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09.21.17

Hiding in Plain Sight

In Conversation

Hiding in Plain Sight

In Ryan Gattis’s Safe, Ricky ‘Ghost’ Mendoza, Jr. has put his old ways behind him—he’s sober and has a good job as a DEA safecracker. But when the most important person in his life gets into serious financial trouble, Ghost is forced to...

Ryan Gattis and Geoff Manaugh In Conversation

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09.21.17

“Afghan Girl”

Poetry

“Afghan Girl”

We're pleased to present a new poem from Gjertrud Schnackenberg, "Afghan Girl.” Schnackenberg sat down with poet Susan Gillis (The Rapids, 2013) and professor Gregory Fried to discuss the process of writing the poem, the inspiration from Steve McCurry’s iconic war photograph, and the...

A Discussion on Gjertrud Schnackenberg's New Poem with Susan Gillis and Gregory Fried

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09.17.17

FSG Fall Collection Sweepstakes

For Subscribers

FSG Fall Collection Sweepstakes

Subscribe to the Work in Progress email and enter for a chance to win an exclusive FSG tote bag filled with copies of our most anticipated Fall books: Fresh Complaint by Jeffrey Eugenides, Sourdough by Robin Sloan, Draft No. 4 by...

Featuring Jeffrey Eugenides, Alice McDermott, John McPhee, Robin Sloan, and Lindsey Fitzharris

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09.15.17

Samantha Hunt

Photography

Samantha Hunt

Developing Stories, a new series from Work in Progress, invites authors to carry a disposable camera and document whatever compels them—a reading, a walk in the woods, a tour of the writer's hometown. As Samantha Hunt says in the first installment of Developing Stories,...

Developing Stories

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09.15.17

The Dharma of “The Princess Bride”

The Latest

The Dharma of “The Princess Bride”

I wrote The Dharma of "The Princess Bride" because I wanted to address the myths and difficulties that modern people, especially those of us interested in living mindfully, face regarding relationships. I wanted to look deeply at friendship, romance, and family without having to come...

Ethan Nichtern A Guided Meditation

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09.15.17

Draft No. 4

Excerpts

Draft No. 4

William Shawn and Roger W. Straus Jr., the president of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, were friends across the years, and in 1987 Roger actually hired Mr. Shawn, setting up an office for him in Union Square, after new owners of The New Yorker accomplished...

John McPhee On Roger Straus

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08.23.17

Writing from a Place of Absence

In Conversation

Writing from a Place of Absence

As a symbol of both excess and access, food plays a large role in shaping American life and culture. In Lindsay Hunter’s book Eat Only When You’re Hungry, a father travels through Florida in search of his missing son and is...

Lindsay Hunter and Roxane Gay In Conversation

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08.23.17

Programming for the Millions

Essays

Programming for the Millions

I dare to imagine the general public learning to write code. I do not mean that knowledge of programming should join the ranks of subjects that represent basic literacy: languages, history, philosophy, the fundamentals of science and mathematics. I mean it the other way...

Ellen Ullman Life in Code

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08.17.17

Jonathan Franzen’s Infinite Sadness

Essays

Jonathan Franzen’s Infinite Sadness

English needs a word for the loneliness you feel when no one else hears what sounds to you like the loudest noise in the room. It happens when your personal receiver is set to a frequency no one else seems to be aware of;...

An Elegy for David Foster Wallace Heather Cass White

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08.16.17

The Process of Not Knowing

In Conversation

The Process of Not Knowing

With more than 500 interviews and over twenty years of research, Sam Stephenson presents his newest masterpiece Gene Smith’s Sink—an extraordinary look into the life of W. Eugene Smith, a revolutionary photojournalist who both captured some of history’s most powerful images and chronicled...

Sam Stephenson and Allan Gurganus In Conversation

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08.10.17

The Shadow Chamber, The Boarding House, The Grip of It

On Writing

The Shadow Chamber, The Boarding House, The Grip of It

The questions of where a story should go can be paralyzing, especially in the beginning, when anything is possible, and especially if you’re not the type of writer to make a plan, which I’m not. To get through this hairy time, I’m likely to...

