Suspend Your Disbelief

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Book of the Week: Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward

This week’s feature is Jesmyn Ward’s new memoir, Men We Reaped, which was published this week by Bloomsbury. Ward is also the author of the National Book Award winning novel Salvage the Bones (Bloomsbury, 2011) and the novel Where the Line Bleeds (Agate, 2008), which was an Essence Magazine Book Club selection, a Black Caucus of the ALA Honor Award recipient, and a finalist for both the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan in 2005, was a Stegner Fellow from 2008-2010, and served as the 2010-2011 John […]


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2013 State of the Book Presenter: Robert James Russell

Editor’s Note: All this week we’ll continue posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! Lit-man Robert James Russell comes to us as the co-founding editor of the literary journal Midwestern Gothic and author of Pushcart Prize nominated Sea of Trees (Winter Goose Publishing, 2012). On September 28 […]


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2013 Great Write Off Begins!

Dear Friends, We’re excited to announce that the 2013 Great Write Off is underway! For the next week (9/23 – 9/30) we’ll be participating in our second annual write-a-thon fundraiser, in collaboration with four other literary non-profits: 826michigan, Dzanc Books, the National Writers Series, and the Neutral Zone. Last year FWR and its partner organizations raised nearly $30,000 during our inaugural fundraiser to support the work these literary non-profit organizations do to help nurture the next generation of writers. And we hope to exceed those number this year! Last year the money we raised from the Great Write Off allowed us to […]


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2013 State of the Book Keynote Speaker: Carolyn Forché

Editor’s Note: All this week we’ll continue posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! We’re honored to have poet of witness, teacher, social justice activist, and Detroit native Carolyn Forché as this year’s State of the Book keynote presenter. Forché is best known for engaging with explicit […]


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2013 State of the Book Presenter: Jonathan Cohn

Editor’s Note: For the next two weeks we’ll be posting micro-portraits and/or interesting news about this year’s 2013 presenters at The State of the Book Literary Symposium, which will take place in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 28, in Rackham Auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule or list of presenters, please check out the State of the Book Website. Thank you! Jonathan Cohn, accomplished journalist, author, and United States healthcare policy expert, hails from South Florida, but now that he lives in Ann Arbor he hails to the Victors Valiant. In addition […]


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Book of the Week: Triumph of the Ape

This week’s feature is Todd Dills’ new collection, Triumph of the Ape, which was published earlier this year. Dills is the editor of THE2NDHAND, which was founded in 2000 in Chicago. He’s also the author of a novel, Sons of Rapture (Featherproof Books, 2006), and the editor of two anthologies of stories from THE2NDHAND. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Susannah Felts, also a published novelist and short story writer, and his daughter, Thalia. In his recent FWR interview with Nick Ostdick, the two sit down for a discussion on place in fiction, using Kickstarter to fund a print-run […]


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Book-of-the-Week Winners: The River and Enoch O'Reilly

Last week’s feature was Peter Murphy’s new novel, The River and Enoch O’Reilly, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Amy L. (@spydielives) Sarah Harris (@DrSeharris) Sylvie Writes (@SylvieWrites) 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!