Jennifer Solheim talks with her former StoryStudio teacher, Rebecca Makkai, about research, getting behind a book, and braiding narratives in her new novel, The Great Believers.
“The events of 9/11 are integral to the novel’s structure and meaning, and to the Amendola family’s history and identity, but neither novel nor family are defined or constrained by the event.”
“I believe that if you’re looking closely at the world, it’s funny. Even the horrible things are funny in some way. And if you’re looking closely enough, everything’s also pretty sad. So I see it as my job not to shy away from either of those, and to let them coexist.”
Rebecca Scherm on using charts while working on her debut novel, Unbecoming: “It helps me remember how messy this process was, how difficult. I need to see the record of that mess to believe that I can do this again.”
“While each novel can stand on its own and conclude satisfactorily, Grossman has built a few essential worlds that help us understand fantasy and our relationship to it through through a progression of novels about people like us faced with the spectacular.”
A.M. Homes discusses the work of writing timeless human behavior in rapidly changing moment.
A writer named Ruth finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox on the beach near her Pacific-Northwest island home that contains artifacts from a young Japanese girl’s life, setting off a meditation on suicide, the reader-writer relationship, and the human experience of time.
Our most recent feature was Ariel Djanikian’s debut novel The Office of Mercy, and we’re pleased to announce the winners: Lito Velasco (@litovelasco) sharon millar (@ChutneySharon) Heather Montford (@FaerieKnight) 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!
Our newest feature is Ariel Djanikian’s debut novel The Office of Mercy, which was just published by Viking. Djanikian was born in Philadelphia and attended the University of Pennsylvania. She holds an MFA degree from the University of Michigan and is the recipient of a Fulbright grant. She’s also lived in Madison, Wisconsin, and Irvine, California. Her newly adopted city is Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband and daughter and hopes to stay for a long time. Her writing has appeared in The L Magazine and The Paris Review Daily. Visit her Website for more information […]
Little jaunt to the underworld? Don’t forget your passport. The second installment in Lev Grossman’s Fillory series, The Magician King, continues to play with realist fantasy and the right amount of irony to meld the two. Quentin and his pals provide a sly and subversive fairy tale for grown-ups, with a caution: be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
Stories We Love: “White Angel,” by Michael Cunningham
Stories We Love: Donald Barthelme’s “The School,” In Which is Revealed the Meaning of Life
Stories We Love: "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver
Stories We Love: "The Fall River Axe Murders," by Angela Carter
Stories We Love: "Incarnations of Burned Children"
