Sunday Sentence

by Erika Dreifus on
2

AlecBaldwinPhilipRothAnother Sunday in which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, which asks others to share the best sentence(s) we’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

The men worked fifty, sixty, even seventy or more hours a week; the women worked all the time, with little assistance from labor-saving devices, washing laundry, ironing shirts, mending socks, turning collars, sewing on buttons, mothproofing woolens, polishing furniture, sweeping and washing floors, washing windows, cleaning sinks, tubs, toilets, and stoves, vacuuming rugs, nursing the sick, shopping for food, cooking meals, feeding relatives, tidying closets and drawers, overseeing paint jobs and household repairs, arranging for religious observances, paying bills and keeping the family’s books while simultaneously attending to their children’s health, clothing, cleanliness, schooling, nutrition, conduct, birthdays, discipline, and morale.

Source: Philip Roth, The Plot Against America, a copy of which I returned to this week after hearing Alec Baldwin read the opening pages–including the sentence above–at a Roth tribute on Tuesday afternoon.

Friday Finds for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
4

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

  • “6 Reasons a Workshop Jolts Your Writing,” courtesy of The Writer magazine.
  • Dinty W. Moore shares some thoughts on the advantages of the MA (not just the MFA) in Creative Writing.
  • An interview with literary critic Dwight Garner.
  • Kate Hopper on her memoir’s 10-year journey to publication.
  • A Q&A with Kate Gale, managing editor of Red Hen Press.

    • Have a great weekend, everyone.

    Wednesday’s WIP: A Recent Review

    by Erika Dreifus on
    1

    textile-orly-castel-bloom-paperback-cover-artBack in January, I discovered that that The Feminist Press would be publishing Textile, an English translation of a novel by one of my favorite Israeli authors, Orly Castel-Bloom. The book was slated for release in the spring; I was thrilled to receive an assignment to review it and dug in eagerly to my review copy.

    Publication of the book was delayed, so the deadline for my review was, too. Then it wasn’t until August that my editor asked for some revisions. I complied. When a Google alert let me know that the review was published just last week, I discovered that further cuts and other revisions had been made.

    I’m always happy to have a byline in this particular publication (not to mention the paycheck). But I can’t deny that I’m disappointed that this piece ended up so very much shorter than (and otherwise different from) the original review that I worked so hard to craft. So I’m using today’s blog post to share that original version with you. I hope that you enjoy it. (more…)

    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).

  • New Horizon Press is looking for nonfiction manuscripts: “We seek these categories: True crime, from the perspective of law enforcement, attorneys or loved ones seeking justice. Also self-help and psychological issues, such as phobias, teen suicide, blended families, relationship problems, etc. Timely topics for general audiences, preferably by credentialed professionals. Small advance and regular royalties. NO MEMOIRS OR NOVELS, please. See our website, newhorizonpressbooks.com/submit.php3, for examples and submission process guidelines.”
  • The Vermont Writer’s Prize confers $1,500 and publication in Vermont magazine for “a
 poem,
 short
 story,
 play
 or 
essay
 on 
the 
theme 
of
 Vermont
.” Competition is open to all
    Vermont 
residents, 
including
 seasonal 
residents
 and
 students
 enrolled
 in 
VT
 colleges.” No entry fee. Deadline: November 1, 2013.
  • “Longwood University’s [Va.] Department of English and Modern Languages invites applications for a tenure-track Professor specializing in The Business of Creative Writing to begin in August 2014. The position requires a primary area of specialization in editing and publishing and a secondary area of specialization in creative writing (genre open). A terminal degree in Creative Writing (M.F.A. or Ph. D) is required, as is experience in editing and publishing.”
  • “The Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Denver invites applications for a tenure track Assistant Professor in Creative Writing, specialization in Fiction.”
  • “The University of Maine at Machias seeks an Assistant Professor of English with a specialty in creative writing and a commitment to teaching excellence in support of our signature English, Creative Writing, and Book Arts ( http://machias.edu/english.html) and Interdisciplinary Fine Arts ( http://machias.edu/finearts.html) programs.”
  • “The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) invites applications for a full-time tenure-track Assistant Professor of Poetry or Creative Nonfiction for our online MFA in Creative Writing beginning Fall 2014.”
  • A Blade of Grass, a New York-based “funding non-profit dedicated to nurturing socially engaged art,” seeks an Events and Communications Coordinator.