Jane Ciabattari
"Ciabattari is a master of transformation as she gives these stories of loss, woe, crisis and collapse the salutary and sometimes bracing pleasures of plain good fiction."--Kirkus Reviews

"Tales filled with second guesses that enable the reader to come away appreciating how choice and chance affect the human experience. Writers and readers of literary fiction will enjoy these stories."--Library Journal


"Jane Ciabattari's storiesaren't so much read as they are absorbed. She envelops you--in a place, in someone's head--surrounds you with vivid detail, and isn't afraid to look into the dark corners to reveal things we might not want to look at...Each story is a journey for both the characters and the reader, one that can be taken many times, just as a poem can be read over and over for ever deeper meaning. It's worth putting aside the latest blockbuster to make room for the gentle fierceness of Ms. Ciabattari's writing."--The Easthampton Star

"Ciabattari displays a deft sense of control throughout, and is equally sensitive to male protagonists. This book makes a strong first step toward earning both and audience and critical praise for Ciabattari."--Publishers Weekly

Book

"Stealing the Fire," May 2013 Selection, Dzanc Books' rEprint Series

"STEALING THE FIRE"
Selected for Dzanc Books rEprint Series
May 2013


Stealing the Fire

"STEALING THE FIRE"
In her first collection, award winning writer Jane Ciabattari explores the aftershocks of life changes—the loss of a father, a husband, an unborn child, an all-consuming job—and the illuminations that make hope possible. Set in Central America, Montauk, Montreal, New York City, Northern California and Vancouver, these haunting stories throb with the joys and pains of real life.

"If the stories in Jane Ciabattari's collection have a connecting thread, it is a thematic one: the pain of loss in all its forms. This is not to say that a black cloud hovers over them. In fact, there is something vivifying and hopeful that infuses them, as well. Nor do they seem like case studies in a psychotherapist's journal of treatment. They are acutely perceived and well-told tales that have the breath of life in them. These stories are not thinly disguised autobiography...Protagonists are men and women, young and old, from all walks of life and every part of the country. One cannot but be impressed with how vividly each comes to life. There is not one story that does not in some way satisfy the centuries-old need for narrative. Nor is there one story that does not succeeed on some level... Ciabattari's prose is as clear as a pane of glass, Orwell's concept of what a writer should strive for. But she has a gift for the telling phrase. This is a collection of great emotional power and depth."--The Southampton Press

