Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘independent book stores’

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Graywolf Press night at BookCourt

by Lee Thomas

The very fine indie bookstore BookCourt in Brooklyn hosts a “Small Press Night” once a month (this is their second). This month they’re featuring Graywolf Press, a nonprofit publisher who I’ve heard takes very good care of their authors. Benjamin Percy, whose latest novel The Wilding was featured recently on FWR’s Book of the Week Giveaway, will be there to read. Jessica Francis Kane will read from her debut novel The Report, a re-imagining of a World War II civilian disaster that has been getting very good reviews. If you didn’t win one of the Benjamin Percy-signed books, and happen […]


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Sharon Pomerantz reads at Women and Children First on Thursday at 7:30pm

by Anne Stameshkin

Chicago friends, don’t miss Sharon Pomerantz’s reading this Thursday at Women and Children First at 7:30pm. Sharon will be reading from her debut novel, Rich Boy. Beginning in the 1970s in a working-class Jewish neighborhood and stretching to the halls of power in Reagan-era Manhattan and beyond, the book chronicles four decades in the life of Robert Vishniak as he struggles to create a new identity for himself. Sharon is a talented writer of short fiction–in addition to publishing stories in such places as The Missouri Review and Ploughshares, “Ghost Knife” was selected for inclusion in Best American Short Stories […]


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FWR on "Living Writers": The Podcast

by Anne Stameshkin

Did you miss FWR Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin on the “Living Writers” show on Wednesday? No worries. You can now stream the podcast on iTunes preview—mouse over the August 11th episode and click play, or click “View in iTunes” to download. The interview starts at about 15:30. “Living Writers” airs every Wednesday at 4:30pm on WCBN-FM Ann Arbor. Each week, host T Hetzel talks with writers who read from their work and talk about their passions and preoccupations. Recent guests include poet Dean Young, author and comedian John Hodgman, fiction writer Yiyun Li, and Granta Editor John Freeman. You can listen […]


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FWR on WCBN-FM Wednesday at 4:30pm

by Anne Stameshkin

We’re excited to announce that FWR Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin will be this week’s guest on “Living Writers”, hosted by T. Hetzel. “Living Writers” airs every Wednesday at 4:30pm on WCBN-FM Ann Arbor. Tune in to hear him discuss Fiction Writers Review, his own writing, the Inside Indie Bookstore series he publishes in Poets & Writers magazine, and other topics on writing. You can listen to the show at 88.3FM in Ann Arbor, or hear it streamed live at wcbn.org. Recent guests include poet Dean Young, author and comedian John Hodgman, fiction writer Yiyun Li, and Granta Editor John Freeman. Archives […]


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Inside Indie Bookstores: Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee

by Anne Stameshkin

The July/August issue of Poets & Writers hit the newsstands earlier this week, and among the current features is the latest installment of FWR Associate Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin’s Inside Indie Bookstores series. Joining the ranks of previously featured stores like Square Books (Oxford, MS), Powell’s Books (Portland, OR), and Women & Children First (Chicago, IL) is Boswell Book Company (Milwaukee, WI). Jeremiah spoke with Boswell owner Daniel Goldin–who worked as the book buyer for Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops for nearly two decades before that illustrious store went out of business in 2009–about why he chose to open his own shop […]


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O. Henry Launch Party at Idlewild Books this Saturday

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

For those of you in New York, Idlewild Books will be hosting a launch party for the 2010 PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories Anthology this Saturday from 6-8pm. FWR is pleased to have two of its contributors represented in this year’s collection: Preeta Samarasan, whose story “Birch Memorial” was published in A Public Space, and Natalie Bakopoulos, whose story “Fresco, Byzantine,” was published in Tin House. Come join us for the reception with several of the authors featured in the anthology. Idlewild is located at 12 W. 19th street (near 5th Avenue).


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P&W's Inside Indie Bookstores: Women & Children First

by Anne Stameshkin

In the newest installment of Poets & Writers magazine’s Inside Indie Bookstores series, FWR Associate Editor Jeremiah Chamberlin profiles Chicago’s fabulous Women & Children First bookstore, featuring an interview with the bookstore’s co-owner Linda Bubon. The online version (along with a slideshow of images from the store) is available at no cost on P&W‘s website…but if you want a print copy, Poets & Writers‘ special offer to Fiction Writers Review readers (only $12 for a year-long subscription) is still up for grabs; if you order through this page before May 15, you’ll get the current issue featuring Women & Children […]


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Bloggers Host Authors at Greenlight Bookstore

by Anne Stameshkin

Next Monday, March 22, at 7:30 PM, Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore continues their Blogger/Author Pairings series, wherein lit bloggers host and talk with authors whose books they love, and the authors read from their work. Next up is Brooklyn’s own blogger/critic Maud Newton (of MaudNewton.com, one of the finest lit blogs, exclamation point) and award-winning author Victor LaValle, whose work has drawn comparisons to the likes of Ralph Ellison, Shirley Jackson, and Thomas Pyncheon, and whose novel (of the same title) inspired Mos Def’s The Ecstatic. LaValle will read from and discuss his new novel Big Machine, which Greenlight’s newsletter describes […]


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Microchondria Short Short Story Anthology

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

Last month we announced the Harvard Book Store’s short short story contest. In honor of the shortest month of the year, the store was seeking submissions that were both short in length (less than 500 words) and written during a brief period of time (between February 1-17). The results have now been posted, and we are pleased to announce that a story by contributor Liana Imam will be collected in an anthology of the winners, entitled Microchondria. In addition to Liana’s work, friend of FWR Cody Walker–whose cartoon caption won a recent New Yorker caption contest that we blogged about […]


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Allison Amend's Tips for a DIY Book Tour

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

The current Glimmer Train Bulletin features a short essay by Allison Amend with her instructions for a Do-It-Yourself Book Tour. Amend is the author of the acclaimed 2008 story collection Things That Pass for Love. Her novel Stations West publishes this month. Here is the opening of her essay: It is a truth universally acknowledged that book tours don’t really sell books. Or at least they don’t sell a lot of books in comparison to the amount of time and expense involved. So then why do authors continue to go on them? Well, book tours have ancillary benefits, otherwise publishers […]




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