Everyday Fairytales: Review of Bluebeard’s First Wife by Seong-nan Ha, translated by Janet Hong
In Bluebeard’s First Wife, Ha explores big cities and small rural towns where ambition, familial responsibilities, and expectations of marriage coalesce to reveal hidden sides to neighbors, wives, and husbands. The ordinary lives of middle class peoples in such cities and towns gain fairy-tale quality as Janet Hong’s translation renders Ha’s uneasy stories with haunting details and precise prose.
Announcements
Past Announcements
Comic Submissions Now Open!
We are, for the first time ever, publishing comics in our journal.
A New Set of Articles for Issue 40!
After a long hiatus, Berkeley Fiction Review is back with a new set of articles.
Book Reviews
Out of Body, Out of Time: Review of Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
By way of the supernatural, Saunders splices through the content of history textbooks and captures the emotional authenticity that factual accounts will never be able to capture — the gray area that gives space to grief and longing and love.
Unsettling Glimpses into Other Worlds: Review of Mannequin & Wife by Jen Fawkes
The collection undertakes—with some success—the difficult job of creating stories that delight while carrying unsettling premises and undertones.
Commentaries
Queer Romances to Keep You Company in Quarantine
With a long stretch of quarantine behind us and at least a few months of virtual learning still ahead, you have probably found yourself with a free hour or two in between classes where doing your homework sounds as unappealing as looking ahead through your textbook. Why not preoccupy that hour—or three—with one of these queer romances that are guaranteed to make you swoon or maybe, just maybe bring tears to your eyes?
The Ethics of Writing Trauma – from the author of “Please, be Sensitive” in Issue 40
In my story, I supplied characters that cared for my character and asked questions when she wanted to be asked. In my world, she could choose the questions she wanted to answer.
Let’s Talk about Inclusion
For much of my young adult life, I had a secret. A secret that carried a lot of shame and disappointment. As a person that prided myself on my writing and reading ability from a young age, the circumstances of my secret was devastating. For many years I couldn’t speak of it, even if I was alone.
Fiction
Shirt
It’s up to you. I am prepared to stick this out. I am in this for the long haul.
How to Ask Your White Teacher for a Letter of Recommendation
Compliment her, ah, unfettered teaching style. Don’t mention the bewildering feeling you had in her class, one of being erased and reconstituted.
Spent
It’s the witching hour, and I am the whittled witch: from lack of sleep, from a long, notched day spent with nothing to show for it save skin that’s been touched raw.
Interviews
An interview with Meagan Johanson, author of “Spent” and Sudden Fiction winner
“Spent” came like this—from a feeling, the remorse of only having one life to spend. Even if we hold love in armfuls—real love, true love, good love—there will always be a life you can’t be living, a timeline you’ve left behind.
Interview with Michael Caleb Tasker
In the most recent issue of The Kenyon Review, international editor John Kinsella says that “there’s a drive, an enthusiasm, and a shout-out in Australian writing at present that demands it be heard.” Writer Michael Caleb Tasker has lived in Australia for fifteen years and, though not a native of the continent (a problematic phrase itself), he is, I believe, proof of Kinsella’s claim.
Personal Essays
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
