Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘Anne Stameshkin’

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HuffPo Books launches!

I’m a few days behind, so forgive the belated announcement: HuffPo Books is now live, and its content so far – a mix of blog posts and multimedia features (some interactive) — looks exciting! On Oct. 6, Arianna Huffington announced her first book club pick, a 2004 nonfiction title from HarperOne: In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honore. Read why she chose it and learn more about her selection process and book club goals. It seems that many in the HuffPo community have been inspired by this book and the slow movement it explores; in […]


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Issue 3 of Wag's Revue, and a contest

Online-only literary mag Wag’s Revue‘s third issue, like its previous two, is full of great features (among them charcoal renderings of scenes from Point Break!), but for fiction’s sake, I’ll stick to–fiction. In addition to stories from Daniel Wallace, Louis Wittig, Gerald Barton, and Donald Dewey, I highly recommend Will Litton’s interview with George Saunders. And not just because there’s a charcoal drawing of Patrick Swayze before it. Here’s one of my favorite bits from the interview (this is Saunders speaking): I like it best when I’m just trying to make something funny and crazy and somehow a deeper truth […]


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West Hollywood Book Fair: Sunday, Oct. 4

L.A.-based writer-readers: On Sunday, October 4th, check out the West Hollywood Book Fair from 10 AM – 6 PM in Hollywood Park (647 N. San Vicente Blvd). In addition to the book fair itself, there will be more than 400 authors and artists in attendance, more than 100 panels and book signings, live performances/events on 15 stages, writing workshops, programs for children, and the presentation of the annual Algonquin West Hollywood Literary Award. At 3:45 on the Salon Stage, be sure to attend the 2009 Emerging Voices reading; presented by PEN USA, it will feature Erika Ayon, John Boucher, Rachelle […]


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Embracing the bad reviews

You’ve got to hand it to novelist Brad Meltzer for bouncing back from brutal criticism of his novel Book of Lies with this hilarious YouTube video. His grandmother and members of the Little League team he coaches all take a turn quoting, rather gleefully, from published pillories, urging viewers to buy the book so they, too, can hate Brad. If you want to hate Brad Meltzer in paperback, please do so at your local indie bookseller. (Via Kathryn, via InkyGirl.)


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Ryan Adams and Mary-Louise Parker at the NYPL

NYCers, head to the New York Public Library this Friday for an exciting LIVE from the NYPL/Askashic event: Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams will discuss his new book, a collection of short fiction and poems called Hello, Sunshine, with that Weedstastic actress of stage-and-screen, Mary-Louise Parker. The details: When: Friday, September 25, 2009, 6:00pm Where: Celeste Bartos Forum, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (5th Avenue & 42nd St.) What it costs: $25 general admission; $15 library donors, seniors and students with valid identification. For more information, and to buy tickets, click here. Via Akashic’s website, here is Parker on Adams: “Ryan Adams writes […]


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book blogs heart novellas

Over at The Fiction Desk, Rob explores why novellas might be ideal subjects for book bloggers; might this, in turn, inspire more novella-writing? Despite their increasing importance to the industry, bloggers don’t (or rarely) get paid, and so the time they can dedicate to their book coverage is limited by work and family commitments. On top of this, it’s important to keep blogs going with fresh new content, and if your content is book reviews, those hours can really add up. Novellas may be the perfect format: often as substantial as longer novels, more “newsworthy” than short stories as they’re […]


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New features on Fiction Writers Review

If you haven’t visited the Features side of FWR this month, I highly recommend it. – Our most recent offering is an essay with original illustrations by novelist Sarah Van Arsdale about the experience of reading Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain while recovering from a major, invasive surgery. – T. M. De Vos (of Many Mountains Moving) reviews Aleksandar Hemon’s new story collection, Love and Obstacles. – Comestibles‘ Kathryn McGowan serves up recipes-in-context from The Time Traveler’s Wife in her Novel Dishes column (three so far, with another to come this Friday — here are installments I, II, and III). […]


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Say You're One of Them is Oprah Book Club pick!!

Warm congratulations, Uwem. FWR is thrilled that so many more people will know about and read your stories because of this endorsement. And Oprah, kudos for picking a story collection! Learn more about Say You’re One of Them here; read “An Ex-Mas Feast,” the collection’s first story (previously published in the New Yorker); and check out FWR Associate Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin’s interview with Uwem (for Granta).