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.”
- Resource alert: an updated style guide for the 2020 elections, “based on the AP Stylebook and common usage in AP stories.”
- “When I applied to MFA programs, it was with the intention of finding a writing community,” Samantha Tucker writes at the beginning of a guest post for NewPages.com. “But what is a writing community when the people sharing their art are only able to do so virtually? And when writers find themselves in the middle of so many American catastrophes, where do we find the urge to create at all?” Seeking answers, Tucker interviewed Lee Martin, College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of English at Ohio State, “for insight on his teaching and writing life during a pandemic.”
- If you’re interested in adding a(nother?) publishing-focused podcast to your queue, Laura Maylene Walter’s enthusiasm for Sarah Enni’s “Track Changes” will likely draw you in.
- A beautiful, beautiful essay by Megan Marshall: “After My Partner’s Death, I Discovered the Full Richness of His Poetry.”
- And we approach a somber second anniversary, take note: Earlier this week, Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum hosted Beth Kissileff and Eric Lidji, co-editors of the new anthology, Bound in the Bond of Life: Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy. You can catch a recording of this moving event and learn even more about the project from this excellent piece by Judy Bolton-Fasman. (Cross-posted on My Machberet, where you’ll find a fresh set of end-of-week Jewish lit links.)
Have a good weekend, everyone.
