Lysley Tenorio, author of the hotly-anticipated debut collection Monstress, on secret identity politics, the risk of becoming “that Filipino writer,” lightness and darkness in fiction, and Peter Cetera.
Critics compare her to Canada’s native short story master, Alice Munro, but Johanna Skibsrud has a charm—and a voice—all her own.
“With short stories, you never really expect the World at Large to care one way or the other. It’s a labor of love, and no one disputes that, and I think the purity of that endeavor is very liberating.” ~ Valerie Laken Further Reading: Read more about Valerie Laken on Fiction Writers Review Looking for something to read? Check out the Stories We Love Need inspiration? Try our Get Writing exercises
Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” (1908) is one of those stories—paralleled by certain films—that I always return to with an odd yearning. Each time, despite myself, I hope that the story (or film) will somehow end differently. That Connie won’t leave with Arnold Friend. That Christopher Reeve won’t discover that penny from 1979. Or, in the case of London’s story, that “the man” won’t break through the ice—and that the fire won’t go out. Perhaps part of the story’s great appeal is how very different it is from my own lived experience and writerly tendencies. My version of the […]
Ben Fountain made a lot of noise with his prize-winning collection Brief Encounters with Che Guevara. Turns out he can write a damn fine novel, too.
Write what you know without simply writing what you know … Write What You Know. I’ve never felt wholly comfortable with this phrase. I tell my students to abandon the literal idea of it on the first day of class. How bored and boring we’d all be if that were all any of us ever wrote. There needs to be an imbalance—more fiction than fact. Be Authentic. I ask my students to be authentic on the page instead, to create relatable characters navigating real stories. Our goal as storytellers is to engage our readers and spark a reaction in them […]
This week’s feature is Lysley Tenorio‘s debut collection, Monstress (Ecco). His short fiction has appeared in such places as The Atlantic, Zoetrope: All-Story, Ploughshares, Manoa, and The Best New American Voices and Pushcart Prize anthologies. He lives in San Francisco, where he is an associate professor at Saint Mary’s College of California. In our upcoming interview with Tenorio, the author speaks with Quan Barry about identity politics: While Monstress is full of Filipino and Filipino-American characters, I see them first as individuals caught up in weird, sometimes ridiculous, and always (I hope) emotionally complex circumstances that have nothing to do […]
Last week we featured Lauren Groff’s new novel Arcadia, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Patricia Selbert (@HouseofSixDoors) Helen Page (@bulkarn) Heather Galaska (@heatherlgalaska) Congrats! To claim your free copy, please email us at the following address: winners [at] fictionwritersreview.com If you’d like to be eligible for future giveaways, please visit our Twitter Page and “follow” us! Thanks to all of you who are fans. We appreciate your support. Let us know your favorite new books out there!
Happy Short Story Month 2012! Once again, we’ll be celebrating short stories all month here at Fiction Writers Review: Reviews of fantastic story collections Interviews with short story writers like Lysley Tenorio, Ben Fountain, and Laura Maylene Walter The return of our popular “Stories We Love” blog posts: writers on the stories that inspire them—and why Book of the Week giveaways highlighting short story collections Writing prompts to get you started on pieces of your own The 2012 Collection Giveaway Project—chances to win FREE short story collections from writing blogs all over the internet And more! We think short stories […]
Welcome to Fiction Writers Review‘s third annual Collection Giveaway Project: a community effort by lit bloggers to champion great short story collections. The brainchild of Contributing Editor Erika Dreifus, 18 bloggers participated in the CGP 2011, giving away dozens of collections. Instructions on how to participate in The Collection Giveaway Project 2012. Note: Bloggers, please feel free to copy and borrow the CGP banner from this post for use on your own site. CGP 2012 Participants (updated daily!) David Abrams / The Quivering Pen: with Friday Freebies – Fires of Our Choosing, by Eugene Cross, This Will Be Difficult to […]
