Archive for 2012

Home » Archives for 2012 » Page 12

Next Year in Amherst: A Bread Loaf for Jewish Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
3

Oh, if I were some years younger! What an incredible-sounding program is in the works:

Tent: Creative Writing, Amherst, MA
A week-long seminar in creative writing and literature at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA, June 2–9, 2013. Modeled on the Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, this program will be geared toward aspiring and practicing writers. You’ll participate in creative writing workshops with and attend readings given by visiting faculty, including Eileen Pollack, the former director of the University of Michigan MFA program and winner of the 2008 Edward Lewis Wallant Award. In morning sessions, participants will read classics of modern Jewish literature, from Sholem Aleichem to Grace Paley, with literary scholar Josh Lambert (UMass Amherst), and discuss the roles played by Jews in the creation of literary modernism and postmodernism. You’ll also have opportunities to write in a pastoral setting, meet a visiting agent or editor or two, and visit a writer’s home.

Apply by January 13, 2013. (“Who can apply? North American Jews between the ages of 20 and 30, creative people curious about the connections between Jewishness and modern culture.”)

Best of all: This is one of THREE free programs.

Friday Finds for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
3

The weekly collection of writing-related resources, news, and reflections to read over the weekend.

  • I’ll be traveling (again!) this weekend, and while I wait around airports I’m hoping to read at least some of the essays mentioned in Robert Atwan’s “The Top 10 Essays Since 1950.”
  • To help you get started publishing your stories, essays, and poems: an updated list of links.
  • “50 Freelance Tips” from The Writer magazine.
  • And, some freelance tips (or warnings) from me, courtesy of Carol Tice’s “Make a Living Writing” blog.
  • Finally: Like many, I had a visceral and horrified reaction to the news we’ve all followed from Penn State. And, like many who have already cited it this week, I am deeply impressed by Michael Bérubé’s essay on why he resigned the Paterno Family Professorship in Literature at Pennsylvania State University.

    • Have a great weekend, everyone. See you back here on Monday.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish literary news from around the Web.

  • Let’s start with a stupendous-looking opportunity from the Posen Foundation: “The Posen Foundation is proud to announce a unique international fellowship for junior scholars and emerging fiction writers. Each member of the Posen Society of Fellows receives a two-year, $40,000 award, as well as a special opportunity to collaborate with peers and learn from seasoned scholars and writers.” Eligibility: “Eligible scholars should be completing a doctoral dissertation on a topic related to modern Jewish history of culture. Eligible fiction writers should be working on a Jewish-themed novel or short story collection, and should not yet have published their first book.” Application deadline is January 15, 2013, and there’s no application fee. (Thanks to @NaomiDanis for the tip about this amazing program.)
  • Another new opportunity for writers: “Jewish Currents magazine announces its the first annual DORA and ALEXANDER RAYNES POETRY PRIZE for poems on the theme of ‘The American Dream.'” There *is* an entry fee for this competition ($18). Prizes include a cash award of $1,000 to the first-prize winner and $180 to each of two runners-up. “The top 36 poems will be published as a chapbook by Blue Thread, an imprint of Jewish Currents, in the summer of 2013. All submissions will be considered for publication in Jewish Currents. Submission deadline is January 15, 2013. NB: This competition will be judged by Gerald Stern.
  • This week brought us the latest Jewish Book Carnival, ably hosted by the Jewish Book Council’s “ProsenPeople” blog.
  • In a new essay, author Jon Papernick explores the meaning of the tattoo on his arm, in his view and in others’.
  • And in case you missed it, over on my other blog I’ve written about a book that I had the privilege of reading before it was published this month: Susan Kushner Resnick’s You Saved Me, Too: What a Holocaust Survivor Taught Me About Living, Dying, Loving, Fighting, and Swearing in Yiddish.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Guest Post: Behind the (Chap)Book (Plus, A Giveaway!)

    by Erika Dreifus on
    14

    I rarely feature guest posts here on Practicing Writing, but I’m making an exception for Chloe Yelena Miller, a writer I met back in 2004 when we were both attending the Prague Summer Program. We’ve stayed in touch since then (we even collaborated on a successful panel proposal for a conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs not too long ago). Chloe was also kind enough to host me back when Quiet Americans and I went on our virtual book tour.

    Now, Chloe’s poetry chapbook, Unrest, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. I’ve had the good fortune to read it; I wondered about the chapbook’s “backstory” or unifying structure, and so I’ve invited Chloe to address those questions here.

    Chloe’s work is published or forthcoming in Alimentum, The Cortland Review, Narrative Magazine, Poet’s Market, and Storyscape Literary Journal, among others. Her poetry was a finalist for Narrative Magazine’s Poetry Prize and the Philip Levine Prize in Poetry. Chloe has an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She worked on Lumina and later on The Literary Review and Portal del Sol. She has participated in the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center residency and the A Room of Her Own Writers’ Retreat.

    Chloe teaches writing online at Fairleigh Dickinson University, George Mason University and privately, and leads writing workshops at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. Contact her and read some of her work at www.chloeyelenamiller.blogspot.com.

    Please welcome Chloe Yelena Miller. (more…)

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: How to Get a Blurb for Your Book

    by Erika Dreifus on
    14

    I’m no Gary Shteyngart, but I’m not entirely without experience when it comes to “blurbing” other authors’ books. (“Blurbs,” as you likely know, are the brief endorsements that authors and publishers seek pre-publication to help garner interest in and enthusiasm for new books.)

    Last week I had the great pleasure of attending a reading by Susan Kushner Resnick. Sue read from her latest book, You Saved Me, Too: What a Holocaust Survivor Taught Me About Living, Dying, Loving, Fighting and Swearing in Yiddish. I was eager to meet Sue and hear her read from the book, in part because we’d had some nice exchanges over email stemming from Sue’s request that I blurb it.

    Sue has given me permission to share with you that initial request. So if you want to see how one author got someone (me) to blurb her book, please read on! (more…)