Jac Jemc

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08.09.17

Borne Fan Art Contest Gallery

Visual Art

Borne Fan Art Contest Gallery

MCDxFSG would like to thank everyone who participated in the Borne Fan Art Contest. The works we received ranged from precocious and comical to stunning and skillful, with the occasional oddment in between. As a group, they captured nearly every iteration of...

Judged by Jeff VanderMeer MCD X FSG

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08.03.17

Art as a Side Effect of Life

Editor and Author

Art as a Side Effect of Life

In Catherine Lacey’s The Answers, the protagonist takes a job as the “Emotional Girlfriend” of a wealthy actor in “The Girlfriend Experiment,” a project conducted by biotech researchers to find the algorithms for the perfect romantic relationship. Praised by Dwight Garner at the...

Catherine Lacey and Emily Bell In Conversation

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08.02.17

Ants Among Elephants

Excerpts

Ants Among Elephants

I grew up in the untouchable slum of Elwin Peta in Kakinada. All around me was abject poverty. When you are surrounded by so much misery, you don’t see it as anything extraordinary. I remember when one of my friends in the neighborhood told...

Sujatha Gidla

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07.26.17

The Country Girls

Announcements

The Country Girls

FSG is proud to reveal the cover for our reissue of Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls Trilogy and Epilogue, a collection of three of the most beloved, revolutionary, and notorious Irish novels of the 20th century, with a new introduction by Eimear McBride,...

Edna O’Brien Cover Reveal

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07.21.17

Re-vision

Essays

Re-vision

We donated my dad’s eyes. They were very pretty. What eyes aren’t? Somewhere, I suppose, they still are very pretty. The Eye Donation Bank sent a note thanking us for our gift, the eyes, creating an idea of a gruesome jewelry box. The Bank...

Samantha Hunt

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07.20.17

A Renowned Engineer

Excerpts

A Renowned Engineer

When Rimbaud was a little boy, he used to sit at the kitchen table at home in Charleville. He would sit on his chair without moving, his elbows on the table, his chin in his hands, his eyes blank, and stare out of the...

Gunnhild Øyehaug A Norwegian Essay

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07.19.17

What Fiction Gets Wrong About AI

Essays

What Fiction Gets Wrong About AI

Fiction almost always gets Artificial Intelligence wrong. The AI narratives are generally Frankenstein (“It’s gone rogue!” e.g. Skynet) or Pinocchio (“I just want to be a real boy!” e.g. Commander Data), both of which are a little banal, and neither of which have much...

Zachary Mason

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07.14.17

Fulfilling the Form

In Conversation

Fulfilling the Form

Colin Harrison and I are an unusual team: he has edited me, and I have the joy of editing him. He went first. In 2003, he edited a book I co-wrote with Mariane Pearl called A Mighty Heart, an account of the murder...

Colin Harrison and Sarah Crichton In Conversation

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07.11.17

Borne Tour Debrief

The Latest

Borne Tour Debrief

There were many amazing moments on my recent five-week Borne book tour—yet the opportunity to visit independent bookstores remains foregrounded in my mind. The experience was sublime on multiple levels. Each adventure begins with that marvelous instant of arrival, when you step inside the...

Jeff VanderMeer

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Hiding in Plain Sight

“Afghan Girl”

FSG Fall Collection Sweepstakes

Samantha Hunt

The Dharma of “The Princess Bride”

Draft No. 4

Writing from a Place of Absence

Programming for the Millions

Jonathan Franzen’s Infinite Sadness

The Process of Not Knowing

The Shadow Chamber, The Boarding House, The Grip of It

Borne Fan Art Contest Gallery

Art as a Side Effect of Life

Ants Among Elephants

The Country Girls

Re-vision

A Renowned Engineer

What Fiction Gets Wrong About AI

Fulfilling the Form

Borne Tour Debrief