Suspend Your Disbelief

Recent Posts

Shop Talk |

Vampires and zombies and literature, oh my…

by Celeste Ng

A while back, we noted that vampire lit had–well, gone legit. (If you can major in it in college, it’s legit.) But it’s not just vampires. All kinds of characters previously relegated to genre writing–zombies, werewolves, and monsters galore–have migrated into mainstream literature. Can we blame this on Twilight, or is something bigger at work here? Harldy, says Joe Fassler in The Atlantic, offering several reasons “literary” fiction has turned towards genre: There was a time in recent memory when writers took their cues primarily from the literary figures that came before them. But in 2011, our literary, media, and […]


Shop Talk |

Book of the Week: Men in the Making, by Bruce Machart

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Bruce Machart’s debut story collection Men in the Making, published this week by Houghton Mifflin. He is also the author of the acclaimed 2010 novel The Wake of Forgiveness, which won the Steven Turner Prize for debut fiction from The Texas Institute of Letters. It was also selected by Independent Booksellers for their Indie Next List and by the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association as its “Reading the West” book of the year, as well as named a finalist for the PEN/USA Literary Prize. The stories in this new collection have appeared in Zoetrope: All […]


Shop Talk |

Occupy… Your Bookshelf

by Celeste Ng

So you may have heard about this little thing happening on Wall Street (and in L.A., Boston, Phoenix, San Diego, Chicago, Cincinnati, Berlin, Paris–oh, just read the list here). What you may not know is that the Occupy Wall Street protestors have a library of their own. Reports GalleyCat: As the Occupy Wall Street protest continues, the activists camped out in New York City have built an impressive library. Thanks to Library Thing, you can now explore the library online and watch it grow. Currently, the makeshift library counts 390 books. Well, that was on October 11–the library now stands […]


Shop Talk |

Journal-of-the-Week Winners: Hobart

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured Hobart as our Journal-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners. Congratulations to: Laura Sorrells (@Graceriver) Laurie Koozer (@yinzrreadin) Dave Martin (@martindave) To claim your free subscription, 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!


Interviews |

The Man and the Making: An Interview with Bruce Machart

by Aaron J. Cance

“Thunderstruck,” Aaron Cance describes his reading of Bruce Machart’s two debut books: a novel, The Wake of Forgiveness, and a story collection, Men in the Making, out this week. They also discuss the themes of faith, masculinity, and love, and how a New England basement is a helpful metaphor for writing.


Shop Talk |

One Letter Missing

by Celeste Ng

Oh, the difference a single letter makes! The recent Twitter hashtag #bookswithalettermissing marks hilarious (and sometimes brilliant) titles like: @CodeNameTanya: Notes on a Sandal @KBreathnach: Civilization and its Disco Tents @SPLBuzz Harold and the Purple Rayon @EditorEric: The Mon Is a Harsh Mistress: Heinlein’s memoir of a relationship w/Jamaican transvestite dominatrix @atbennet: Far from the adding crowd: a little something for the math-phobic @GetUpInFront: “F” Mice and Men. Steinbeck’s middle finger to the plight of the migrant laborer. The Huffington Post has a great roundup, and you can search Twitter for the latest. Share yours with us!


Shop Talk |

Franz Kafka. Frank Capra. Franz Capra. Frank Kafka.

by Celeste Ng

To you into the Halloween spirit, here is a wacky and delightfully creepy little short film combining Kafka–struggling to write his story “The Metamorphosis”–and Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. The film won an Oscar for Best Short Live Action Film in 1994. Here’s Part 1. Hooked? Here ‘s the rest:Part 2 / Part 3. (Via.)


Shop Talk |

WBUR's Zip Code Stories

by Celeste Ng

I live in the 02138 zip code, popularly known around here as “the nation’s most opinionated zip code,” thanks to the hordes of Harvard and MIT students. I’m not sure about that title–94720 could probably give it some competition–but I like the idea that a zip code, which is really just an arbitrary zone, can have its own personality. That’s the idea behind WBUR’s Zip Code Stories. A joint project by Boston’s NPR station and audio lit mag The Drum, the series asks writers to develop stories based on a given local zip code: Each month, we’ll pick four ZIP […]


Shop Talk |

A new model for advances?

by Celeste Ng

The traditional model of publishing–for books, at least–has become a large(ish) upfront advance, followed by royalties: a small percent of the book’s sale, once the book has earned enough to pay off the advance. Here’s a counteroffer: as an author, would you trade a larger advance for a smaller payment upfront PLUS a bigger slice of the proceeds? That’s the new model of payment companies like Byliner and The Atavist are trying out. Reports The New York Observer: Like most magazines, The Atavist pays a fee up front when a story arrives in decent shape. Mr. Dobbs called The Atavist’s […]




Literary Partners