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.”
- You may laugh; you may cry. Whatever you do, please read Jessica Salfia’s poem “The First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining.”
- “Why You Should Start a Coronavirus Diary” (Jen A. Miller for The New York Times).
- To date, I’ve avoided taking up any specifically pandemic-oriented fiction. But Travis Holland’s essay for Fiction Writers Review makes me think that I might want to read William Maxwell’s They Came Like Swallows. And my friend Elizabeth Bales Frank’s recent reference to Katherine Anne Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider, also lingers in my mind.
- Need a break from all-things-pandemic? Check out these tried-and-true tips for self-editing your prose. (Estelle Erasmus for Writer’s Digest)
- And of course, there’s a new batch 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.