“History, personal or collective, weighs on everyone in these stories, sculpting their inner lives. And yet, Tabucchi suggests, an unlikely transcendence is possible.”
“It was tempting to allow those two characters in ‘Body Asking Shadow’ to find a way to communicate with actual language in the final scene, but in the end it felt both truer to the story and more interesting to let them communicate only through unlikely means, and to have that nonetheless suffice.”
“When I was younger I challenged myself to write things my family members might be uncomfortable reading, or things that could get me in hot water with people I knew”: Jared Yates Sexton on his collection, An End to All Things.
“Trying to see the world as others might seems like an act of respect to me—so long as it isn’t done cynically or sloppily.” Skip Horack talks to Tom Bennitt about work, religion, and history in his fiction.
Kerry Neville Bakken offers a moving appreciation for her friend and former mentor, Frederick Busch, who passed away in 2006. Norton has just released a posthumous collection of his short fiction, The Stories of Frederick Busch, edited and with an introduction by Elizabeth Strout.
Elliott Holt turns the tables on friend and fellow author Laura van den Berg in this interview. The two return to FWR to talk about van den Berg’s new collection, The Isle of Youth, as well as self-doubt, the differences between writing stories and novels, Florida, and trains.
The stories in Patricia McNair’s The Temple of Air are unified by recurring characters and a central setting: New Hope, Michigan. City dwellers come to this small town for a slower life only to discover that the rural landscape does not necessarily create ease or simplicity. Mark Elevad poses five questions to the author about her work and this debut collection.
Last week’s feature was Sarah Gerkensmeyer’s debut collection, What You Are Now Enjoying, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Carabella Sands (@CarabellaSands) Mary Weber (@mchristineweber) E.B. Wilkes (@WilkesPoetry) 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!
Erika Dreifus on two new collections: Ron Hansen’s She Loves Me Not: New and Selected Stories and Tehila Lieberman’s Venus in the Afternoon.
The author of the 2011 collection, God Bless America, Almond discusses the author-editor relationship, the death of the American Dream, and Jane Austen. And that’s just for starters.
