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Posts Tagged ‘FWR news’

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National Writers Series to host Jeffrey Eugenides October 20

by Celeste Ng

On Thursday, October 20, the Traverse City National Writers Series will host An Evening with Jeffrey Eugenides at 8pm at the Lars Hockstad Auditorium in Traverse City, Michigan.  The evening will conclude with a reception and book signing with the author. Here at Fiction Writers Review, we’re very excited about this reading–and not just because our own Jeremiah Chamberlin will be hosting, speaking with Eugenides about his new novel The Marriage Plot as well as his life and other work. The Traverse City National Writers Series’ events aren’t your typical readings.  Explains the organization’s website: In 2009, Doug Stanton, wife […]


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Hot off the Presses: 2011 National Book Award Finalists Announced!

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Approximately one hour ago, the finalists for this year’s National Book Awards were announced on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s morning radio program, Think Out Loud. The event took place in front of a live audience at the new Literary Arts Center in Portland, Oregon, at approximately 9am Pacific Time. And we’re pleased to announce that some of our favorite fiction titles last year have been selected. Congratulations to: Fiction: Andrew Krivak for The Sojourn Tea Obreht for The Tiger’s Wife Julie Otsuka for The Buddha in the Attic Edith Pearlman for Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories Jesmyn Ward for Salvage […]


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Book of the Week: How the Mistakes Were Made

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Tyler McMahon’s How the Mistakes Were Made, published this week by St. Martin’s Griffin. Born and raised in the Washington, DC area, Tyler McMahon studied at the University of Virginia and Boise State University. Before writing his first novel, he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador, a surf instructor in California, and waiter in Montana. He co-edited the anthologies Surfing’s Greatest Misadventures and Fishing’s Greatest Misadventures for Casagrande Press. He lives in Honolulu with his wife, food writer Dabney Gough, and teaches in the English Department at Hawaii Pacific University. His short stories […]


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Au Revoir, Nicole!

by Celeste Ng

As the new academic year revs up and our teaching-focused month winds down, we here at FWR want to take a moment and say a huge THANK YOU to our wonderful summer editorial intern, Nicole Aber. All summer long, Nicole provided invaluable assistance behind the scenes, as well as writing up some excellent posts for the blog (see below). No matter what challenge we threw at her, she handled it with aplomb! This year, Nicole will be Managing News Editor at the Michigan Daily, and we know she’ll be amazing there as well. Dear readers, please join us in thanking […]


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Teaching, Writing, and Art. Or, the Art of Teaching Writing

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

As you may have noticed, our blog posts and features this week have all centered on the art of writing and the particular art of teaching writing. Some argue that writing can’t be taught, of course. Others say that only the craft of writing is teachable–that the spark of imagination and the vision of creation is not. But regardless of where you find yourself on the spectrum, we believe writers need community, and also that a community dialogue–whether in a workshop, a reading group, or an online forum such as ours–naturally benefits how we read and experience writing, as well […]


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You're invited: FWR's Stort Story Month Celebration!

by Celeste Ng

The editors and contributors of Fiction Writers Review cordially invite you to celebrate Short Story Month with them. Details below! Who: Short story lovers everywhere When: The entire month of May—coverage starts Sunday, May 1. As part of the celebration, we’ll have special weekend posts, too! Where: All across the site, from reviews to interviews to the blog What: Here’s just a preview of the content we’ll be featuring: Reviews of fantastic story collections Interviews with master short story writers like Mary Gaitskill and Robert Boswell “Stories We Love” blog posts – writers on the stories that inspire them—and why […]


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Recently on FWR

by Anne Stameshkin

Hello, blog readers! In case you’ve missed any of our features so far this month, here’s a quick rundown: REVIEWS Lee Thomas reviews Michael David Lukas’s debut, The Oracle of Stamboul, recommending the novel—with its “sun-drenched marble, the heat and clamor of the bazaar, and a warm, salt breeze off the Sea of Marmara”—as an antidote to mid-winter malaise. (Yes, please!) The book features a precocious prodigy, eight-year-old Eleonora Cohen, as a guide through Lukas’s tale of political intrigue in late 19th-century Stamboul. The Oracle of Stamboul was also FWR’s March 1 Book of the Week. In his review of […]


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Journal of the Week: One Story

Since launching in September, Fiction Writers Review’s “Book of the Week” promotion has shipped seventy-nine books to readers located in twenty-four states and three countries. Whether we’re giving away debut novels or acclaimed collections, the enthusiasm on Facebook has less to do with free, signed first editions than what these books do and how their authors accomplish it. It’s exactly this enthusiasm that now allows us to expand the spotlight from books deserving your attention to literary journals deserving your attention. Starting this week, Fiction Writers Review will begin profiling publications we admire right here on the blog in a […]


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Gender Disparities in Reviewing (and Essaying, and Interviewing)

by Celeste Ng

Recently, I wrote about literary cameos on The Simpsons. In response, Charlotte wondered, “Are they tweaking on the Franzen gender controversy by only having literary cameos by men?” This is a timely question. A recent study by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts showing that male writers vastly outnumber female writers at many major literary magazines—as writers, reviewers, and review subjects. The New Republic, startled by this disparity, did some number-crunching and found that publishers also publish fewer books by women than men: In fact, these numbers we found show that the magazines are reviewing female authors in something close to […]


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So you're NOT in DC right now…

by Celeste Ng

Maybe the holidays left you broke. Maybe you couldn’t take vacation days off work. Or maybe you got stranded by the SnOMG! XVIII that snarled flights from the Midwest to the east coast. Whatever the reason, you’re not at AWP this weekend. What to do instead? Well, if you’re in Brooklyn, there’s always the first annual Fake AWP. Slice Magazine has the scoop: To provide a haven for those either too broke, too busy, or too disillusioned (with the fact that really it ought to be AWWP, jeez) to attend the massive four-day conference in Washington, D.C., an assortment of […]




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