Friday Finds for Writers

Treasure ChestWriting-related resources, news, and reflections to enjoy over the weekend.

  • Kenyon Review‘s fiction editor Caitlin Horrocks explains why she chose Michael Nye’s story “Beauty in the Age of Chaos and Savagery” for the magazine–and why she almost didn’t.
  • This week I discovered an amazing podcast series that I know I’ll be revisiting. “The Virtual Memories Show is a weekly podcast about books and life, not necessarily in that order. Every Tuesday, you can expect a fascinating conversation with a fascinating person.” This past Tuesday, that fascinating person happened to be D.G. Myers, someone I’ve come to know and care about mainly via Twitter (and his more-than-140-character writings, including those archived on his blog and his book The Elephants Teach, which I’m currently reading). I’m so grateful to both Myers and the podcast creator/host, Gil Roth, for this discussion.
  • Also on the interview front (for The Rumpus): Nick Kocz in conversation with “British-Guyanese poet, novelist, and playwright Fred D’Aguiar discuss[ing] the influence of Jonestown on his work, writing in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, and the need to pay attention when tragedy comes to your door.”
  • Less expansively, but nonetheless still notably (I hope!), over on My Machberet, I had the opportunity to ask debut author Molly Antopol a few questions about one of the stories in The UnAmericans.
  • Finally, in case you missed this fabulous piece by Rebecca Makkai on the Ploughshares blog, here’s “Writers You Want to Punch in the Face(book).” (In what must be considered cosmic timing, Rebecca’s second novel received a starred review in Publishers Weekly the same day the blog piece was meeting readers.) Many congratulations to Rebecca, whom we interviewed on the occasion of her first novel’s publication.
  • Happy weekend, everyone.

    7 thoughts on “Friday Finds for Writers

    1. Sarah says:

      That Rebecca Makkai post is hilarious. Thanks for sharing, Erika!

    2. Phyl says:

      Rebecca’s piece is great, too real, so funny. She’s good.

    3. Drew Myron says:

      Erika,
      Thanks, once again, for sharing the good stuff. The piece by Rebecca Makkai is spot-on — I’ve had this same thought too many times. 🙂

    4. Erika Dreifus says:

      So we all think Rebecca’s piece was wonderful! You may appreciate David Ebenbach’s thoughtful response, too. https://medium.com/p/66e146d8cf64

      1. I agree about Rebecca’s piece. I think we can all relate to it in some fashion. I’d like to add two more responses to the list worth reading:

        Karissa Morton’s “Writers I Want to Kiss on the Face(book) http://karissamorton.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/writers-i-want-to-kiss-on-the-facebook/

        Suzanne Farrell Smith’s “Why I Like Your Publication News on Facebook” http://suzannefarrellsmith.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/why-i-like-your-publication-news-on-facebook/.

        1. Erika Dreifus says:

          Thanks, Laurie. Actually, you’ll see that David has linked to both of those early in his piece.

          1. Oh! That’s great. For some reason, I can’t access Medium on my computer. It’s the strangest thing. I have a friend who writes for them regularly, and the links always come up blank for me, so I wasn’t able to read David’s piece.

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