Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘literary community’

Shop Talk |

FWR Announces The State of the Book: A Celebration of Michigan Writers and Writing!

by The Editors

Although Fiction Writers Review’s contributors come from many different states and countries around the world, the idea for the site started in Michigan. In 2008, Anne Stameshkin, a University of Michigan MFA grad, started a simple blog for reviewing books. As it become more popular, she recruited a few friends from her MFA program to help her. Fast forward four years, add about 100 contributors, and here we are, a community of readers and writers—thank you for being a part of our journey! We’re thrilled to announce that we’re having our first big in-person event in the place we started. […]


Shop Talk |

The Community-Word Project

by Lee Thomas

On a bright Friday morning in late April, I met up with Michele Kotler, Founder and Director of The Community-Word Project (CWP) for a classroom visit to PS/MS 279 in the Bronx. In their own words, CWP is a New York City based arts-in-education organization that inspires children in underserved communities to read, interpret and respond to their world and to become active citizens through collaborative arts residencies and teacher training program. The K-8 Captain Manuel Rivera, Jr. School bustled with activity. As we entered a classroom packed with 26 fourth-graders, David Ciminello greeted us. David brought poetry, visual art, […]


Interviews |

Never the Cool Kid: An Interview with Jeff Kass

Pioneer High School students Carlina Duan and Allison Kennedy sit down with famed Ann Arbor writing teacher and teen center director Jeff Kass to discuss his recent story collection, Knuckleheads. Kass discusses knuckleheadedness as a state of being, why being an outsider is important, the influence of Springsteen on his fiction, and the reason he wrote this book—in part—for his students. Bonus Track: an original off-the-top-of-the-dome list poem by Kass on “happiness.”


Reviews |

Dzanc Duo: Aaron Burch and Matt Bell

by V. Jo Hsu

Two recent releases from Dzanc imprint Keyhole Press expand the scope of literary fiction. How to Predict the Weather by Aaron Burch and How They Were Found by Matt Bell create provocative new worlds in their debut collections of short stories. Consistent with this press’s production of thought-provoking fiction, Burch and Bell unravel beautiful and unsettling tales with exquisite prose.


Essays |

Where Are We Going Next? A Conversation about Creative Writing Pedagogy (Pt. 2)

In Part II of “Where Are we Going Next?” Day, Leahy and Vanderslice discuss the rise of assessment, what’s really going on in creative writing classrooms, ways to respond to student work, incorporating digital media, and adapting the workshop for the 21st century. They also explore the importance of what writer Dinty Moore calls “literary citizenship” – the idea that individual literary pursuits thrive when combined with a spirit of community, generosity and mentorship.


Shop Talk |

FWR at AWP

by Lee Thomas

It’s here – AWP 2011! If you’ll be in D.C. for the conference, please come see Fiction Writers Review at Table B-18 in the bookfair. Quick reminder: our Editor, Jeremiah Chamberlin will be moderating a panel on criticism, we’ll have two book signings at our table, and a number of our contributors are featured speakers this year. Here again, are some highlights: Friday, February 4 9 am:“The Good Review: Criticism in the Age of Book Blogs and Amazon.com” Panelists: Jeremiah Chamberlin, moderator; Charles Baxter; Stacey D’Erasmo; Gemma Sieff; Keith Taylor. This panel examines how criticism is changing in a literary […]


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A Barbaric yAWP

by Lee Thomas

While nearly every writer knows the uplift that community interaction provides – not only to the words on the page, but to a career, to a new collaboration, to every aspect of the literary life – not everyone has the ability or means to travel to the AWP Conference. So what’s a community-craving writer to do? Enter Meg’s Barbaric yAWP. Founder Meg Pokrass, writer – newly minted author! – and member of the FWR community – began “A Barbaric yAWP” as an alternative, virtual way for writers and people in the biz to connect during the 3-day period of AWP. […]


Shop Talk |

Come see us at AWP!

by Lee Thomas

It’s hard to believe that nearly a year has gone by since last spring’s Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference, which took place in Denver. But the 2011 AWP conference is already around the corner! This year’s four-day event will be held in Washington D.C. from Wednesday, February 2 – Saturday, February 5. And, as always, Fiction Writers Review will be there. This year we’re at Table B-18 in the bookfair. So please come see us. We’ll also be busy with plenty of events. Our Editor, Jeremiah Chamberlin will be moderating a panel on criticism, we’ll have two […]


Shop Talk |

The World's Most Literary Rent Party Ever

On Sunday, February 6th, join literary greats such as Mary Gaitskill, George Saunders, Rick Moody, Amy Hempel, Gary Shteyngart, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Hannah Tinti at PS 122 in New York’s East Village as they throw “The World’s Most Literary Rent Party Ever,” to raise money for Diana Colbert, wife of novelist Charles Bock (author of Beautiful Children). In 2009 Colbert was diagnosed with leukemia and had a bone marrow transplant. But in October of this year, the leukemia returned. So friends of the Bocks–writers Fiona Maazel, Mary-Beth Hughes, and Leigh Newman–decided to help by throwing this literary fund-raiser. As […]



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