Suspend Your Disbelief

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How They Write

by Celeste Ng

The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating look at how several writers get down to business–from writing in blue exam books to dressing in character to collage-making. Some highlights: Orhan Pamuk: Mr. Pamuk writes by hand, in graph-paper notebooks, filling a page with prose and leaving the adjacent page blank for revisions, which he inserts with dialogue-like balloons. He sends his notebooks to a speed typist who returns them as typed manuscripts; then he marks the pages up and sends them back to be retyped. Kazuo Ishiguro: Since his novels are written in the first person, the voice is crucial, […]


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Uwem Akpan Live Web Event on Monday

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Don’t miss Oprah’s live webcast discussion with Uwem Akpan about his collection Say You’re One of Them this Monday, November 9th, at 9pm EST. The conversation will be simulcast on both Oprah.com and CNN.com, as well as on Facebook. Also be sure to check out Eileen Pollack’s wonderful essay for CNN.com about working with Uwem during his time at The University of Michigan, where he received his MFA in Creative Writing in 2006. In addition to discussing what it was like to have Uwem in the classroom as one of her students, she also describes how her initial hesitancy to […]


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Bone on Bone film collaboration

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Earlier this fall, FWR contributor Sarah Van Arsdale was in residence at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in the Santa Cruz mountains. While there, she collaborated with filmmaker Peter Gossweiler on a short video titled Bone on Bone. Sarah calls it “the story of one hapless human’s encounter with modern medicine.” Readers of Sarah’s recent essay “Hobbling Up The Magic Mountain“ will recognize her wonderful illustrations. The wit and humor of her voice as a writer are here again too, highlighted even more so by the fact that Sarah narrates the piece (via Vimeo): The next application deadline for the […]


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More on Literary Influences

by Celeste Ng

If you liked Alexander Chee’s essay on studying with Annie Dillard, rejoice. There’s more where that came from. Chee’s piece is part of the just-published anthology Mentors, Muses and Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives, edited by Elizabeth Benedict (Simon & Schuster, Oct. 2009). I love hearing about how writers interact with other writers and what lessons–positive or negative–they gleaned from their teachers, so I can’t wait to read this. Here are some additional sneak peeks: “The Scholars and the Pornographer”: Carolyn See on her father, who turned to writing pornography at the age of 70, […]


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NaNoWriMo Grab Bag: Robot Assistants and More

by Celeste Ng

As Gwen announced last week, it’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), the annual challenge to write a 175-page (50,000 word) novel during the month of November. How many of you are taking part? We have at least one FWR editor and one contributor on the scene, and so far they’re keeping up with the wordcounts. You’re 1/10 of the way through your novel by now, right? Right? Here’s some extra motivation. NaNoWriMo’s profile has risen from Crazy Thing 21 People Did in 1999 to Mass Writing Event in 2008. Last year, NaNoWriMo reported over 120,000 participants, 20,000 of whom finished […]


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Jim Shepard on Using History in Fiction

by Celeste Ng

Over at The Outlet, Jim Shepard has a great essay on working with historical events in fiction: Writers shouldn’t lose sight of the essential chutzpah involved in trying to imagine any other kind of sensibility. And that they should take heart from that chutzpah, as well. The whole project of literature – the entire project of the arts — is about the exercise of the empathetic imagination. Why were we given something as amazing as imagination, if we’re not going to use it? Shepard is a master at inhabiting and re-imagining historical events in his stories. One of my all-time […]


Essays |

My Kindle, Myself

by Lauren Hall

It was cold and white and looked not unlike a refrigerator for guinea pigs. It had far too many buttons. It stalled for an annoying millisecond when flipping between pages. There was no way I would ever be able to suspend my disbelief and fully enter the world of a book.

And then, somewhere over Georgia, I changed my mind.


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Andrew's Book Club: November Picks

by Anne Stameshkin

As a huge fan of Munro and Dzanc, I’m especially excited about Andrew’s picks for this month. (This is what the world will look like when there is too much happiness!) – Indie Pick: Laura van den Berg’s debut, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc) / description (via ABC): A failed actress takes a job as a Bigfoot impersonator. A botanist seeking a rare flower crosses paths with a group of men hunting the Loch Ness Monster. A disillusioned missionary in Africa grapples with grief and a growing obsession with a creature rumored […]


Reviews |

God's Dogs, by Mitch Wieland

by Tyler McMahon

In an age of books built from blogs, tweets, and text messages, God’s Dogs, Mitch Wieland’s new novel-in-stories, feels as though it were made of wood. It is regional, elemental, and bears the marks of its maker: the careful grooves of his chisel, the smooth surfaces from the author’s finest sandpaper, even rough-hewn gouges by what might have been teeth or fingernails.


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scary, scarier, scariest

by Anne Stameshkin

Happy Halloween! If you’re looking for creepy literature or inspiration on All Hallow’s Eve, here are some recommendations (and warnings): – The Baltimore Museum of Art is currently featuring an exhibit of paintings — some by renowned artists like Gauguin and Matisse — inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. This is only one event in Nevermore, Baltimore’s year-long celebration of Poe throughout 2009 (in January, Poe would have turned 200). Tonight at the Strand Theatre (1823 N. Charles Street), see David Keltz read/perform as Poe, and afterwards, grab a pint at the Annabel Lee Tavern. For a full list of […]




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