Suspend Your Disbelief

Shop Talk

Do words hurt the world?

by Celeste Ng

In the Guardian, author Rick Gekoski argues that writing is “bad for you”: When I am writing I wander in a fug all day, wake in the middle of the night – waking my wife Belinda as well – and stagger downstairs to record a thought or two. Leave the bed with my mind whirling with gorgeously formed sentences which are as evanescent as the smell of lily of the valley, and about as easy to recall. By the time I get to the keyboard their perfection (as it seems to me in my drowsy creative mode) has dissipated, and […]


Book-of-the-Week Winners: Season of Water and Ice

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured Season of Water and Ice as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners. Congratulations to: Kristin Offiler (@KristinOffiler) Paul Liebert (@paliebert) David Henry Sterry (@Sterryhead) To claim your signed copy of this novel, 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!


The End of Borders: A Daily Show Perspective

by Celeste Ng

I admit it: when current events become a bit too much to handle, I turn to the Daily Show for some much-needed comedic perspective. Usually it’s politics that’s making me tear my hear out, but here’s Jon Stewart and John Hodgman (a fiction writer himself) finding the humor in the Borders closing. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Borders Goes Out of Business www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook Happy Monday. As John Hodgman would put it, “You’re welcome.” Further Reading: Does the end of […]


Jane Austen: Word Fighter

by Celeste Ng

The love affair between literature and video games keeps going strong. Who’s the newest literary figure to cross over? Why, Jane Austen, of course. App developer Feel Every Yummy presents Word Fighter, a head-to-head word puzzle game starring literary characters. The game looks like Street Fighter crossed with Boggle, and here’s the trailer, which can only be described as AWESOME: Players can battle as Edgar (Allen Poe), Agatha (Christie), and yes, Jane (Austen). Forbes has the scoop: When Gian Cruz and Kris Zabala, the founders and sole employees of up-and-coming app developer Feel Every Yummy, came up with the idea […]


Second-hand, but not second-rate

by Celeste Ng

Yesterday we talked about why Borders’ demise doesn’t necessarily mean the end of books. Great, you may be saying. But where am I supposed to buy my books now? Well, for new books, consider your local indie bookstore—you can find one near you on the IndieBound website. But there are also amazing used bookstores out there. First, here’s a video on Brazenhead Books, a speakeasy-like (illegal) bookstore in NYC with a secret location—you can read more about them in the New Yorker, too. (Via.) There’s No Place Like Here: Brazenhead Books from Etsy on Vimeo. (By the way, owner Michael […]


What the end of Borders REALLY means

by Celeste Ng

Borders may be a thing of the past, but does it mean there’s no market for books anymore? The MobyLives blog of Melville House does some pithy analysis: Was this whole thing basically a fifteen-year-long advertisement for Amazon? In a word, no. The story of Borders failure is, first and foremost, a real estate story. Simply, Borders gobbled up a lot of expensive square footage in the real estate boom of the nineties, as did Barnes and Noble, with a seemingly insatiable lust that curdled into craven predatoriness. […] When the economy imploded in 2008, they were locked into severely […]


Book of the Week: Season of Water and Ice, by Donald Lystra

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Donald Lystra’s debut novel Season of Water and Ice. Lystra, a retired engineer, lives in Ann Arbor and spends part of each summer in northern Michigan, on the Leelanau Peninsula, where this book is set. His short fiction has appeared in many literary journals, including Other Voices, The North American Review, Passages North, and The Greensboro Review. A story called “Family Way,” which eventually grew into Season of Water and Ice, appeared in Cimarron Review in 2006, and an excerpt from the book appeared in Natural Bridge in 2009. This is his first novel. This novel […]


Book-of-the-Week Winners: The Swan

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last week we featured The Swan as our Book-of-the-Week title, and we’re pleased to announce the winners. Congratulations to: Chuck A. Stetson (@cstetson) Eliza Weber (@deareliza) J-Dub (@cre8ivepen) To claim your signed copy of this novel, 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!


Facebook: the next ebook publisher?

We’re delighted to present another post by FWR’s editorial intern, Nicole Aber. Enjoy! Now that Facebook has conquered the world of social networking, could it be setting its sights on online publishing? Rumors have been spiraling recently about Facebook’s acquisition of e-book publishing company Push Pop Press. But the social networking giant says it won’t be dabbling in the e-book world anytime soon. Instead, it says that it will employ the technological know-how of the company—which released Al Gore’s e-book Our Choice—in its ubiquitous social networking platform. A press release on Push Pop’s site reads: Now we’re taking our publishing […]


The essence of a story

by Celeste Ng

Kid-and-design blog OhDeeDoh pointed me to these beautiful, minimalist posters of children’s stories by artist Christian Jackson. Here are a few more: What I love most about these—aside from the obviously amazing graphic design—is the way each poster strips the story down to its most basic elements. It’s the visual version of the old writing exercise: can you tell your story in one paragraph? One sentence? One word? Here, each story is condensed into one image. You can see all of Jackson’s children’s story posters, as well as buy prints (or iphone skins!) featuring the artwork, on his website.


2011 PEN Literary Awards Announced

by Celeste Ng

The winners of the prestigious PEN Literary awards were recently announced–and we’re proud to have featured some of the winners and judges right here on Fiction Writers Review. Here are the main winners for fiction: PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize ($25,000): To a fiction writer whose debut work, published in 2010, represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise. This year, the judges have chosen two winners to share the award. Susanna Daniel, Stiltsville (FWR interview here) Danielle Evans, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (FWR interview here) Runner up: Teddy Wayne, Kapitoil Judges: Susan Cheever, Paul Harding, and Yiyun […]


The Ultimate Personality Test: Your Favorite Writer

by Celeste Ng

When you’re on a first date, what’s the first question you ask? “What do you do?” “Where did you grow up?” “What did you think of Inception?” Maybe you should ask “Who’s your favorite author?” Thought Catalog presents this handy (though somewhat tongue-in-cheek) guide to personalities based on favorite authors. For example, love Tao Lin? 3. Tao Lin If your favorite author is Tao Lin, you’re the type of introspective person who recognizes absurdity in typical daily behavior. You’re most likely a combination of all or some of the following: hipster, twee, Into Literature, shy/ anxious/ curious/ depressed, Poet, and […]




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