Manipulating the Shape of a Story
The author of Clutch (Tin House, February 2026) reflects on adjusting rising and falling action across time in fiction.
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Tags: fiction
Blurring the Borders in Fiction: On Mapping and Naming, Unmapping and Unnaming
A novelist explores the decision to name real places in fiction, the way maps circumscribe those places, how locales heavily defined by tourism are susceptible to those projections, and what it means to push against those expectations.
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Crime and Compassion: A Profile of T Kira Māhealani Madden
T Kira Māhealani Madden’s new novel, Whidbey, asks challenging questions about how we as a society treat and talk about both the survivors and perpetrators of sexual abuse.
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The Accordion Method of Time Management, or Thoughts on Scene
The author of Clutch (Tin House, February 2026) reflects on poetic time, dialogue, and writing effective scenes.
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Literary MagNet: Patricia Q. Bidar
Flash fiction writer Patricia Q. Bidar highlights journals, including Ghost Parachute and Flash Frog, that embrace the shortest of short fiction and have published her work.
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Embrace the “And Then”: Lessons From Fairy Tales
Fairy tales are built on their own enchanting associative logic. A maestro of magical realism explores what writers can unlock when they let readers leap between a story’s plot points—and where such a trail of breadcrumbs can lead.
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Conjure the Strange: Lessons From Horror
The award-winning writer studies how the most powerful horror stories are grounded in “deeply human dilemma,” and how daring the ghoulish can bring us closer to our characters.
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Ten Superb Literary Magazines for Fiction
The author of the collection What We Fed to the Manticore highlights homes for short fiction that embrace new talent, spark dynamic conversations, and live the values of inclusion and representation.
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Looking for Love in a Time of Global Loneliness: A Profile of Kiran Desai
In her third novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, which comes out nearly twenty years after her Booker Prize–winning The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai considers loneliness in all its states of loss and heartache, possibility and promise, through the lens of a love story.
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Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest
Fiction Collective Two
Entry Fee:
$25
Deadline:
November 1, 2025
A prize of $3,000 and publication by Fiction Collective Two is given annually for a novel, a story collection, a novella, or a novella collection. Writers who are from or are residing in the United States and who have not previously published a book with Fiction Collective Two are eligible. Alvin Lu will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of any length with a brief bio and a $25 entry fee (waivers are available based on financial need) by November 1. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
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