chef – unless she happens to also be an avid reader. And in the widening options for literary feedback online, how can one judge the merit of a partic…
…” The narrator asks: “What could [Aimee] know about the waves of time that simply come at a person, one after the other? What could she know about life as the temporary, always partial survival of the process?” This is one of the narrator’s most stirring statements, reminiscent of W. E. B. Du Bois’s ideas of double consciousness. Aimee “believed in her own good timing, in timing itself, as a mystical force, a form of fate, operating at the global…
…t possesses zero depiction, since it is what it is and that’s all. A blank sheet of paper—or one that’s completely covered in black ink—can do this. Stories and art are depictions, by definition false, yet good stories and good art convince us otherwise, despite the initial disclaimer that this is a depiction. Without diving too deeply into philosophy, it’s important to note how our concepts of truth are almost always abstractions. So, it should b…
…other details I wrote by hand in a notebook. I think handwriting makes my brain connect to ideas more freely than if I type on the computer. I don’t restrict the train of thought. That might be from two habits: Keeping a diary (example from seventh grade: “Biology: a preacher talked to us about the origins of life. Bible sounds true. Adam—mankind? . . . talked onto tape about my problems. Tape got messed up.”). Writing down things people say (esp…
…s – especially in something as personal and finicky as fiction. The Calls’ approach to the story has several elements that draw me in: elemental musing, family, a dash of mystery. Their story begins: A snowstorm consists of an almost infinite number of memories crystallized in the below-freezing environment of the upper atmosphere where an abundance of moisture is present. At the core of every ice crystal is a nucleus of familial history, whether…
…riting. Follow your literary obsessions. Find fans for your work. Read the latest by your favorite authors. Vote up the best stories. Embrace your inner book nerd. Read. Write. Procrastinate. Repeat. Whatever you’re into, from sonnets to mysteries, from sci-fi stories to cell phone novels, you can find it on Figment. In some ways, Figment sounds like a cloud-edited literary journal, and reminds me a bit of sites like Shelfari – only with content,…
…s they can be more encompassing, more wide-ranging, and more explosive than novels. Further Links and Reading: In a recent New York Times op-ed entitled “Getting Rich on Fungus,” Anthony tells a story of hunting for the elusive morel mushroom. The latest iteration of Doerr’s column in the Boston Globe reviews several books that delve into the world of insects. Read “Wild Kingdom, writ small” in the On Science section of the Globe. Finally, read Po…
