Wednesday’s WIP: Anniversaries

by Erika Dreifus on
4

Number7Seven years ago today, I returned to full-time (M-F, 9-5) employment, in a writing-intensive staff job at The City University of New York.

Happy anniversary to me!

This seems to be an appropriate moment to revisit a post from two years ago (day-job anniversary #5), in which I shared a list of day-job benefits that included–but went beyond–the stable paycheck, health insurance, and retirement account. So many of you commented so wonderfully on that post, so why not give it another look?

In other news, the February issue of The Practicing Writer went out at the end of last week, marking the conclusion of 10 full years of the newsletter’s publication and the beginning of Year 11. Happy anniversary to all of us on that one! And thank you all for being part of my writing practice!

P.S. Not an anniversary, but another highlight of this last week: my second book review for The Washington Post. See what I had to say about Elisabeth de Waal’s The Exiles Return.

Monday Markets for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Monday brings the weekly batch of no-fee competitions/contests, paying submission calls, and jobs for those of us who write (especially those of us who write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction).

  • ICYMI: The February issue of The Practicing Writer went out to subscribers at the end of last week. As always, the issue is replete with information on upcoming no-fee contests and competitions for poets, fictionists, and writers of creative nonfiction, plus a slew of submission calls from paying journals/publishers.
  • “The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation offers its seventh annual summer fiction writing seminar in the ancient town of Sozopol, Bulgaria….Fiction writers from Bulgaria and fiction writers from English-speaking countries, including but not limited to the U.K. and the U.S., are invited to apply. A total number of ten applicants will be selected for participation and funding.” No application fee. Deadline: March 5, 2014.
  • Paid internship: “Bustle.com is searching for an intern to assist with its Books vertical two days per week in our Brooklyn, NY office (Wednesday availability required). Duties will include a combination of pitching and writing books features, articles, and essays, as well as checking in all new books, upkeep of the database, and research on upcoming titles. It’s a little of the glamorous stuff, a little of the necessary stuff.”
  • “The SUNY Geneseo Department of Residence Life welcomes applications for the position of Area Coordinator of Ontario Hall and Writers House. Area Coordinators are 12-month, live-on professionals who are responsible for the administration of two (2) residence halls.
  • From Tennessee: “Nashville Prep, a grade 5-12 college preparatory charter school, is immediately searching for a committed, intelligent, hard-working 7th Grade Writing Teacher.”
  • Mediabistro is looking for instructors to teach online and in New York. (NB: You must register to access the job listings.)
  • Poets & Writers, Inc., is looking for an online editorial assistant (New York).
  • “The Asian American Writers’ Workshop is looking to hire a Program Director to curate, publicize and manage literary events that are quirky, progressive, and (to use the jargon of postcolonial theory) awesome.” This position is in New York, and may be full-time or part-time.

    • Friday Finds for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

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

  • D.G. Myers compiles a list of “five books of cancer.”
  • On the Ploughshares blog, Tasha Golden explains why “do what you love” is especially bad advice for writers. (h/t The Review Review)
  • On the Bookslut blog: “We are starting a new book award, the Daphnes, that will celebrate the best books of 50 years ago.”
  • Follow along the road of a literary-magazine internship by checking in with The Missouri Review‘s Michael Nye’s account of what his class of interns has been doing so far this semester.
  • ICYMI: U.S. postal rates went up again this week. One first-class stamp now costs $.49. These announcements always make me glad that I stock up on “Forever” stamps.

    • Have a great weekend, everyone.

    Wednesday’s WIP: Nonfiction on the Brain

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4

    brainIf you’ve been following my bylines for the past year or so, you may have noticed something: They’re almost all for nonfictional writings. Book reviews. Arts coverage. Commentaries. Even a few personal essays.

    There are likely lots of reasons behind this shift nonfiction-ward, but I’m not going to speculate on/delve into them today. Today, I simply want to take note of the change. Maybe it’s a phase. But it seems to be lasting.

    One of my latest bylines appeared on The Forward‘s arts blog last week. It’s an opinion piece that encompasses art (theater) and politics. Titled “Why I’m Going to See an ‘Anti-Israel’ Play,” it’s something that I wanted (and needed) to write, but had been struggling to get started. I suspect that I would have written it eventually, but I got a helpful nudge in an online class I took earlier this month. That class, “How to Publish Op-Eds and Commentaries,” is one of several offered through The Thinking Writer. (more…)