Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘Anne Stameshkin’

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how to read 462 books in 365 days

How many books, on average, do you read a year? I thought I was a pretty voracious reader; in 2008 I finished 68 new books (this doesn’t include any books I re-read or manuscripts I read/edited for employers or friends). But, oh, I am outdone! Writer-reviewer Sarah Weinman (and a host of others who commented on her article) can read 462 books in one year; according to Weinman, the quality of her reading experience isn’t suffering, and she isn’t just skimming. Taking in this article, I was suddenly three feet tall in corduroy overalls, standing on tip-toes to ask my […]


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gimme fiction!

According to a new report by the NEA (“Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy”), the percentage of US adults reading fiction is growing for the first time in a quarter-century (chart borrowed from the NY Times). But I’m not ready to hit the street with pom-poms and a marching band just yet: a higher percentage of Americans were reading literature in the late 20th century–and it kind of blows my mind that only 50.2% of my fellow citizens have read even one novel, short story, poem, or play in the past year…


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recommended reading: Nami Mun at B&N-Tribeca (NYC) on 1/12

Join me tomorrow night at Barnes & Noble in Tribeca (97 Warren St. @ Greenwich St.) at 7 PM to hear Pushcart- and Hopwood-prize-winning Nami Mun read from her debut novel, Miles From Nowhere. And look for an interview (soon!) with Nami on FWR. Miles from Nowhere began as a collection of linked stories (two of which I had the pleasure to read in workshop at Michigan, and several of which have been published in prestigious lit journals). As a novel, it holds together beautifully; Miles remains episodic, but breaks between chapters feel hauntingly like lost years–perfect for this particular […]


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recommended reading: Allison Amend at T&W Collective (NYC) on 1/21

I go to a lot of readings. It’s a rare week when I don’t attend at least one or two. And while I’d say I enjoy them in the abstract, I have to admit that too often, even when I love the writer, I wind up kind of bored or restless: I think about my own writing, or I agonize over that leaning tower of laundry back home, an unfinished freelance project, the friend whose novel draft I *still* haven’t finished reading, whether my water bottle is slowly emptying into my sad, overstuffed purse… Not so with the One-Story reading […]


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"Move over, Oprah," says book club for story collections

Writer-blogger Andrew Scott has started Andrew’s Book Club, which recommends two story collections every month, one from a mainstream publisher and one from an independent press; Andrew encourages all book club members to buy at least one of these two books each month, investing in twelve collections each year. His January picks are Lauren Groff’s Delicate, Edible Birds and Allison Amend’s Things That Pass for Love. Andrew’s Book Club offers a blog, a Facebook site, and a mission: to boost sales of the collections Andrew endorses; to boost sales of story collections, period; and to encourage discussion of the books […]


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distractions while writ…*clicks away*

Cory Doctorow defends the Internet, saying the worst piece of writing advice he ever received was to stay away from it. He offers some solid tips for avoiding distractions while writing and setting small, attainable daily goals. How distracted are you by IM, skype, blogs, email, internet research etc. while trying to write? Are you more tempted by online or off-line distractions? How (and how successfully) do you resist them?


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publishing fiction as fiction

I swore I wasn’t even going to blog about the whole Angel at the Fence debacle, but then I saw this: that York House Press hopes to publish this so-called “fake memoir” by a Holocaust survivor as a work of fiction; this book certainly contains some fictional (or, it could be argued, mis-remembered) details–including the one its title refers to–but author Herman Rosenblat really is a death camp survivor, and he hardly deserves to be viciously attacked as the next Margaret B. Jones. Here’s the publisher’s official statement, which defends, quite convincingly and movingly, their decision to publish the book […]


Reviews |

The Love Song of Monkey, by Michael S.A. Graziano

After an experimental operation goes mysteriously right, Jonathan finds himself at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, chained to a statue of Venus. He needs no food and breathes water like air. Bonus: He’s immortal. Jonathan’s meditations on love (namely his unfaithful wife, Kitty, who thinks the experiment failed) take him on an adventure to the mid-Atlantic ridge, into a volcanic shaft, and back to land–where he becomes a demon statue, a nimble thief, and even a super-hero.


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ERN/Rock Bottom best band name contest!

FWR contributor (and original Long Winters drummer) Michael Shilling’s debut novel Rock Bottom, an account of a band’s final tour, is publishing on January 9, and the Emerging Writers Network is sponsoring a very fun contest in its honor: Come up with the best imaginary band name you can think of and post it by midnight on January 14 here; there’s a limit of three entires per person, and Michael’s the judge. The reward is a free copy of Rock Bottom. Coming soon…an interview with the author on FWR.


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the wovel

Editor/publisher Victoria Blake (Underland Press), along with programmer Jesse Pollack, is the force behind a new literary form: the online serial novel, or wovel; NPR describes it as “Choose your Own Adventure meets Wikipedia.” A self-confessed blog addict who loves reading frequently-updated online content, Blake thought it would be great to have opportunities to read literature online in a serial form, a la Dickens (and more recently Chabon), and to have that experience be interactive. Here is Underland’s official description of the wovel (from their website): Every week, the author posts an installment. Installment length hits the sweet-spot of online […]




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