Friday Finds for Writers

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

  • “Some people move to New York to realize their literary dreams, but I had to leave.” Geeta Kothari explains why this was so in a beautiful essay for the VQR blog.
  • Judy Blume fans, New York magazine has some treats for you!
  • Among the highlights of my visit to the BIO conference last weekend was a panel on the politics and ethics of book reviewing. Quite a big topic, with so many threads to pursue. One that the panel didn’t have time to address–publishers’ strategic misuse of reviews for blurbing purposes–is at the heart of Ron Charles’s recent commentary. On a related note: Bethanne Patrick’s reflections on “why literary criticism still matters” are also worth a read.
  • Reflections on rejection, whether we’re talking about a McSweeney‘s submission or a tenure-track teaching job, from John Warner.
  • Also on the subject of submissions: Jennifer Niesslein offers “6 Rules of Thumb from an Editor-Turned-Writer” over on Jane Friedman’s blog. (I’ll confess some doubts about rule #2, but I’d have to do some major archival unearthing and analysis to see how many times my own experience may have disproved it.)
  • Just a reminder that you still have time to enter the Short Story Month Quiet Americans giveaway!
  • Have a great weekend, everyone. Yes, Monday’s a holiday here in the U.S., but the blog will be back then nonetheless!