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.
  • Over on her blog, Gigi Rosenberg has been posting some helpful hints for those of us who are now tiptoeing—or being thrust—into the world of online presentations. (I wish that I’d managed to read them all before my own big “debut” last Sunday, but every little bit helped—I think.)
  • One of this past week’s highlights, for me, was catching author Celeste Ng featured on CBS News’s “Sunday Morning” show. If you missed the segment, here’s the clip!
  • The adaptation of Ng’s novel Little Fires Everywhere is a big part of that clip; the adaptation also receives attention in Ann Patchett’s Vanity Fair profile of Reese Witherspoon, which I read a few days ago, too. (My favorite line: “Witherspoon gapes in disbelief that I know Lorrie Moore, much less live close to her.”)
  • Selected content from the May-June issue of Poets & Writers magazine is now available online.
  • And of course, there’s a new set of Jewish-lit links up 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.

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3 thoughts on “Finds for Writers

  1. Lorraine Cregar says:

    It’s always hard to get the “feel” of the room when you’re not in a room. You were great on Sunday, Erika!

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      Thanks so much!

  2. J. C. Todd says:

    A few weeks ago, Finds for Writers posted a request for poems for the National Poetry Month feature on Parks and Points, a public lands digital newsletter. I submitted and today my poem , “where water has no skin,” was published:
    https://www.parksandpoints.com/poetry-2020/where-water-has-no-skin
    There’s a small honorarium too.

    Thank you for your newsletter, from which I’ve learned much and been directed to explore many opportunities.

    In appreciation,
    JC
    J. C. Todd

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