The Power of Leaving: A Review of None But The Righteous, by Chantal James
With its maze-like layers, James chose an ambitious project for a debut novel.
What’s In a Story: Writing Fiction That Matters
The endless room for creativity in fiction makes it difficult to bind it to a definitive set of rules.
A Gallery of Limbs
These images kept breaking in, things about Aubrey he fought so hard not to remember.
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
A Beginner’s Guide to Comic Books
I’ve accumulated a modest list of my favorite works in recent years—from stand-alones to series, contemporary to science fiction. I hope you find a new favorite among them.
Miraculous Space: A Review of Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller
An intricate life, laden with all of its relational off-ramps and delicate emotional networks, has been organized into this memoir but remains fundamentally intact — raw — in a way that only an archivist could manage.
Lost in Translation: A Review of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Anthony Doerr weaves together a story across time and space, all the while asking the question, “What happens when stories get lost in translation?”
More Reviews
Abuse, Neglect, and Escape: A Book Review of Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Reading a story through memories feels like an old movie, a movie that predates the Second World War.
On Writing Stories and Ourselves: A Review of Old School by Tobias Wolff
If there is one thing that Old School excels in, it is the raw depiction of the protagonist’s contrived self-presentation.
Everyday Strength and Struggle: Review of Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery
When we “keep faith” in the face of catastrophe, we discover new strength within ourselves to keep going.
Coarsely, Shockingly Real: A Review of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Unlikeable main characters abound in modern fiction, and this novel does not break that mold.
Feminism and Witchcraft: A Review of Circe by Madeline Miller
What if Circe could tell her own version of the story? Madeline Miller explores this possibility within her novel Circe: a story that transcends just a simple rewriting of The Odyssey.
Commentaries
Examining Ourselves: The Painful Truths in Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman
Instead of fighting violence with violence, picking up a weapon, and spilling blood, Cassie’s revenge is more psychological and, debatably, more detrimental.
Three YA Novels that Got Mental Health Right
This is in no way a comprehensive list—however, I specifically chose works that not only avoid traditional YA standards, but gripped me enough to compel a second read.
Bookstores of the Bay: A Curated List
If you’re looking to find some new shops to explore, or just simply hear about one person’s experiences with bookstores, keep on reading!
Squid Game: What’s the Big Deal? and Other Existential Questions
If I’m no longer assessing the media by its emotional resonance, where does that leave me?
More Readings
From Pages to Premiers: The Case for Book To Movie Adaptations
If turning books into movies makes these stories more accessible, leading more people to love the tales being told, what’s the harm?
Bilingual Literature and the Acceptance of Not Understanding
Bilingual literature that embodies a lack of understanding offers a clear benefit to immigrant writers. They are able to express the feelings of alienation and incomprehension that come with relocating to a new country to people who have never had the experience, while simultaneously writing for their community.
Best Spooky Books to Read This Fall
It’s fall, which means it’s time to curl up by the fire with some spooky music and read a scary book!
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
Life on the Water
The morning wind swirled down cool and soft from the mountains, shaking the tops of the short pines on the foothills, stirring the dust at Ignacio’s feet and raising his hopes. He leaned back against the car, black and sleek, borrowed from his brother, and fingered the coins in his pocket.
Homestead
Harvest day is the most important day of the week.
Versos de mi Alma
I am sitting in my mother’s red Bonneville station wagon. Mamá’s hair is still black and long and flows over the back of the seat.
Coral Street
“Something moved across the street. Between the rows of the first and second floor windows something dark and sinewy slipped from one hidden place to another.”
Cues
This is your stage manager. If you haven’t already, please sign in. My attention flips between the pages of a nearly failed history midterm and the unopened prompt book, today’s bible. I open the binder, and my fingers glide over the script—sound and lighting cues, … Continue reading Cues
Les Chanteurs
“Sometimes, when your windows are open, I hear you singing.”
The Drive to the Crematorium
On the drive to the crematorium, I think I make peace with your death.
Last Snowfall
It is Earth’s final snowfall / and everyone is here.
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
A Box of Ingredients: Interview with Beth Piatote, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge and Author of The Beadworkers: Stories
I think about other Native people who may read that piece and can, through the piece, feel a connection to those lands…feel that they are there.
“Short, colorful, Twilight Zone-y Tales”: An interview with Ben Loory, Sudden Fiction guest judge and author of Tales of Falling and Flying
I decided early on that I was going to write my stories…in my own voice, my own words, with my own sense of humor and my own actual grammar and peculiarities of speech… everything exactly the way I would tell it.
Written Representation Through Shared Family Stories: Interview with E.P. Tuazon author of “Professional Lola”
It’s really important to have this kind of representation for our culture, because there’s not a lot of it out there.
Personal Essays
Talk to Me
The power of interviews is structural: an interview inherently forces you to listen and ask first, before saying anything else.
My Animals: How Susan Orlean’s On Animals Taught Me the Value of Human-Animal Crossings
By reading On Animals, I remembered my animals.
Escaping Into Reality: The Importance of Fictional Truth
There’s a common misconception that escapist fiction is far removed from reality, but I would argue that it is simply a different kind of truth about another aspect of reality.
More Readings
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.
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
BERKELEY FICTION REVIEW 