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Archive for 2012

Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by on Friday, April 27, 2012 (2) Comments

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

  • I’m sorry that it took me nearly all month to discover that the “Jewesses with Attitude” blog has been presenting a series of posts about and by American Jewish women poets to celebrate National Poetry Month.
  • The URJ’s Rabbi Rick Jacobs published a beautiful piece this week for Yom HaZikaron/Yom HaAtzmaut that spotlighted the memory of Uri Grossman, son of Israeli author David Grossman.
  • I have been enjoying author Debra Spark’s guest posts over on the Jewish Book Council’s blog (The ProsenPeople).
  • When you read Judy Bolton-Fasman’s “A Jubana Mother Gives Advice to Her Tragically Gringa Daughter” you, too, will be eager to read Judy’s memoir-in-progress.
  • One of this week’s personal highlights: discovering this sensitive and generous review of Quiet Americans on Amazon.

    • Shabbat shalom.

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    Friday Finds: Twitter Tips for Writers

    by on Friday, April 27, 2012 (2) Comments

    You read that right, writers. This week, I have two recommended resources to share with you. Friday Finds. Plural.

    As some of you may know/recall, I’ve been busy this month participating in Robert Lee Brewer’s April Platform Challenge. If you’ve been playing along, too, you already know that Twitter has played a significant part in the challenge. Which prompts me to share two very useful resources for all of us who are trying to be active, engaged, and considerate Twitter citizens.

  • David B. Crowley’s “Sweet 16″ Tips to Build Your Twitter Following
  • Nina Badzin’s post on the “Twitter Thanking Crisis” and previous Twitter tips (linked at the “thanking crisis” post).

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

    P.S. Find and follow me on Twitter: @ErikaDreifus.

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    Thursday’s Work-in-Progress

    by on Thursday, April 26, 2012 (0) Comments

    Lots of nice things have happened this week. Thanks to Christi Craig’s lovely blog, I won a giveaway copy of Shann Ray’s American Masculine, which I’ve been meaning to read for months. I finalized and submitted a panel proposal for the 2013 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference. I spent an energizing 90 minutes with a fantastic group of college students who are taking a seminar on “Representing the Holocaust.” I finished preparing the May newsletter (it should go out Sunday or Monday after one last round of proofreading). And I discovered a new reader review of Quiet Americans on Amazon that frankly blew me away with its on-targetness (I think I just made up a word).

    I was especially moved because this reader picked up on something I talked about at length during the classroom visit: the broad applicability of one of the notable German words in one of the stories: Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“coming to terms with the past”). That we’ve just concluded the observance of Yom HaShoah makes the subject–and the review and the visit–even more meaningful.

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    The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 (0) Comments

    My great-grandparents, H. & K. Dreifus, the inspirations behind Karoline & Jacob Freiburg in "Matrilineal Descent." Photo © The Dreifus Family.

  • One of the reasons I love this week’s writing prompt from Midge Raymond (“Family History”) is that it essentially explains how I started writing “Matrilineal Descent,” a story that was published in TriQuarterly before it was gathered in my collection, Quiet Americans.
  • Embarrassing word-usage gaffes in The New York Times, courtesy of the newspaper itself.
  • It’s almost time for Short Story Month. Which means that there will be another Collection Giveaway Project coordinated by Fiction Writers Review.
  • Adam Mansbach’s sharp-and-funny take on book blurbs was making the rounds last week. But it’s not too late to laugh (or cringe).
  • And also for fun: Some “accidental photography” sited in New York’s beautiful Central Park, courtesy of my very own sister. (If only my purposeful photos turned out half as well as her accidental ones!) You can also find her photos on Etsy.

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    Quotation of the Week: Dinty W. Moore

    by on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 (2) Comments

    “You work with what is given to you. You arrange the puzzle pieces taken from the nonfiction box without reaching over into the fiction box, as tempting as it may be. You do your best to pull up honest memory. Though we know memory’s weakness, at least don’t lie about what you think you remember. When you are not sure, you tell the reader. When you want to change something, explore why you want to change it. Fiction approaches a certain sort of truth, and thank goodness we have fiction, but it is not the same truth that nonfiction attempts. Know the difference. As a nonfiction writer, you will surely make mistakes, get things wrong, remember poorly, but to do it knowingly, that’s crossing the line.”

    Source: Dinty W. Moore, “What is Given: Against Knowingly Changing the Truth,” part of a worthy exchange with Jill Talbot on the Brevity blog.

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