Suspend Your Disbelief

Recent Posts

Shop Talk |

Flipbook: "Culture"

by Celeste Ng

Every few weeks, we launch a new Fiction Writers Review “Flipbook.” During the past two and a half years, we’ve featured more than 50 interviews with authors established and emerging. They’ve had such valuable insights into the writing life—from thoughts on process and craft to ideas about community and influence—that we wanted to find a way to further these conversations within our community. Each Flipbook highlights some of the very best of the conversations on our site, centered around a particular topic. Our latest Flipbook is now up on the FWR Facebook page, with an exclusive slide right here on […]


Shop Talk |

The "Nice" Review

by Celeste Ng

Are book reviews useful if they’re… well, nice? Two of the biggest names in reviewing, Janet Maslin and Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times, are known for delivering smarting critiques of the titles that cross their desks. Kakutani is so infamously harsh that an essay on The Millions came up with a term for her brand of criticism: the Kakutani two-step. But some book reviewers take a different tack. Author Ben Winters explained why he gives everything five stars on sites like Goodreads: The problem isn’t that “amateurs” are doing the reviewing: the opinions of regular old readers or […]


Essays |

In Other Words

by Giota Tachtara

Raised in Greece during its period of intensive Westernization, Giota Tachtara lived all her life among things that had two names, two qualities, two associations, and two accents: one in Greek and one in English. Now, as an American resident, she roots through her bilingual bookcase and writes about the narrator in her head who’s caught in the middle.


Shop Talk |

By the Numbers

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Several months ago, during AWP, a young writer approached the FWR table while I was working the bookfair. He asked about our organization, and I happily launched into my usual pitch about our mission–to promote and support the work of emerging writers, as well as to re-professionalize writing about writing. We chatted a bit about some of the content I was excited we’d soon be publishing on the site, about some of the conference events that he and I had each attended, and so on. It was normal bookfair banter. But when I asked the young man what sort of […]


Shop Talk |

Books in the bedroom?

by Celeste Ng

Sure, you love them. But do you want to sleep with them? Design blog Apartment Therapy recently surveyed its readers on whether bookcases belonged in the bedroom. Commenters weighed in passionately on both sides. Those opposed to books in the bedroom offered a variety of reasons, from aesthetics: I think bookcases are fine for a kid’s room — to keep their own personal books — but otherwise, books belong in a less intimate and private space. Bookcases in a a grown-up bedroom are too cluttered and distracting. to psychology: The last time I had a bookcase in my bedroom was […]


Interviews |

A Parisian Reliquary: An Interview with Elena Mauli Shapiro

by Steven Wingate

A shoebox full of the mementos of a Parisian woman Sparked Elena Mauli Shapiro’s debut novel, 13, rue Thérèse. The objects fall into the hands of a fictional researcher, and through the sifting of photographs, letters and souvenirs a life emerges. Steven Wingate and Shapiro discuss research, happy accidents, and the power of what we save.


Shop Talk |

"Find it here. Buy it here."

by Celeste Ng

One of my favorite bookstores, Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, MA, has a new sign up: The sign is intended to remind patrons that buying books in indie bookstores—not just browsing there—is what keeps those stores alive. Explains the bookstore’s email newsletter: The sign is in response to a growing trend at Harvard Book Store (and indeed at bookstores around the country). Folks come in, browse our shelves, get help from booksellers, attend our free events–but then make their purchases online at Amazon. If you like our store and enjoy our services, we’d ask you to think about the power of […]


Shop Talk |

Thursday Morning Candy: Noting:books

by Celeste Ng

We’ve talked about writing notes in the margins of books quite a bit on FWR, but what if you want to keep track of those notes over the long term, or share those notes with other people? Noting:books can help you do just that. Says the site: Noting:books is a collection of microblogs (“notebooks”) — individual readers tracking the books they’ve read and noting their thoughts. You can look through any person’s notebook, or you can look at the page for any book to see everyone’s notes on it. […] To start your own notebook, all you need to do […]


Shop Talk |

How to Steal Like an Artist

by Celeste Ng

Writer Austin Kleon offers this witty, yet sincere bit of advice on the writing life: “How to Steal Like an Artist (and 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me).” An excerpt: Your job is to collect ideas. The best way to collect ideas is to read. Read, read, read, read, read. Read the newspaper. Read the weather. Read the signs on the road. Read the faces of strangers. The more you read, the more you can choose to be influenced by. Identify one writer you really love. Find everything they’ve ever written. Then find out what they read. And read all […]


Reviews |

A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism, by Peter Mountford

by Tyler McMahon

A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism is not your grandfather’s expat novel. In this smart debut, Peter Mountford rolls up his sleeves and delivers a crash course in Latin American history, contemporary economics, and international politics—all within a page-turning story about the dreams and gaffes of a twenty-something American working for an unscrupulous hedge fund in Bolivia.




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