February 2012
72 posts
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“They didn’t break apart in any dramatic way; they were too drunk and just...”
– Sian Cummins, “Cera”
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from Hippocampus Magazine's Interview with Dinty...
Lori M. Myers: How truthful must CNF/memoir writers be? Where is that drawn line?
Dinty W. Moore: I take the term nonfiction very seriously. Don’t make stuff up, period.
What I want a nonfiction writer to offer me is her best effort at memory, flawed as it is, with fact-checking, and motive-checking, which means a scrupulous look inside to explore why she sees and remembers the way she does. If as a writer you are unsure, tell me. If you are speculating, tell me. Nonfiction doesn’t offer irrefutable “fact,” since we all see the world though subjective lenses, but what I want is the truth of what the writer sees, and thinks, and feels, and remembers, not some manufactured story designed to entertain or educate me.
If you want to change things to improve a story, write fiction. It is a wonderful genre as well.
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from "Cera" by Sian Cummins
“The North Sea heaves, and Cera stands behind the sea wall and won’t go down. Don’t be an idiot—obviously she’s been down there before. Last year she and Lott walked from Margate to Westgate along the beaches, but she forgot about the rocks and slipped and became frustrated and pissed off and cancelled their night at the Chinese buffet. Lott had been looking forward to it because she lives...
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D’Agata’s Trickery and Manipulations: Dinty W.... →
A great piece by Dinty W. Moore over at Brevity’s blog in reaction to the ongoing debate in nonfiction raised by John D’Agata. Moore doesn’t resort to ranting (like myself) or jabs; he simply, and plainly, explains his opinion. I, for one, agree with him.
To begin, I wish there was another name, another genre, one that didn’t include the word nonfiction or essay in it, where...
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“How did she end up back here? It’s savage. She’s tried—so hard—to be elsewhere...”
– Sian Cummins, “Cera”
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“I make myself nauseous while writing with alarming regularity.”
– Roxane Gay, via Twitter
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“We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of...”
– Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Case of Identity”
(via dannygoodman.me)
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“She shouldn’t be so unfriendly, but sometimes people just want to talk.”
– Sian Cummins, “Cera”
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What are your favorite works published by...
Every week, since December 2010, fwriction : review has published at least one brilliant piece of writing each week. Head on over to our archives and check out the writing; read up on our contributors; check out the latest issue, from Sian Cummins; share your thoughts below.
What are your favorite works published by fwriction : review?
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The "Essay," or Some Other Word Metamorphosed by...
Though I haven’t chimed in regarding John D’Agata’s “nonfiction” versus “essay” debate, raised in the new book, The Lifespan of a Fact, I have to now let off a little steam.
This excerpt, from Gideon Lewis-Kraus’ piece in The New York Times Magazine, “The Fact-Checker Versus The Fabulist”, struck a chord:
What his argument misses, or...
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The e-book versions of the "Best American" series... →
Yes. What a steal. Not a huge fan of books on Kindle, but I can in no way pass this up.
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Cera, by Sian Cummins →
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In Memoriam: Barney Rosset →
from The Paris Review’s The Art of Publishing No. 2:
In 1951, he bought a fledgling literary publishing company, Grove Press, named after the Greenwich Village street where it began. For the next thirty-three years he ran it from various locations in the same neighborhood, developing Grove into a critical part of the downtown New York firmament and one of the most influential publishers of...
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Want List: 'Stay Awake' by Dan Chaon →
from The Book Beast:
Dan Chaon’s intent in his chilling new short-story collection is clear. In the opening line, “Gene’s son Frankie wakes up screaming.” We learn that Gene is a UPS deliveryman trying to escape his past, and his son’s bloodcurdling screams are reminders that “something bad has been looking for him for a long time, he thinks, and now, at last, is growing near.” In these haunting...
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from Patrick Somerville: Empathy and Reading →
patricksomerville:
To me, the penultimate paragraph is the most interesting part of the review, and I will end this empathy ramble there, noting that fiction writers, I think, should pitch a tent within these temporary episodes if they want to write well and continue to understand characters:
At the core of this deceptively simple book is the question of the nature of cruelty. In the last...
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“The moon-faced fat mayor smiled and his triplicate chin wobbled. His thick...”
– Marcus Speh, “Candy”
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David Foster Wallace Turns 50 →
dannygoodman.me:
An excerpt from my essay, “Angles of Response to Your Angles, or Brief Reflections on Tennis, Sharks, and the Loss of David Foster Wallace,” to celebrate what would have been David Foster Wallace’s fiftieth birthday.
“The goosebumps still came, despite having read that passage at least a dozen times before. Wallace had memorized the facts, the numbers; it seemed, however, even...
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Come see what readers are saying about Marcus... →
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“Marcus Speh’s story took me apart.”
– Susan Tepper, author of From the Umberplatzen, on Marcus Speh’s new fiction, “Candy,” at fwriction : review
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“He sipped coffee and remembered beginnings.”
– Raymond Carver, from “The Augustine Notebooks”
(via dannygoodman.me)
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FSG: Michael Cunningham on Translation →
A wonderful piece on translation from Michael Cunningham.
fsgbooks:
“As the author of Las Horas, Die Stunden and De Uren — ostensibly the Spanish, German and Dutch translations of my book The Hours, but actually unique works in their own right — I’ve come to understand that all literature is a product of translation…
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Call for Submissions: the Sidney W. Vernick Award... →
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“You never left, and my eyes cannot get up…”
– Ben Nardolilli, “What They’re Trying to Tell Me”
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“Translation makes me look at how a poem is put together in a different way,...”
– Marilyn Hacker
(via asymptotejournal)
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Two Poems by Ben Nardolilli →
Enjoy Two Poems by Ben Nardolilli in the new issue of fwriction : review: “What They’re Trying to Tell Me” and “Most Celebrated Work.”
Share these wonderful poems with lovers of literature.
Bonus! Listen to Ben Nardolilli’s song choice for the Waffle-Rocking Playlist.
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If the Literary Scene was a High School Cafeteria →
No one told me this existed, but now I cannot stop reading it. Perfectly executed by A.K Mayhew over at Specter Literary Magazine.
I have a fairly vivid imagination, and ever since I “kind of” “entered” the literary scene less than a year ago—via reading literary blogs, following publishing news, joining Twitter and following literary peeps there, joining this here Specter staff, etc.—I can’t...
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Literary Heirs →
At fwriction : review, we love scrappy journals. What a fantastic list (PANK! Electric Lit! Unstuck!) and shout-out in The New York Times!
Consider the literary magazine. Cloaked in pointy-headed obscurity, it almost always loses money. And now, with printed media on the endangered list, it may seem especially at risk to go extinct (or online-only). But these scrappy journals are actually...