Suspend Your Disbelief

Shop Talk

Fiction Meets Baby Names

by Celeste Ng

The Social Security Administration recently released its annual list of most popular baby names, and surprise! The influence of one particular novel—or rather, series of novels—was quite clear. Reports the New York Times: [F]lying up the list was an ancient name with modern fame: Cullen, the surname of one handsome bloodsucker, Edward, in the frighteningly popular vampire films “Twilight,” based on the best-selling novels by Stephenie Meyer. Cullen materialized at 485, leaping almost 300 spots from 2008 for the biggest increase of any boy’s name; it wedged firmly between Braiden and Kason. Other names from the Twilight series also showed […]


Win a copy of Laura van den Berg's What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Bob Dylan turned sixty-nine today. And regardless of how you feel about the man’s music, or how you feel about the different incarnations of his work—pre/post electric, pre/post born again, pre/post Victoria’s Secret—you’ve got to give him credit for knowing how to put together an album, which is a lot different than just writing a great song. My favorite is his 1976 album Desire. Maybe it’s the story writer in me, but the narrative quality of “Hurricane” and “Isis” and “Oh, Sister” just knock me out. More importantly, there’s a unity to the songs—in tone, in subject, in approach—that gives […]


Recently on FWR…

by Anne Stameshkin

In case you’ve missed them, these are the features Fiction Writers Review has been lucky to publish in the last month: In an adaptation of his AWP panel talk, Jeremiah Chamberlin discusses “talking shop” in the age of new media: [O]nline journals like Fiction Writers Review provide a unique place for emerging writers to join the conversation. After all, few print journals accept book reviews from individuals who haven’t yet published a book themselves. And even if they do, they rarely take unsolicited work. So how does an emerging writer enter this critical dialogue? Here they can. Special guest Peter […]


Win a Copy of Short People, by Joshua Furst

by Lee Thomas

We all had one. It’s one of those universals of human experience, more constant than love or rage or betrayal or grace. I’m talking about a childhood. Still, it’s impressively difficult to capture on the page, pitch the right tone, allow the perfect amount of insight and innocence, or describe the overblown drama of what it feels like to be a kid. From the opening story of his collection, Short People, Joshua Furst nails it. That first story, “The Age of Exploration,” follows the ramblings of Jason and Billy, best friends, both age six. Most of us can remember things […]


Short Stories Out Loud

by Lee Thomas

I frequently happen upon Selected Shorts on NPR midway through a story and go through a predictable course of thinking: I’ve missed the first part of the story. I should just download the podcast and hear it from the top. Wow, that sentence was brilliant. What the heck is going on here? And then I end up listening to the conclusion of the story and enjoying it immensely. Now that I’m in New York, I hope to make it to one of the live stage performances of Selected Shorts. If you’re lucky enough to already have a ticket, on May […]


FWR's Own in Glimmer Train

by Celeste Ng

At Fiction Writers Review, a key part of our mission is to support emerging writers—and hey, we’re emerging writers, too. So I’m especially pleased to report that the current issue of Glimmer Train (Issue 75) contains stories by not one, but TWO of the FWR staff: our Associate Editor, Jeremiah Chamberlin, and our site’s designer/graphic design goddess, Marissa Perry. Both are amazing writers, and we’re not just saying that because we know them. It’s especially appropriate to highlight Glimmer Train this month—Short Story Month—as it’s one of just a handful of journals that publish only short fiction. Moreover, Glimmer Train […]


Win a copy of Skip Horack's collection The Southern Cross

by Celeste Ng

I am often skeptical of reviews by people who know the author: sometimes they’re a bit too chummy, like Sarah Palin praising Glenn Beck. (Ew. Just—ew.) So let me start off by saying that I do know Skip Horack, but only slightly. We met at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference in 2009, and though we chatted a few times, this is the moment that stands out in my mind. It was a very hot August day, and I was trudging back to the dining hall in search of a cold drink when Skip and his roommate (the poet Matthew Dickman) […]


When we go digital, what happens to the flyleaf?

by Celeste Ng

We’ve talked previously about what may happen to book covers as e-books become more prevalent. But the VQR blog has a nice post about another vanishing aspect of paper books: marginal notes, flyleaf dedications, and physical insertions. Says blogger Megan Alix Fishmann, who works in a used bookstore: Each receipt, torn article, and note is a clue leading me to learn just a bit more about the book’s previous owner. In 125 Cookies to Bake, Nibble & Savor, in the midst of a recipe for peanut butter cookies, I found a woman’s prescription for 15mg of Terazepam, a strong sleeping […]


NPR's Three-Minute Fiction Contest, Round 4

by Celeste Ng

May is Short Story Month, and what better way to celebrate than by reading some short fiction by emerging writers? But I don’t have time, you say. National Public Radio has the answer: three-minute fiction. These stories can all be read aloud in under three minutes—little gems to surprise and delight you in less time than it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn. The deadline for the current round NPR’sThree-Minute Fiction Contest has passed, but while judge Ann Patchett decides on the winner, check out some of the entries. All stories for this round include the words “plant,” “trick,” […]


Book Review Bingo

by Celeste Ng

Boston Examiner Michelle Kerns has come up with the perfect way to monitor clichés in book reviews: Book Review Bingo. Just because I’m a sucker for you guys, I’ve taken all the work out of it: you’ll find, below, eight Bingo cards specially designed for the cliché-intolerant among us. I even gave you a freebie — see the middle square? It’s the “Cliché -free” zone. Print them out. Distribute them among your reading fellows. See who can get to Bingo first. Or — depending on which publication you’re reading — who can get a blackout first. Okay, we here at […]


ESPN Short Fiction Contest

by Celeste Ng

The Millions alerted us to this contest for sports-themed short fiction, sponsored by—of all people—ESPN. Now, I love my Red Sox and my Cavaliers, but I would never call myself a sports girl. So I was skeptical of the whole idea of “sports fiction.” But I recently served on the admissions board for the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, reading applications for waitership positions, and I was surprised to see a number of well-written, compelling, and honestly interesting sports-related stories. The key? They weren’t about sports per se; they were about interesting people who happened to be involved in sports, and […]


Do the Write Thing for Nashville

by Celeste Ng

You may have missed it between the Times Square Car bomb and the giant uncontrolled oil spill that’s taking over the Gulf Coast. But last week, the Cumberland River flooded much of Nashville, covering the city with over 10 feet of water, closing institutions like the Grand Ole Opry House, and killing more than 25 people. A group of publishing professionals, Do the Write Thing for Nashville, is working to raise money for flood victims by auctioning off signed copies of books, manuscript critiques by agents and editors, writing retreats, and other lit-related swag. So far, the group has raised […]




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