Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘short story collection’

Shop Talk |

The Very Good, The Breaking Bad and The Cuddly: Books Loved in 2013

by Brian Bartels

Hey, Park Rangers. Echoing the bold everlasting words of narration in Charles Baxter’s The Feast of Love, “What a Midwesterner he was, a thoroughly unhip guy with his heart in the usual place, on his sleeve, in plain sight,” I wanted to share some stories I loved from last year. There’s quite a bit of corny, unapologetic and Hallmark-y content in mid-February, and it can make any toiled romance feel heightened for unnecessary reasons. I know you’re smart enough to not place all your chips in the same stack. Of course I’m getting at sleeping around. It can’t be just […]


Interviews |

On the Origins and Truths Behind Praying Drunk: An Interview With Kyle Minor

There are images from Kyle Minor’s stories that will stick with me to the grave: a man laying hands on a dying man’s tumor, a preacher baking biscuits at a boy’s funeral. These images sear because they get at the gruesome failures of life. The preacher bakes biscuits in a gimmicky bid for consolation. There seems no true feeling in his action, and so it falls far short of the gravity of the moment. The man with the tumor thinks the narrator of “Seven Stories about Sebastian of Koulev-Ville” is the healer come to pray over him. The narrator has […]


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Book of the Week: Triumph of the Ape

by The Editors

This week’s feature is Todd Dills’ new collection, Triumph of the Ape, which was published earlier this year. Dills is the editor of THE2NDHAND, which was founded in 2000 in Chicago. He’s also the author of a novel, Sons of Rapture (Featherproof Books, 2006), and the editor of two anthologies of stories from THE2NDHAND. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Susannah Felts, also a published novelist and short story writer, and his daughter, Thalia. In his recent FWR interview with Nick Ostdick, the two sit down for a discussion on place in fiction, using Kickstarter to fund a print-run […]


Interviews |

The Qualities of a Great Paragraph, or Endings and Beginnings: Part II of an Interview with Jonathan Callahan

Acclaimed fiction writer Rick Moody continues his conversation with debut author Jonathan Callahan, author of The Consummation of Dirk, which won the 8th Starcherone Prize for Innovative Fiction, in Part II of their interview. The two writers discuss the qualities of a great paragraph, correctly deployed endings, and more. They have never met.


Shop Talk |

Book-of-the-Week Winners: The Peripatetic Coffin

by The Editors

Last week’s feature was Ethan Rutherford’s debut collection, The Peripatetic Coffin, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Will McClure (@WillMcClure) Elizabeth Eaves (@ElisabethEaves) Trisha Ellen (@TrishaEllen1) Congrats! To claim your free copy, please email us at the following address: winners [at] fictionwritersreview.com If you’d like to be eligible for future giveaways, please visit our Twitter Page and “follow” us! Thanks to all of you who are fans. We appreciate your support. Let us know your favorite new books out there!


Interviews |

The Kind of Sentences I Would Want to Read: Part I of an Interview with Jonathan Callahan

Acclaimed fiction writer Rick Moody speaks with debut author Jonathan Callahan, author of The Consummation of Dirk, which won the 8th Starcherone Prize for Innovative Fiction, about “conventional” writing, accomplishing something that makes one “feel worthy to be alive,” and influences, among other things. They have never met.




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