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Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: While I Was Away

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

So, this past week I spent a few days in glorious, warm Turks & Caicos.

Turks & Caicos

Anyone who travels with young children–especially young children who don’t exactly embrace hotel “kiddie programs” or day camps–knows that these trips aren’t always 100 percent vacations. But we all had a wonderful time. AND I managed to squeeze in a fair amount of reading. Including:

  • The Paris Review‘s spring 2014 issue. I especially enjoyed the interviews with Adam Phillips and Matthew Weiner.
  • Creative Nonfiction‘s spring 2014 issue, with a standout piece by Wendy Rawlings.
  • The forthcoming translation (by Jeffrey M. Green) of Aharon Appelfeld’s Suddenly, Love (Schocken Books). (Actually, this was my second reading of the galley, in preparation for a review that I’m working on this week.)
  • A digital ARC of Nora Gold’s novel Fields of Exile (Dundurn), coming in May. You’ll be hearing more about this novel–which is being described as the first novel “about” anti-Israelism in contemporary academe–in the not-so-distant future, too. (For starters, I’m planning to run a Q&A with Nora at some point on My Machberet.)

    • I hope that you’ve all had a good week, too!

    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-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Via JewishFiction.Net: a Purim-related excerpt from the forthcoming translation (by Jeffrey M. Green) of Aharon Appelfeld’s Suddenly, Love.
  • Publishers Weekly interviews Boris Fishman, whose debut novel A Replacement Life I am looking forward to reading.
  • Not sure how long this discount will last, but you can currently register for The Whole Megillah Seminar on Jewish Story for $99.
  • Interesting story from Tablet on Halban, “the best little Jewish publishing house in London.”
  • New Moment magazine contest, “Become a Senior Critic,” invites book and movie reviews from those 70+. Prizes: publication & gift subscriptions. Enter by August 1.

    • Shabbat shalom & chag Purim!

    Friday Finds for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

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

  • Statistically speaking, it’s easier for poets and nonfiction writers to have their work accepted by Colorado Review than it is for fiction writers. But it isn’t exactly easy for anyone.
  • Some of the young ‘uns may not quite appreciate Nick Ripatrazone’s “Miss You, SASE: On Postal Submissions” as much as some of the elders among us are likely to.
  • From Publishers Lunch: “The latest VIDA statistics assessing gender representation in book reviews continue to draw comment and response. But VIDA’s lens, expanded this year to include more publications, still primarily examines periodicals and journals and overlooks the substantial body of daily and weekly book reviews in large-circulation newspapers. That’s exactly the world we have tracked for years in our Publishers Marketplace Book Reviews database (also shown via our cool Top Reviewers tool), which offers a rich data set for analysis. In examining that data over the past 5 years, there are some interesting findings that may expand on the view that VIDA has depicted.” Indeed.
  • Speaking of book reviews: I’ve always heard nice things about Laurie Hertzel, books editor for Minneapolis’s Star Tribune, so I was intrigued to discover this interview with her. (Fun fact: Hertzel is also an MFA student!)
  • And last, but absolutely not least, I recommend that you spend some time this weekend with David Gessner’s smart and thoughtful take on “The Essay’s Place.”

    • Have a great weekend, everyone. (Practicing Writer subscribers, look for your March issue to arrive shortly!)