Erika Dreifus

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.”

• If “Best Books of 2020” lists are your jam, you’ll be glad to know that, as per usual, you can find an ever-growing compilation of such lists over on the Largehearted Boy site.
• How much promotional support do you owe another writer? Check out this case study of sorts in Nina Badzin’s latest “Friendship Advice” column.
• Big news yesterday from the Library of Congress, where our U.S. poet laureate, Joy Harjo, has been appointed “to serve a third term in the position. Joy is only the second poet in the history of the laureateship to do so, and with this third term (to begin in September 2021) she will hopefully be able to return to traveling across the country to read her work and champion poetry.” Yesterday also marked “the launch of Joy’s signature project, ‘Living Nations, Living Words,’ which features 47 contemporary Native poets through a new Story Map and online audio collection.”
• This week brought the National Book Awards ceremony, which I wasn’t able to watch in real time. But here’s a recording (which I hope to watch soon), and here’s a powerful write-up (with historical context) from Jennifer Baker.
• And speaking of the National Book Awards—you’ll discover a brief reference to them (also in historical context) in a recent conversation between author-critics Ruth Franklin and Adam Kirsch, occasioned by the release of the latter’s latest book, The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century. You’ll find a link to that event recording in this week’s “Jewish Literary Links” post on the My Machberet blog.

P.S. I don’t normally mention this kind of thing, but if you’re at all inclined to nominate this site—the blogs, the newsletter, the other resources—for some recognition from Writer’s Digest, here’s the place to do so. Thank you!

Have a good weekend, everyone.