New Book

"Stealing the Fire," May 2013 Selection, Dzanc Books' rEprint Series
Interview with Roxana Robinson re her Iraq War novel "Sparta"
"Contents of House," short story from LONG ISLAND NOIR, Akashic Books
Short story collections from Rebecca Lee, Lily Tuck, Janet Frame
Meg Wolitzer talks about her novel "The Interestings"
My interview with Joyce Carol Oates re her novel "The Accursed," The Devil and Woodrow Wilson
My review of Jessica Francis Kane's "This Close" for NPR.org
Interview with Marisa Silver re "Mary Coin," The Daily Beast.
Interview with Tracy Chevalier re "The Last Runaway," her novel about Ohio's Underground Railroad, The Daily Beast
My review of George Saunders' "Tenth of December," the Boston Globe
My NPR Weekend Edition commentary on Luis Jaramillo's "The Doctor's Wife"
My review of Ayana Mathis' "Twelve Tribes of Hattie," San Francisco Chronicle
My end-of-year "Best Short Story Collections of 2012" list for NPR.org
My review of Alice Munro's "Dear Life" for The Boston Globe
My interview with Richard Russo re his mother's illness, his memoir, for The Daily Beast
My interview with Sherman Alexie for The Daily Beast
My review of Louise Erdrich's National Book Award winner, "The Round House," The Boston Globe.
Interview with A.M. Homes on her new novel, "May We Be Forgiven," The Daily Beast
My review of first novel "The Orchardist" by Amanda Coplin, NPR.org
Review of Victor LaValle's "The Devil in Silver," the Boston Globe
Review of Joshua Henkin's "The World Without You," NPR.org
Review of two new books by Alix Ohlin in The Boston Globe
Richard Ford talks about his new novel "Canada"
Featured in "Four Energetic Women Behind America's Literary Arts" in Rain Taxi Spring 2012
My interview with Kathryn Harrison re her new novel about Rasputin's daughter, "Enchantments"
My review of Heidi Julavits' "The Vanishers," The Boston Globe
My Interview with Nathan Englander, The Daily Beast
My interview with Madeline Miller, author of Orange prize longlisted 'The Song of Achilles'
YouTube video of my Feb. 28, 2012 conversation with Richard Mason, author, History of a Pleasure Seeker , Strand Books Authors Series
My review of Pam Houston's "Contents May Have Shifted" for the Boston Globe
My review of Ramona Ausubel's "No One Is Here Except All of Us," The New York Times Book Review
My review of Penelope Lively's "How It All Began," The Boston Globe
My "best fiction of 2011," 3 critics in The Boston Globe
"Newsweek/​Daily Beast Writers' Favorite Books of 2011"
Ann Beattie talks about 'Mrs. Nixon'
Julie Otsuka Talks about "The Buddha in the Attic"
4,000 words on the state of book reviewing, Sept/​Oct 2011 Poets and Writers
Review of Julie Otsuka's "The Buddha in the Attic"
Interview with Lev Grossman, author of The Magician King and Time magazine book critic
Kate Christensen interview re The Astral, The Daily Beast
My short story "Shanghai Blues," in issue #2 of The Literarian (Center for Fiction quarterly)
Reviews, Interviews, The Daily Beast
Future of Book Reviews with Cynthia Ozick, Morris Dickstein, Herve Le Tellier, Carsten Jensen
My review of Madison Smartt Bell, "The Color of Night"
A Week in Culture, Part II, Paris Review
A Week in Culture, Part I, Paris Review
LA Times review of Michael David Lukas's "The Oracle of Stamboul."
My review of Karen Russell's "Swamplandia!"
My review of Siobhan Fallon's "You Know When the Men Have Gone"
My review of Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts' "Harlem Is Nowhere"
How the National Book Critics Circle Board Picks Award Winners
My review of Charles Baxter's story collection "Gryphon"
My review of Paul Auster's "Sunset Park"
My Cynthia Ozick interview
My review of Antonya Nelson's novel "Bound," NPR.org
My interview with Dinaw Mengestu, author of How to Read the Air
My interview with Yiyun Li, author of Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, The Daily Beast
My review of Yiyun Li's new collection, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, NPR.org
My review of Sara Gruen's "Ape House," Salon.com
My review of Jose Saramago's The Elephant's Journey, The Los Angeles Times
My review of Rick Moody's "The Four Fingers of Death," NPR.org
My review of James Lee Burke's "The Glass Rainbow," NPR.org.
What I'm Reading, on the PW blog
My interview with Lauren Belfer re "A Fierce Radiance" in The Daily Beast
My review of Melanie Sumner's "The Ghost of Milagro Creek," NPR.org
My interview with Jennifer Egan in The Daily Beast
My five "Best of the Bestsellers," NPR.org
My review of Aimee Bender's "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake," NPR.org
My interview with Andrea Levy, "The Long Song," The Daily Beast
Five Must-Read Short-story Collections, The Daily Beast
My review of Jane Smiley's "A Private Life," NPR.org
My review of Andrea Levy's The Long Song, npr.org
My review of Anna Quindlen's Every Last One, npr.org
My review of Jann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil, npr.org
My review of Chang-rae Lee's novel The Surrendered
Review of Angelology by Danielle Trussoni, npr.org
5 Best Hollywood Novels, The Daily Beast
My review of Chitra Divakaruni's "One Amazing Thing," npr.org
My review of Gail Godwin's "Unfinished Desires," npr.org
My review of Anne Tyler's "Noah's Compass" on npr.org
The Unstoppable Cult of Jane Eyre: my interview with novelist Sheila Kohler
My review of Elizabeth Gilbert's "Committed," npr.org
My review of Kurt Vonnegut's "Look at the Birdie"
My review of Paul Auster novel, "Invisible," npr.org
My interview with Jonathan Safran Foer about his "Eating Animals" on The Daily Beast
My interview with Jonathan Lethem re his novel "Chronic City" on The Daily Beast
My review of Richard Powers novel "Generosity" on npr.org
My "Writing the West" syllabus on Bookforum.com
My review of Margaret Atwood's "The Year of the Flood" on npr.org
My review of Doctorow's "Homer & Langley" on npr.org
My interview with E.L. Doctorow re his new novel, "Homer & Langley," based on the hermit-like Collyer brothers.
My review of Nicola Keegan's "Swimming" on npr.org
National Book Critics Circle Board bio
To read the National Book Critics Circle board blog Critical Mass
Interview with Chimamanda Adichie re "The Thing Around Your Neck" inThe Daily Beast
Short story "Aftershocks" in KGB Bar Lit
Review of Kate Christensen novel "Trouble" in Bookforum
Interview with Aleksandar Hemon re his new book "Love and Obstacles" in The Daily Beast.
Interview with Colson Whitehead re his novel "Sag Harbor" in The Daily Beast
Review of Toni Morrison's "A Mercy"
Interviewed in Poets and Writers Magazine
Short story "MamaGodot" in VerbSap
"After the Deluge," Post-Katrina Literature, in The Guardian
My blog for PEN's World Voices Festival 2007 & 2008
Read New York Times article on Forestville, CA in Sonoma County
To purchase "Stealing the Fire" from amazon.com
"Arabella Leaves," read short story in Ms. magazine
Read short story "Hiding Out" in Literary Mama
For signed copies of "Stealing the Fire" from Canio's Books in Sag Harbor, NY
TO READ THE SHORT STORY "PAYBACK TIME," AN EXCERPT FROM "STEALING THE FIRE," CLICK ON BOOK TITLE ON NEW BOOK PAGE
To read Washington Post review of Oscar Hijuelos' "A Simple Habana Melody"
Overseas Press Club Board link
New York Foundation for the Arts
author's webpage
Authors Guild
email me