Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘Anne Stameshkin’

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palin fails poetry, grammar

by Anne Stameshkin

We knew Palin could recite fiction. Now Slate’s Hart Seely adds line breaks to give us the poetry of Sarah Palin; among her works are “Befoulers of the Verbiage,” “Small Mayors,” and a haiku. Also on Slate, Kitty Burns Florey attempts to diagram the candidate’s sentences. “…The more the diagram is forced to wander around the page, loop back on itself, and generally stretch its capabilities, the more it reveals that the mind that created the sentence is either a richly educated one—with a Proustian grasp of language that pushes the limits of expression—or such an impoverished one that it […]


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recommended review: Erika Dreifus on How Fiction Works by James Wood

by Anne Stameshkin

One of my favorite blogs is Erika Dreifus’ Practicing Writing, an offshoot of her larger site The Practicing Writer, originally referred to me by Celeste. One day I’ll have to devote a long entry to the awesomeness of the many rich resources and services Erika provides to writers–most free of charge–but for now I’ll just link you to her astute review of James Wood’s How Fiction Works, a book that I’ve been both savoring and smacking against things this fall. How Fiction Works will be FWR’s next Discussion Review. If you’d like to join the conversation — I’m getting in […]


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nyc-based writers: seeking an agent?

by Anne Stameshkin

Head to the Asian American Writers Workshop (AAWW) next Tuesday, October 7 at 7pm for: The Practicing Writer Panel: How To Get An Agent Literary agents Jin Auh (The Wylie Agency), Ayesha Pande (Collins Literary Agency) and Amy Tipton (FinePrint Literary Management) will discuss how to get your manuscript into the right hands and find a good home for your book(s). The AAWW is located at 16 West 32nd Street (between Broadway & 5th Avenue), 10th Floor, NY, NY.


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reviewlet: How Far is the Ocean from Here by Amy Shearn

by Anne Stameshkin

How Far is the Ocean from Here, Amy Shearn’s captivating debut, follows a young surrogate mother who flees to the desert shortly before her due date. Accomplishing a seemingly impossible goal, the novel sustains the quality and language of a short story for 320 pages. Shearn exceeds at painting characters and relationships – particularly the bond between surrogate Susannah and father Julian; an adopted child himself, Julian feels a strong pull to the woman carrying his first blood relative–much to the chagrin of his wife, Kit. The book’s POV, a shifting third person with hints of omniscience, is ambitious and […]


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against depression

by Anne Stameshkin

This story (audio and transcript available here) covers the high rate of teen suicide on Nantucket. The community is struggling with how to cope – and how to prevent further cases; psychologists and trauma specialists are working with police officers and teachers, training them to identify (and recommend to counseling) kids who suffer from depression. At a town meeting earlier this year, Harvard’s Robert Macy urged parents to take the time to really listen to their kids, stressing that this was more important that actively trying to prevent them from harming themselves. All of this seems like good work and […]


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songs of innocence and of experience

by Anne Stameshkin

On the topic of our “you’ve got to re-read this” series, I highly recommend this wonderful essay from Tim Kreider at Balitmore City Paper. When Books Could Change Your Life: Why What We Pore Over At 12 May Be The Most Important Reading We Ever Do Let’s all admit it: We never got over those first loves. Listen to the difference in the voices of any groups of well-read, overeducated people discussing contemporary fiction, or the greatest books they’ve ever read, and the voices of those same people, only two drinks later, talking about the books they loved as kids… […]


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trailers for books

by Anne Stameshkin

In the workshop I’m teaching we’ve been talking a lot about the difference between writing for the screen and writing for the page — the advantages of each medium and how to “translate” scenes from one to the other. Tangentially, we wondered if a lion roared or a castle illuminated or a fanfare erupted just before we opened a book, would that make us even more thrilled to begin reading? No wonder sitting in a theater feels more exciting — to most — than turning to page 1. (Caveat: I think if you have the memory of opening many rewarding […]




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