Suspend Your Disbelief

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Perseverance Triumphs Over Despair At AWP

by Sarah Van Arsdale

Editor’s note: At AWP 2012, which just wrapped up in Chicago, we were thrilled to hear this wonderful story from one of our contributors, Sarah Van Arsdale, and are delighted to share it with you. It’s a reminder of what conferences are really about: fostering community to buoy a writer’s spirit, helping you hang in there through those the hard months years when it feels like you’re going nowhere. 2009, Chicago. Attended AWP with the single-minded purpose of finding a publisher for my novel; my agent had tried like hell, and failed to place it. Barely made it to a […]


Jaw-droppingly gorgeous bookstores

by Celeste Ng

Flavorwire has compiled a list of 20 incredibly gorgeous bookstores—like the Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid, housed in a converted theater in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Click over to see the whole post—guaranteed to make you want to visit each and every one. Happy Friday! Further Reading: More amazing bookshelves to inspire (or inspire envy) Coolest bookshelves


William Gay, 1941-2012

Novelist William Gay, who died late last month at the age of seventy, was the topic of several conversations I had at AWP this year. Most of the talks centered on Gay’s work, which was sublime, or his soul, which was sweet; we fond remember-ers would all have a sip of beer and nod somberly. He’ll be missed, we’d say. What else can you do? But sitting here today, at my post-AWP desk, in the quiet of my office full of books and stacks of revisions that need entering, I’m thinking of William Gay again. I only met him a […]


Libraries, libraries, everywhere (and we mean everywhere)

by Celeste Ng

Do you have a cell phone? Of course you do.  Everyone does.  So what will become of all those public pay phone booths that no one needs anymore? Columbia architecture grad John Locke has an idea: turn them into public bookshelves.  Reports The Atlantic Cities: [I]n the past few months, the Columbia architecture grad has slipped around Manhattan with a sack of books and custom-made shelves, converting old pay phones into pop-up libraries. The concept, sponsored by Locke’s imaginary Department of Urban Betterment, is that New Yorkers will pick up unfamiliar titles while running their errands and then, perhaps, replace […]


Book of the Week: Three Ways of the Saw, by Matt Mullins

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Matt Mullins’s debut collection, Three Ways of the Saw, which was just released by Atticus Books, a small literary press in Maryland that specializes in “genre-busting literary fiction—i.e., titles that fall between the cracks of genre fiction and compelling narratives that feature memorable main characters.” Mullins is a writer, musician, experimental filmmaker and multimedia artist. His fiction and poetry have appeared in such places as Mid-American Review, Pleiades, Hunger Mountain, Harpur Palate, Descant, Hobart, as well as other print and online literary journals. He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Ball State University, where […]


Book-of-the-Week Winners: The World of a Few Minutes Ago

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured Jack Driscoll’s new collection, The World of a Few Minutes Ago, as our Book-of-the-Week title. Here are this week’s winners: Emilia Fuentes Grant (@EmiliaFGrant) Roz Morris fiction (@ByRozMorris) Adria Haley (@adria_haley) 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.


How to Succeed In Business? Read fiction.

by Celeste Ng

There are lots of reasons to read fiction. But did you know it can also make you a better businessperson? In the Harvard Business Review, Anne Kreamer makes “the business case for reading novels.” She argues: Over the past decade, academic researchers such as Oatley and Raymond Mar from York University have gathered data indicating that fiction-reading activates neuronal pathways in the brain that measurably help the reader better understand real human emotion — improving his or her overall social skillfulness. […] In one of Oatley and Mar’s studies in 2006, 94 subjects were asked to guess the emotional state […]


Police Composite sketches for literary characters

by Celeste Ng

Like most readers, you probably have your own mental image of Humbert Humbert, or Emma Bovary, or the Misfit. But if you’re the kind of person who likes a visual, check out The Composites, a Tumblr site that plugs literary descriptions of characters into police composite sketch software. The results are… well, take a look below and decide for yourself. Here’s how the police sketch program portrayed the three characters I mentioned above, along with the passages that generated them. (All images via The Composites.) Humbert Humbert, from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: Gloomy good looks…Clean-cut jaw, muscular hand, deep sonorous […]


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Hi there; we are Fiction Writers Review We’ve been fueled entirely by donated time, work and funds since FWR was founded in 2008, and in that time we’ve created thousands of articles, reviews, interviews, and original works — everything in our rich archive, and we’re not stopping here (read more about how we’re getting writers and readers talking…). So, do you come here often? If you’re an avid reader (writers included), you’re enjoying FWR, and you happen to be a wealthy philanthropist, we’d love to tell you how to donate your extensive estate to FWR upon your demise. Step right […]


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Thank you for supporting Fiction Writers Review! Fiction Writers Review is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide a public forum for conversations about the craft of fiction, literature, and the writing life. In an age where fiction coverage is an endangered species, Fiction Writers Review brings fiction back into the conversation. Because fiction matters! Fiction Writers Review is the only non-profit organization dedicated to exploring fiction with the same devotion to depth of craft as the authors who create it. Your financial contribution allows us to continue this mission, serving emerging writers, professional authors, and readers alike, […]


Great Literary Things You Can Do Because You're Not at AWP

by Celeste Ng

Not at AWP—and wishing you were?  Don’t.  Here are 3 great literary things you can do this weekend because you’re not at AWP: 1. Go to a reading. Hear Alice McDermott at Hofstra, Karen Joy Fowler in San Francisco, Jodi Picoult in Boston, or any of a dozen other great readings.  Poets & Writers has a handy calendar, searchable by state or city, or check your local bookstore’s website. 2. Take a writing class. Many writing centers offer one-night classes, so take advantage of them while others are away. Happening AWP weekend: in Boston, Grub Street offers classes such as […]


Cooler than AWP

by Celeste Ng

So you’re not at AWP right now, and you’re wondering what kind of highjinks you’re missing?   I can promise you, you’re not missing anything as fun as the sessions on Full Stop’s mock AWP schedule, which I must confess looks way more exciting than the original. Here are the sessions I’d be attending at this alterna-AWP: 4 Over 400: The Gutenberg Problem. Noted grimoire authors Merlin, Gandalf, Conor MacLeod, and Albus Dumbledore discuss the potentially disastrous consequences of printing presses. Will the grimoire survive this radical new development in publishing? How should scroll hawkers best adapt to the new […]




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