Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘FWR news’

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Barry Hannah Gone (1942-2010)

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This morning I woke to hear the sad news that Barry Hannah died yesterday afternoon. He was 67, and the apparent cause was a heart attack, according to the Jackson Free Press. Barry had had several bouts with cancer over the last ten years, yet I was still shocked to hear that he was gone. I guess I’d come to think of him as oddly invincible. Maybe it’s also because Barry’s prose felt like it was carved out of stone. Not weighty, but permanent. With a hint of the divine. That crazy Old Testament kind of divinity that’s equal parts […]


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Ball State Seeks Assistant Professor in Fiction

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Due to the unexpected retirement of one of their faculty members, Ball State University has had a sudden opening for a tenure-track position in fiction writing. The ad was posted last week on their website. Here is the announcement: Assistant Professor/Fiction Writing, Department of English Tenure-track position available August 20, 2010. Responsibilities: teach and develop a wide range of undergraduate and graduate creative writing courses, particularly in fiction; publish fiction. Minimum qualifications: earned MFA or PhD in creative writing by August 1, 2010; strong record of publication in fiction; record of effective teaching at the college or university level. Preferred […]


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Three Ways to Support Indie Bookstores

by Anne Stameshkin

1. Subscribe to Poets & Writers. The magazine is continuing their special deeply discounted subscription rate for FWR readers: only $12 a year. Anyone who orders before March 15 will receive the current issue, featuring Powell’s Books in Portland. With this deal, you’ll not only get the magazine at one-third the normal price: you’ll also be showing your support for independent bookstores and Jeremiah Chamberlin’s Inside Indie Bookstores series. In each P&W issue, he profiles an important independent bookstore around the country, featuring an interview with the owner. (In the Jan/Feb issue, that bokstore was Square Books, of Oxford, Mississippi.) […]


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Granta's New Voices Series

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Every six to eight weeks Granta highlights new fiction by an emerging writer exclusively on their website. The New Voices Project has featured work by such writers as Jessica Soffer, Laura Fellowes, Soumya Bhattacharya, Hannah Gersen, Erin McMillan, Evan James Roskos, Lana Asfour, Evie Wyld, and P.D. Mallamo. In addition to original work, each feature also includes an interview with the author. For details of how to submit your story, please see Granta’s submissions guidelines. The most recent writer to be featured as part of this project is Kenyan author Billy Kahora. Below is the opening to his story “The […]


Essays |

A Valentine: Books We Loved in 2009

by Anne Stameshkin

Every book we feature on Fiction Writers Review has won the admiration of our reviewers. But because it’s a new year, and it’s award season, and today is the official holiday of love, we asked our contributors to tell us which books of 2009 they most adored, cherished, and crushed on. What we received often transcended mere lists; writers shared why these certain books affected them, woke them up, even made them jealous. So in addition to the “favorites” that received the most votes, we’ve also included some of these endorsements and mini-reviews. Most selections are arranged by genre (Novel, Story Collection, etc.), and then there are less conventional categories–like Book You Loved But Would Be Embarrassed to Be Caught Reading.


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Christine Hartzler's Essay Selected for Best of the Web Anthology

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

It’s with great pride that we announce that Christine Hartzler’s essay “Games Are Not About Monsters,” which FWR published in April of last year, was recently selected for inclusion in Dzanc’s Best of the Web 2010 anthology. Christine’s essay is a lyrical meditation on video games, the development of character, how we make meaning, and, of course, monsters. Drawing from her own experience playing RPGs like Shadow of the Colossus, she asks us to consider how the best games in this genre–like the best literature–not only challenge us to confront ourselves, but can also give us a glimpse of enlightenment. […]


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WGA's 2009 Nominations for Best Video Game Writing

by Anne Stameshkin

Yesterday FWR published a very exciting essay by Michael Rudin on the history, future, and literary/artistic potential of video games. While this piece was in the publishing pipeline, the Writer’s Guild of America announced its 2009 nominations for best video game writing. The “destabilizing” narrative behind Modern Warfare 2, discussed in Rudin’s essay, was officially recognized by the WGA for its outstanding storytelling, earning one of the five nominee nods–and the final game Michael worked on at Activision, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, also received a nomination. Below is an excerpt from “Writing the Great American Novel Video Game”; click here to […]


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REMINDER: Amazing *Poets & Writers* deal for FWR readers! Sign up by tomorrow to get the Jan/Feb Issue

by Anne Stameshkin

As we announced earlier this month, Poets & Writers is continuing to offer a special deal to FWR readers (a description that includes anyone lucky enough to stumble across this post): only $12 for a year-long subscription! Take advantage of this hugely discounted rate by subscribing — or renewing your current subscription — via this link. Be sure to sign up by Friday, January 15 (tomorrow) if you want your subscription to include the Jan/Feb 2010 issue, which includes the first installment of FWR Associate Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin’s Inside Indie Bookstores series. Subscribing through this link will help show support […]


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Poets & Writers Subscription Deal

by Anne Stameshkin

As you know, we’re big fans of Poets & Writers Magazine around here. So we’re excited to announce that this magazine has generously agreed to offer our readers a special subscription rate of only $12. The reason for this offer is to help build support for a new series in P&W called “Inside Indie Bookstores,” written by our Associate Editor, Jeremiah Chamberlin. Each issue will feature an important independent bookstore around the country. The first to be profiled will be Square Books, of Oxford, Mississippi. We hope that you will take advantage of this great deal. You’ll not only be […]


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2010 NEA Grants Announced

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

The National Endowment for the Arts just announced this year’s recipients of their Literature Fellowships. Each individual is awarded $25,000 to “set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement.” The Creative Writing Fellowships alternate years between prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry. The next cycle will be poetry, with an application deadline of March 4, 2010. You can find guidelines and more information here. This year’s winners were a diverse group, ranging from established authors like Z.Z. Packer to relative newcomers. Other standouts were essayist Donovan Hohn, whose forthcoming book, based on his Harper’s essay “Moby […]




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