“Every time I write a story, I’m writing it as part of a manuscript or a cycle.” Brandon Taylor talks with Melissa Scholes Young about his short story collection, Filthy Animals, as well as story cycles, social codes, and the Midwestern way of being.
“When we busy ourselves too much with keeping up appearances, we might not hold enough space for authenticity, intimacy, and engagement with the world bigger than our own.” Melissa Scholes Young talks with Steven Wingate about her new novel, The Hive.
“I’m honored to be a lifelong Midwesterner and to write and think about place with central allegiance”: Melissa Scholes Young talks with Melissa Fraterrigo about her story collection, Glory Days.
Mary Stewart Atwell talks with Alan Heathcock as part of her interview series with writers of rural fiction, undertaken in partnership with The Art of the Rural. The two discuss Heathcock’s debut collection, Volt, as well as his Midwestern influences, film, politics, and more.
“William Gass’s ‘In the Heart of the Heart of the Country’ stands as an answer for what it means to write from the Midwest. Told in thirty-six discrete sections, this story is a devastatingly gorgeous meditation on loss and the rhythms of the Midwestern landscape.
Mary Stewart Atwell inaugerates a series of interviews with writers of rural fiction, undertaken in partnership with The Art of the Rural, by talking with Jack Driscoll. The two discuss his most recent collection, as well as the influence of place and weather on his fiction, how to “stay in the room,” and starting a story with the rhythm of the line.
Chad Simpson talks with Eugene Cross about writing the Midwest, choosing his debut collection from fifty stories, and all the jobs he worked (security guard, juvenile probation officer, AmeriCorps) on his way to becoming a teacher.
Our current feature is Peter Geye’s new novel, The Lighthouse Road, which was published by Unbridled Books in October. He is also the author of Safe from the Sea. Geye received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his PhD from Western Michigan University, where he was editor of Third Coast. He’s also worked as a bartender, banker, bookseller, copywriter, and cook. Born and raised in Minneapolis, he continues to live there with his wife and three children. In the introduction to his recent review of The Lighthouse Road, Contributor Aaron Cance writes: Set at the cusp of […]
Anne Panning talks to Melissa Scholes Young about her debut novel, her writing process, the benefits of social media, and the advantages of working with a small press.
Hello again, FWR friends. Welcome to the latest installment of our “First Looks” series, which highlights soon-to-be released books that have piqued my interest as a reader-who-writes. We publish “First Looks” here on the FWR blog around the 15th of each month, and as always, I’d love to hear your comments and your recommendations of forthcoming titles. Please drop me a line anytime: erika(at)fictionwritersreview(dot)com, and thanks in advance. I can’t say I wasn’t warned that Chad Simpson’s essay, “An Epilogue to the Unread”—which connects the illness and passing of Simpson’s mother, her love for reading, examples of generosity in our […]
