Suspend Your Disbelief

Recent Posts

Shop Talk |

How to Squeeze a Story Out of the Soul; Or, How to Squeeze the Soul Out of a Story

Something I often heard in my experience as an MFA student was that one should write “painfully slow,” making every sentence count by tinkering with each word before moving on to the next one. In short: the story stalls, or never soars. The sentence is god. Typically, creative writing courses focus on the language of scene, character, plot, and dialogue the way we learn the parts of speech. This is the predicate; it should follow the subject sounds incredibly similar to This is the denouement; it should follow the climax. Even at the graduate level, workshops expend their energy with […]


Essays |

Gargoyles in the Classroom: Some Reflections on Popular Fiction in the Undergraduate Creative Writing Workshop

Back in the 90’s, I was teaching a multi-genre creative writing class at Cape Fear Community College, a name I am not making up. There were almost thirty students, with a wide variety of backgrounds, interests, and abilities. At the time, inexperienced, I was still letting folks workshop whatever they wanted, without any restraints on content or pre-screening by me. I was more giddy cheerleader than true teacher, with vague hopes of leaping onto my desk, Robin-Williams like, and inspiring bemusement and admiration from my young students. All this led to some unusual situations, like the young man who plagiarized […]


Interviews |

Sitting on Nails and Staring at the Wall: An Interview with Jacob M. Appel

“Could Biology take place anywhere but New York?” Emily Schultze asks Jacob M. Appel about his new novel, The Biology of Luck, a modern-day take on Ulysses. “No,” Appel replies. “In my psychotic moments I thought maybe I’d put it in Dublin, but then I always came to my senses.”


Shop Talk |

Book-of-the-Week Winners: Liliane's Balcony

Last week’s feature was Kelcey Parker’s novellla, Liliane’s Balcony, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Kim Triedman (@kimtriedman) Jill Hughes (@JillSHughes) Jean-Marie (@JeanMarieMaier) Congrats! To claim your free copy, 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! Thanks to all of you who are fans. We appreciate your support. Let us know your favorite new books out there!