Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress

You know, I’ve actually had a very productive week. I’m especially pleased with all that I accomplished over the three-day weekend. That includes writing and submitting another book review.

I work hard on every book review that I’m assigned, but this one required consulting an unusually high number of library books for a 600-word project based on a galley. Never have I been happier that my (non-teaching) job at CUNY provides access to the university’s libraries. I stopped by the (renovated!) Hunter College library twice last week to pick up books that the NYPL either doesn’t have or won’t circulate. Bonus: I got to enjoy this view downtown from the bridge between Hunter’s “East” and “West” buildings on Lexington Avenue.
HunterI submitted the piece on Monday. Now, I’m waiting for my editor to confirm that he received it (and, I hope, to tell me that it’s in decent shape).

How about you? What’s the latest with your work-in-progress?

Wednesday’s WIP: Anniversaries

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.

Wednesday’s WIP: Nonfiction on the Brain

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…)

Wednesday’s WIP: Odds & Ends

Some nice developments in my writing life over the past week or so:

  • I’ve received two exciting book-reviewing assignments (I can’t talk about them in any detail yet–but I’ll let you know when I can!).
  • I’ve joined the roster of panelists who will be participating in The Whole Megillah Conference on Jewish Story in May.
  • I’ve submitted my first article invoice for 2014 (that article won’t be out for quite awhile, but again, I’ll let you know when it’s available).
  • Some not-so-nice developments:

  • Another contest loss and another litmag rejection.
  • Another article-pitch rejection from a publication that I’m beginning to think simply won’t ever publish me.
  • I’m still waiting on some freelance payments that should have reached me in 2013–but didn’t.
  • So that’s what’s “in-progress” with me. What about you?

    Sunday Sentence

    UnknownAnother 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.”

    But of course, a Jew is never free not to be a Jew—and a writer who publishes a whole book about being Jewish is not exactly fleeing the identification.

    Source: Adam Kirsch’s review of Yascha Mounk’s new memoir, for Tablet.

    (Again, breaking the “no-commentary” rule: I like this sentence so much because it crystallizes my own sentiments after reading Mounk’s essay in last week’s New York Times “Week in Review.”)