Magnified and Shrunk: A Review of Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies

Fates and Furies
Lauren Groff
Riverhead Books

Review by Claudia Wilde

Lauren Groff’s novel, Fates and Furies, is the first novel I was compelled to finish based almost solely off my fondness for the language. Never mind the story. (Which, by the way, is brilliant in its own right. I will get to this shortly.) Groff’s prose reads like poetry and the diction is precise, sticking to the tongue when spoken aloud: Continue reading Magnified and Shrunk: A Review of Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies

June 28, 2018 at 7:00 am Olga Holin read more

Summer Writing Prompt: Week 3

Variations: – Write it in the form of a business email. Stick to a professional, clinical tone. Hash out the pros and cons of the relationship. Sign off appropriately. – Write a poem. Set it as your Tinder bio....

June 27, 2018 at 10:00 am Olga Holin read more

Summer Writing Prompt: Week 2

Did you wake up under the plush derriere of your cat? How about tangled under the syrupy arms of your lover? Did you spend the night, toe-to-chin, chin-to-toe, with a friend-of-a-friend on a sunken pullout sofa in the living...

June 20, 2018 at 10:00 am Olga Holin read more

Things Are Good Now: In Conversation with Djamila Ibrahim

Praised by Zoe Whittall, Djamila Ibrahim’s debut collection of short stories, Things Are Good Now, is a thoughtful exploration of immigrant experiences and universal themes that concern us all – identity, memory, resilience, and the complicated, and often sticky, web of human relationships. Continue reading Things Are Good Now: In Conversation with Djamila Ibrahim

June 14, 2018 at 10:00 am Molly Cross-Blanchard read more

Summer Writing Prompt: Week 1

Suggestions: – The lyrics from that early 2000s quasi-alternative-rock song your brother blasted from behind his bedroom door when you were both growing up. – The excerpt from that rap song that you usually just mumble. – That song you...

June 13, 2018 at 10:00 am Olga Holin read more

The Creative Process: Portrait of Yiyun Li

Interview and portrait by Mia Funk

“There is a clear-cut: old life, that’s old country, and here’s there’s new life, new country. It is an advantage. You are looking at life through an old pair of eyes and a new pair of eyes. And there’s always that ambivalence––Where do you belong? And how do you belong? And I do think these are advantages of immigrant writers or writers with two languages or who have two worlds.”

–YIYUN LI

Continue reading The Creative Process: Portrait of Yiyun Li

June 7, 2018 at 9:00 am Molly Cross-Blanchard read more

Subtle Thrills: A Review of Peter Stamm’s To the Back of Beyond

Review by Taryn Grant To the Back Of Beyond by Peter Stamm, translated by Michael Hoffman Other Press, 2017 At first pass the title reads with a satisfying punch and clarity: To the Back of Beyond. On further scrutiny,...

May 24, 2018 at 10:00 am Molly Cross-Blanchard read more

Annual PRISM international Creative Non-Fiction Contest now open!

We are happy to announce that our annual PRISM international Non-Fiction Contest is now open for submissions. We are absolutely delighted to introduce our judge from across the pond: Jonathan Kemp! Jonathan Kemp’s debut novel London Triptych (Myriad, 2010) was acclaimed...

May 23, 2018 at 9:00 am Olga Holin read more

Writing Light: An Interview with Sarah Selecky

Photo credit: Michelle Yee

Interview by Erin Steel,

Sarah Selecky is a vegan, a Virgo, and a lover of dark chocolate. But she’s more well-known for her writing and her teaching. The New York Times called her first book, This Cake Is for the Party, “utterly fascinating.” This collection of short stories was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book in Canada and the Caribbean, and was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Prize. Her writing has appeared in The Walrus, The New Quarterly, and The Journey Prize Anthology. Through Sarah Selecky Writing School, she runs online creative writing and mentorship programs, and an annual international writing contest. Her new novel Radiant Shimmering Light will be published by Harper Collins Canada in May 2018.

Continue reading Writing Light: An Interview with Sarah Selecky

May 10, 2018 at 9:30 am Olga Holin read more