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The Center for Fiction is the only nonprofit in the U.S. solely dedicated to celebrating fiction, and we work every day to connect readers and writers. We also feature workspace, grants, and classes to support emerging writers, reading groups on classic and contemporary authors, and programs to help get kids reading. We recognize the best in the world of fiction through our annual awards, and we operate one of the few independent fiction book shops in the country. We are also an important piece of New York City history, continuing to build our renowned circulating library collection, begun in 1820 by New York City merchants before the advent of the public library system.

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Who I Follow

James Salter. ‘Nuff said! #jamessalter #literaryeventsnyc (at The Center for Fiction)

Sold out Salter! #jamessalter #literaryeventsnyc (at The Center for Fiction)

Elliott Holt’s Crackle, Debut, and Discussion

Elliott Holt, a New York Magazine Star of Tomorrow, was “already dreaming of the writing life in New York” by the age of seven. Come May 30, she will release her first novel.

Holt’s “prose crackles,” says Michael Cunningham, who ran the fiction section of Brooklyn College’s M.F.A. writing program from which she graduated. “She understands that, in fiction, the sounds of words matter as much as their meanings.”

On Thursday, May 30, Elliott Holt and Michael Cunningham will come together to discuss Holt’s debut novel, You Are One of Them.

2012 Emerging Writers Fellows hanging out pre-reading

A Celebration of our Emerging Writers Fellows

Tonight at 7pm, The Center for Fiction celebrates a year of hard work and many accomplishments with readings from all nine 2012 Emerging Writers Fellows.

Meet the City’s emerging voices:

Seamus Scanlon

“Everything either happened or almost happened. Or could have happened…Irish humor is fatalistic and essential for survival. It may date from centuries of colonization and gray clouds all day - rain, hunger, famine, and emigration. The Catholic outlook of self sacrifice, pain, purgatory, and reward in the next life needed some antidote.”

In an interview with Bookslut, Seamus Scanlon reveals what makes an audacious, brave, and great writer and why he doesn’t whitewash the truth. For him, “Political correctness has no place in fiction.”

Leopoldine Core

“Peanut quietly considered replacing all of her friends with dogs.”In “Historic Tree Nurseries” from Issue 6 of The Literarian, Leopoldine Core takes us into and far beyond a story of a man’s best friend.

Lisa Lee

“I stopped writing to my pen pal, Mary Wang, of Anchorage, Alaska, the year I started high school. Partly because my mother told me she was too ugly for me to be friends with, but mostly because I was terrified of being ugly myself.”Pen pals, correspondence, and the idea of “pretty” - Lisa Lee writes about not writing back in her Sycamore Review essay, “Dear Mary Wang.”

Daniel Long

Broke, broker, broken, sure…but maybe life don’t conjugate so easy. There’s flesh and blood and little bits of hope tucked here or there. Give us this day our daily bread. Or weekly bread. Or monthly. Give me a fair sum of bread per annum, and we’ve got a deal.
What I mean is, could you spare some old bread about now?
What I mean is, we’re fighting the dust.

Daniel Long, an Oklahoman living in New York, had women “hiding tears” while he read at the Southern Writers Reading Series.

Manuel Martinez

“Try every type of food…Sleep whenever there is nothing else to do…” Most of all, “Don’t go anywhere but be afraid to stay where you are. Remember that there is always something you are missing.”

Need travel tips? Manuel Martinez shares sage advice in Issue 1 of The Literarian.

Rosalie Knecht

“I arrived at adulthood and New York City with a smug and completely deluded attitude toward credit and debt. Namely: who needs it?” In “Taking On a Debt to New York” for the New York Times Opinionator’s ”Townies”, Rosalie Knecht takes on the rat race, ingenuity, and what happens when making a living is “neither tangible nor profound.”

Tracy O’Neill

“A man’s relationship with his mother shows which black and white movie star he is like,” says Tracy O’Neill in her essay on sons and mothers, “The Imperfect.” “The Imperfect” was published in Issue 5 of The Literarian.

Tim O’Sullivan

As Tim O’Sullivan writes in “On Irrelevance” for A Public Space, “A taste for topical relevance is cool. There are better places to look than fiction. Newspapers maybe. On TV, pundits speak provocatively on topics of the day. Fiction can handle these topics too, but I suppose people will always argue whether it’s the most appropriate tool and/or for how long the relevant topic will remain relevant.” So, what is O’Sullivan’s irrelevant gem? Find out.

Jackie Reitzes

“The water is seaweed colored, the boat’s belly white. There is the thought- maybe this is it, maybe I will not be leaving after all. Maybe my parents would kill me if I die doing a Leonardo DiCaprio impersonation. And the release of leaning into the fall, the surrender because there’s nothing to be done but wait. Close your eyes. Brace yourself. Hold your breath. See.”
Jack Reitzes story, “King of the World,” was read at The Liar’s League NYC. She is currently a teacher in NYU’s Expository Writing Program.

This accordion folded @giganticmag is hand-constructed #litmags #crafty (at The Center for Fiction)

So proud of our 2011 Emerging Writers Fellow @jamesyeh, founder of @giganticmag. Be sure to check it out! (at The Center for Fiction)

What’s On- Events for the Week of May 6, 2013

This week we’ll host two events where writers can meet and mingle. We’re especially excited to hear our 2012 Emerging Writers Fellows read from their latest work…twe are so proud of them!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 7:00 pm: NOON

Center for Fiction favorite, NOON, will return with an event celebrating their latest issue. Noy Holland, Lincoln Michel, Christine Schutt, Deb Olin Unferth, and James Yeh will be reading from their work. RSVP here.

Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 7:00 pm- 2012 NYC Emerging Writers Fellows Reading

Our 2012 Emerging Writer Fellows have been working at The Center for Fiction for a year and we wanted to celebrate their hard work and many accomplishments. The evening features readings by all nine of our writers: Leopoldine Core, Rosalie Knecht, Lisa Lee, Daniel Long, Manuel Martinez, Tracy O’Neill, Tim O’Sullivan, Jackie Reitzes, and Seamus Scanlon.

We will also be announcing our 2013 Emerging Writers Fellowships to Lexi Freiman (Brooklyn), Patricia Park (Queens),Jane Rose Porter (Brooklyn),Onnesha Roychoudhuri (Brooklyn), Ricco Villanueva Siasoco (Manhattan), Bezalel Stern (Manhattan),Lauren Wilkinson (Manhattan), Brennen Wysong (Manhattan), and Courtney Zoffness (Brooklyn).

For more information on this program click here.

The Center for Fiction Fellowships for NYC Early Career Writers are made possible through a grant from The Jerome Foundation with matching funds from individual donors.

Starting off the morning right with Sheela Chari for #kidsread #books

Claire Messud to Publishers Weekly: “What kind of question is that?” →

We love Claire Messud’s response to Publishers Weekly and can’t wait for her event TONIGHT at The Center for Fiction: http://www.centerforfiction.org/calendar/claire-messud-the-woman-upstairs

Publishers Weekly: I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you? Her outlook is almost unbearably grim.

Claire Messud: For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus? Oscar Wao? Antigone? Raskolnikov? Any of the characters in The Corrections? Any of the characters in Infinite Jest? Any of the characters in anything Pynchon has ever written? Or Martin Amis? Or Orhan Pamuk? Or Alice Munro, for that matter? If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble. We read to find life, in all its possibilities. The relevant question isn’t “is this a potential friend for me?” but “is this character alive?”