Suspend Your Disbelief

Recent Posts

Shop Talk |

In a world where fifteen minutes is a "commitment"…

by Anne Stameshkin

Please read that subject line in Dramatic Male Movie Preview Voice. Today, Bookfox synthesizes some insightful comments on Seth Fisher’s piece “More Crappy News for Short Story Writers” (on The Rumpus), addressing the whole “why don’t people read more short stories if they have less time?” question. Thoughts? Comments? Revolutionary notions? I plan to discuss this question in depth when I (finally) review Lauren Groff’s wonderful collection, Delicate Edible Birds, this fall, and I’d love to hear what others think about it. Does a short story require a more focused kind of attention than most readers are able to muster? […]


Shop Talk |

NPR's "Three-Minute Fiction" contest

by Anne Stameshkin

The flash-fiction / short-short-short trend continues… For Round II of this contest, NPR invites writers to submit an original work that begins with this sentence: “The nurse left work at five o’clock.” Instructions, via the site: One entry per person, and no more than 600 words, please. Stories must be received by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 25. We’ll post a favorite story weekly until the New Yorker‘s James Wood picks our winner and reads his or her story on the air. The winner will also receive a signed copy of Wood’s book, How Fiction Works. (And if you […]


Reviews |

Doghead, by Morten Ramsland

by Cyan James

Hundehoved. See, it sounds a little more haunted, a little more rhythmic, a little more intense in Danish. But the English “Doghead” sounds good, too: blunt and pragmatic, both mysterious and common as dirt. Come to think of it, mystery and the commonplace both pervade Doghead(Thomas Dunne Books, 2009, trans. Tiina Nunnally), a Scandinavian saga obsessed with the convoluted telling of what goes awry in the gnarled branches of the Erikkson family tree.


Shop Talk |

The Collagist is born!

by Anne Stameshkin

I’m really looking forward to reading Dzanc’s newly launched online literary magazine this weekend. To learn more about The Collagist, read the debut issue‘s welcome letter/preview from editor Matt Bell. I’m especially interested in the inclusion of a novel excerpt, acknowledged as such; this issue’s extract comes from Laird Hunt‘s fourth novel Ray of the Star (forthcoming this September from Coffee House Press).


Shop Talk |

tattooed with lit

by Celeste Ng

If you have a literary tattoo, consider submitting it for this anthology by independent editors Justin Taylor and Eva Talmadge: All images must include the name (or pseudonym) of the tattoo bearer, city and state or country, and a transcription of the text itself, along with its source. For portraits or illustrations, please include the name of the author or book on which it’s based. We’d also like to read a few words about the tattoo’s meaning to you — why you chose it, when you first read that poem or book, or how its meaning has evolved over time. […]


Interviews |

Finding the Narrative: A Conversation with Sung J. Woo

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Sung J. Woo was born in Korea and immigrated to the United States with his mother and two sisters when he was ten years old. Several years earlier, his father had moved to this country in order to establish a small business–a small, Asian-themed store in a mall in New Jersey–which would one day serve as the basis for the setting of Sung Woo’s debut novel, Everything Asian. Captured with humor and generosity, the book chronicles one year in the lives of the Kim family as they adjust to a new life in the United States and interact with fellow shopkeepers at Peddlers Town.

Woo spoke with Jeremiah Chamberlin on May 15th during the Ann Arbor Book Festival.


Shop Talk |

Short Story Special

by Celeste Ng

The Guardian has put out its annual Short Story Special, featuring work by Dave Eggers, A.M. Homes, David Mitchell, William Boyd, and Julie Myerson. This year, the Special also includes six short stories written by Guardian readers, culled from a pool of almost 2,000 by judges William Boyd and Julie Myerson. The winning story, “Broken Crockery,” is the publishing debut (!) of Lisa Blower, who is studying creative writing at Bangor University. Here’s an excerpt: Mum says my nan’s in hospital with Margaret Thatcher. […] My nan doesn’t like Margaret Thatcher because she’d kicked women in the shins and blew […]


Shop Talk |

recommended writers-on-writing: big think

by Anne Stameshkin

Earlier this year, Celeste and I blogged about how much FWR loves the TED series, in which speakers give a short talk about one topic of their choosing. Another site, big think–which describes itself as “a global forum connecting people and ideas”–also offers hundreds of short video interviews, plenty of which would be interesting to writers or useful for writing teachers. Indulge in some healthy procrastination from your novel, syllabus, or deadline project by checking out a few samples: * Elizabeth Gilbert discusses what it means when we call a book “Chick Lit” and shares some of her ideas about […]


Shop Talk |

library of Awesome

by Anne Stameshkin

These photos of the DOK Library Concept Center (Holland) by Jenny Levine, “The Shifted Librarian” on flickr, are like porn if you love libraries, modern architecture, and books. The mission of this library is, at least in part, to be a fun, inviting space–one where kids can stand on the furniture and eat while they read, and where books are integrated with music, games, and other media. Reading becomes socially awesome. And yet DOK also values reading’s solitary nature by providing–as an alternative to the wide-open, light-soaked spaces–nooks and secret rooms where readers can lose themselves in a book. Surrounding […]


Essays |

Quotes & Notes: Writing What's Yours, When It's Yours to Write

by Steven Wingate

“You take up the pen when you are told, and write what is commanded.”
— Zora Neale Hurston

Consider Hurston’s words in the context of note-taking and revision, which we normally don’t think of as particularly inspired phases of the fiction process. Preparing the canvas can be a long and dreadful bore; we learn about our characters in slow motion, wanting to write the work itself but knowing that we aren’t yet ready. We synopsize, sometimes outline, sometimes take copious notes that we then ignore completely.




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