Making Wordplay Visual: Interview with Amy-Grace Ratanapratum, Artist of Issue 41 Piece “Mindless Eye”
I did feel like I was sort of peering into their brain and trying to pluck out what they thought was the most important part.
Character Analysis and Organic Writing: Interview of Kimberly Liu, Author of Issue 41 Story “I, Iris”
I think in the literature that I’ve read, sight as a bit of a metaphor for knowledge, for awareness, and for identity, is pretty well suffused and embedded into this collective recognition.
Flaws and Romance: Review of Normal People by Sally Rooney
At the heart of Rooney’s novel is the message that people can change each other for the better.
Announcements
Past Announcements
Issue 41 Pre-Order Open
Our 41st issue is now available for pre-order online.
2021 Sudden Fiction Contest Winners!
We’re thrilled to announce the winners and honorary mention of our 2021 Sudden Fiction Contest! Read more to find out who won!
Book Reviews
The Secluded Purgatory of a Tea Shop: Review of Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
He has no friends, and his employees wish he were dead. Unfortunately for Wallace, they get their wish.
A Love Letter to Slasher Cinema: A Review of My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
A horror novel should hold my attention sooner than eighty percent of the way through the book.
Places and Faces: A Review of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab
Some might mistake immortality for a dream come true but for Adeline LaRue immortality is agony at its worst.
More Reviews
Shakespearean Horror: Review of All’s Well by Mona Awad
Mona Awad’s newest horror release, All’s Well, is a masterpiece of Shakespearean hyperbolic metaphor.
Trivial Thrills: Book Review of Survive the Night by Riley Sager
As I kept reading, and my patience grew thin, all signs began to point towards what I had predicted.
Grief Food: Review of Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Being two halves of different things can often make you feel less of a whole.
Coming Out: Review of Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust
What better way to spend Pride than with a queer rebel princess who fights to be seen!
A Switchblade Girl With a Candy Heart: Review of One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
One Last Stop is a heartwarming story of found-family chock full of eccentric, colorful characters that jump off the page.
Commentaries
Surfing the Time Wave: Prescience in Frank Herbert’s Dune
Ever since H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, the topic of time and our ability to interact with it has been at the forefront of science fiction.
Hypertext Fiction: The Literary Genre That Was Theorized Before It Was Written
Think if Wikipedia was a novel, or a Choose Your Own Adventure book existed online.
Marvel in Color: The Evolution of Racial Diversity within the MCU
The MCU has had a less than stellar track record when it comes to racial diversity.
The surprisingly radical politics of Pixar’s WALL-E
It seems that our brave little robot is actually part of a much larger political-ecological revolution.
More Readings
To Delete or Not To Delete: Fanfiction and Lost Writing on the Internet
Fanfiction, and literature on the internet in general, raises new sorts of questions about the pitfalls and possibilities of archiving. How do you save not just an artifact, but all the software and hardware that is needed to run it?
Editors’ Most Anticipated: Spring 2021
This Spring, the editorial team at the Berkeley Fiction Review wanted to highlight a selection of upcoming releases that we are especially looking forward to reading and viewing. These selections mean something special to each individual editor, so we hope this list inspires an interest in these works!
Comfort Books: What Are They and Why Are They Important?
A comfort book is just as the name suggests: a personally significant piece of literature, typically fiction, that brings a person solace and allows for an escape from reality.
Fiction
His Scaly Self
Gradually, he grew accustomed to his alternate form, to the point that he could forget about it for hours at a time.
More Stories
Haiyang
Don’t worry, I said, you’re the sea, and it’s impossible for the sea to drown. There’s nothing big enough for you.
Penis Candles
The hall closet candles are white, ten inches long, and shaped like penises.
The Gallery
Talk to me. Make me feel male.
Sometimes I Think You Don’t Love Me At All
That was the summer that Tim had a left hand full of broken bones.
The Beast of Ballyheige
He was from a generation for whom superstition and folklore were interwoven seamlessly into history.
Picasso to the Rescue
Terrible things have happened. Your expertise is required to set right the unhinging of our world.
Next Stop
I am a connoisseur of places to sit.
Drive-In
We both paused and stared at the screen in time for a bomb to burst, engulfing everything in white.
Interviews
Breaking the Canon: Interview with K-Ming Chang, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge & Author of Bestiary
Something about flash fiction and short fiction is just so ripe with experimentation and with breaking boundaries and for kind of completely turning on its head what a story can look like.
A Flash of Lightning and Heartbreak: Interview with Ashley Hutson, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge & Author of One’s Company
I feel like when you write flash, you’re giving something to the reader, like an electric shock.
A Case for “the surreal and the strange”: Interview with Anna Vangala Jones, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge and Author of Turmeric & Sugar
When I picture a flash fiction story done well, a story that’s getting so much across in this tiny space, I imagine a little snow globe or something that’s bursting with how much is going on inside it.
More Interviews
Working with Waves and Watercolors: Interview with Mikaela Kristianous, Artist of Issue 41 Piece Regarding the Sea
I definitely take inspiration from the skies, like I mentioned, flowers, even food: strawberries, raspberries, those kinds of things.
Being Led by Joy: Interview with K-Ming Chang, Author of Issue 41 Story “Haiyang”
I wanted to bring water into these places that are sterile or dry or drought-ridden.
Art and Characterization: Interview of Amy Alicia Santa Maria, Artist of Issue 41 Piece “The Masterpiece”
They’re a more picturesque version than what they really are, and it’s just capturing one singular moment in time.
Personal Essays
Regarding the Pain of Women: Disabled Childhoods and Intellectual Insanity
Growing up as a disabled child, I learned to live in a world that was my own.
Lucia’s Lessons on Leaving
Berlin’s writing captured a sort of reckless joy I recalled from my time in Paris: living on that rugged edge between foolish risk-taking and worthwhile adventure.
Blue Pills as Always
Across this textured face, I count all the bleeding and irritated spots, hooking onto them with my eyes and making sure that each and every unwanted citizen of a pimple on the once-clear expanse of my face is ingrained in my mind.
More Readings
My Unseen World
The Unseen World grapples with this abstract notion: if memories are the fundamental building blocks to a coherent identity, when one loses these memories or memories are distorted —who does this person become? Who are they in relation to you?
How Reading Has Helped Me in the Age of COVID-19
“I….have been able to use reading as both a reprieve from reality, as well as an educational tool to become a more productive version of my isolated self.”
Writing in Ten Easy Steps
Step 1: Once you are roused from slumber by thoughts of the monumental task at hand, brew some coffee. If you don’t drink coffee, thoughtfully bob a bag of tea into a cup of microwaved water. Optional: Add alcohol to taste.
Visuals
Address
Berkeley Fiction Review
c/o ASUC Student Union FMO
432 Eshleman, MC 4500
Berkeley, CA 94720
Contact
Ads: bfradvertising@gmail.com
Magazine: bfronlinemag@gmail.com
General / Submissions:
berkeleyfictionreview@gmail.com
