Suspend Your Disbelief

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Recently on FWR

by Anne Stameshkin

Hello, blog readers! In case you’ve missed any of our features so far this month, here’s a quick rundown: REVIEWS Lee Thomas reviews Michael David Lukas’s debut, The Oracle of Stamboul, recommending the novel—with its “sun-drenched marble, the heat and clamor of the bazaar, and a warm, salt breeze off the Sea of Marmara”—as an antidote to mid-winter malaise. (Yes, please!) The book features a precocious prodigy, eight-year-old Eleonora Cohen, as a guide through Lukas’s tale of political intrigue in late 19th-century Stamboul. The Oracle of Stamboul was also FWR’s March 1 Book of the Week. In his review of […]


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An idea is worth… Three MILLION dollars

by Celeste Ng

I am selling my story that I have been creating for 10+ years. (not constantly writing, but of piecing everything together in a cohesive manner) It can be compared to stories like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Indiana Jones and other titles in those categories. This is a really great story I have. This story needs to be completed by a professional writer or Ghost Writer. I am by no means a writer. Thus begins a recent listing on eBay. The item up for auction? Not the story, but the story idea. The listing continues: I […]


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Bound, by Antonya Nelson

by Jackie Reitzes

In this review of Antonya Nelson’s fourth novel, Bound, Jackie Retizes examines the role of serial killers as literary signifiers, how Nelson navigates multiple points of view, and why the author succeeds (when many less expert writers don’t) in favoring ambiguity over conclusions, “offering delicate moments of attachment in a book that is less about permanence than it is about restoration.”


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Thursday Morning Candy: DailyLit

by Celeste Ng

Welcome to Thursday Morning Candy, where we highlight some of our favorite online journals and writer resources. This week’s treat from our blogroll: DailyLit, which sends you literature in bite-sized installments via RSS or email—for free! Says the site’s FAQ: Why read books by email? Because if you are like us, you spend hours each day reading email but don’t find the time to read books. DailyLit brings books right into your inbox in convenient small messages that take less than 5 minutes to read. You can choose from nearly a thousand titles, and DailyLit breaks the book or story […]


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The child as writing aid

by Celeste Ng

I used to say that in order to get any writing done, I should hire someone to stand behind me with a stick and hit me on the head anytime I wasn’t working. I imagined someone along the lines of The Rock, or at least Queen Latifah, who embodied just such a character (more or less) in Stranger Than Fiction—a sweet movie despite its amazingly unrealistic portrayal of the writing life. “Motivator” might have been a good job title. Well, now I have a Motivator, but he doesn’t look anything like I expected. Trying to write while taking care of […]


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Book of the Week winners: Volt

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Each week Fiction Writers Review gives away several free copies of a featured novel or story collection as part of our Book-of-the-Week program. Last week we featured Alan Heathcock’s debut collection Volt (Graywolf, 2011), and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Melissa Buker Parcel, Kelly Smith, and Brad Green. Congratulations! Each will receive a signed copy of this collection. If you’d like to be eligible for future drawings, please visit our Facebook Page and “like” us. To everyone who’s already a fan, thanks again!


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"How do you know a tsunami is coming?" "When the ocean starts to disappear."

by Celeste Ng

If you’re looking for reasons to help the relief efforts in Japan, look no further than this moving essay in the New York Times by novelist Marie Mutsuki Mockett, author of Picking Bones from Ash. Mockett’s family lives near Sendai, the city hardest hit by the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. For 36 hours after the earthquake and tsunami that eviscerated the east coast of Japan on Friday, I was unable to get any word from my relatives who oversee and live in our family’s Buddhist temple in Iwaki City, south of Sendai, the biggest city near the epicenter. […]


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99 problems… but a snitch ain't one

by Celeste Ng

Once again, fiction becomes reality—sort of. The wizard sport Quidditch, from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series1, has made its way into the real world. The International Quidditch Association “serves to promote Quidditch as a new sport and lead outreach programs to increase athletic participation among children and young adults and bring magic to communities.” According to the organization’s website, “Muggle Quidditch,” or “Ground Quidditch,” began in 2005 as an intramural league at Middlebury College in Vermont. The rules were adapted from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels by Alexander Manshel, the first Quidditch Commissioner. […] Since then the IQA has helped […]


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Spider-Man, and killing your darlings

by Celeste Ng

Last week, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark fired its director, Julie Taymor. Already the most expensive musical in Broadway history, Spider-Man has been universally panned by critics—and it hasn’t even officially opened yet. The show’s decision to let Taymor go was apparently in part due to her refusal to alter the script, even when everyone around her agreed it wasn’t working. Reports the New York Times: According to four of her colleagues, Ms. Taymor boxed herself into a corner with the producers in the last few weeks by rebuffing their requests to allow outsiders to make changes to the show. […]


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Journal of the Week: One Story

by Michael Rudin

Since launching in September, Fiction Writers Review’s “Book of the Week” promotion has shipped seventy-nine books to readers located in twenty-four states and three countries. Whether we’re giving away debut novels or acclaimed collections, the enthusiasm on Facebook has less to do with free, signed first editions than what these books do and how their authors accomplish it. It’s exactly this enthusiasm that now allows us to expand the spotlight from books deserving your attention to literary journals deserving your attention. Starting this week, Fiction Writers Review will begin profiling publications we admire right here on the blog in a […]




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