Friday Finds for Writers

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Most Fridays the Practicing Writing blog shares writing and publishing resources, news, and reflections to peruse over the weekend. But it’s been an excruciating week for so many of us. And frankly, I’ve paid next-to-no attention to garden-variety news from the writing and publishing spheres.

On Wednesday, however, I received an email from Facing History and Ourselves, a Boston-based global nonprofit organization that I’ve admired for many years. The email introduced a “mini-lesson” titled “Processing Attacks in Israel and the Outbreak of War in the Region.”

The resource isn’t perfect. (What resource is?) But one of its segments impressed me as something that, though intended for educators and students, could be clarifying for writers as well, in our work and in the rest of our lives. It’s a section titled “Avoiding Antisemitic and Islamophobic Tropes in Discussing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”

Screenshot of text published beneath "Avoiding Antisemitic and Islamophobic Tropes in Discussing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." Text taken from the website linked within the post.
  • A thread on the titling of books, sparked by Elizabeth McCracken. (And from my archive: more thoughts on this subject.)
  • “Beyond the Behemoths: In 2019, Small Presses Are Publishing Some of the Best Fiction Out There”—by Laurie Muchnick, fiction editor for Kirkus Reviews.
  • This week brought news of “The Draft, an advice column about writing and life from Eileen Pollack, former director of the University of Michigan MFA Program. We’re here to answer your questions about storycraft, writing, and telling the truth in words.” First up: a creative-nonfiction query.
  • Stephen King’s house in Maine is slated to become an archive and writers’ retreat.
  • And if it’s Friday, it’s time for some Jewish-lit links over on the My Machberet blog.

Have a great weekend.