Finds for Writers
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.”
- Happening today (at 11am Pacific time): a free teleseminar on “Structure and POV in Memoir” taught by the marvelous Sands Hall. (Sands has informed her fans that this online event is open to everyone, regardless of current membership in the sponsoring National Association of Memoir Writers.)
- A sadly timely resource: “To help with coverage of the new coronavirus disease, called COVID-19, The Associated Press has prepared a guide based on the AP Stylebook and common usage in AP stories.”
- Also timely: this Twitter thread from Jennifer Baker, which begins, “Coming out of #socialmedia distancing for a moment to re-up this message to #authors & #publicists #pitching pieces. PLEASE DO NOT waste editors time with ill thought-out pieces written in a hurry just to sell a book. We’re being overwhelmed with #pitches due to #COVID19.”
- Tips on generating content for your blog and/or newsletter, courtesy of Allison K. Williams/the Brevity blog. (And if you’ve found your way to me via that post: Welcome!)
- And, from the Department of the Routine: If it’s Friday, there’s a new batch of Jewish-lit links up for your review on the My Machberet blog.
And again, in case you’ve missed it: Take note of this list (updated) of emergency resources for writers: bit.ly/EmergencyResourcesWriters. Please have a good, safe, healthy weekend.