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.
  • “Today, as the Chinese state bans Uighur books and paves over Muslim graveyards, poetry remains a powerful form of persistence and resistance for the Uighur people.” A sobering piece by Joshua Freeman that’s also a tribute to his professor-friend Abduqadir Jalalidin.
  • From my friend Talia Liben Yarmush: “Is it a strange feeling that my [7yo] son wrote and published a book in six months while I have been working on the same novel since before he was born? Yes, yes it is. But it’s also inspiring.”
  • Publishers Weekly [PW] on one of this week’s big new stories: “The news that BookExpo, BookCon, and Unbound will not take place in 2021 and that show organizer ReedPop is looking at ways to reinvent the meeting did not come as a surprise to publishers and distributors—or to booksellers. ReedPop, a unit of Reed Exhibitions, had been trying for a number of years to develop a show that would meet the various needs of the book world, but found only limited success. Most book business insiders contacted by PW expressed little interest in returning to the same version of BookExpo, but nearly all hoped some type of annual event could be created.”
  • ICYMI: The December issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0 went out to subscribers earlier this week, and along with the usual panoply of (fee-free AND paying) opportunities, you’ll find featured there a wonderful resource for guidance with platform and social media.
  • And of course, there’s a new batch of Jewish literary links posted over on the My Machberet blog. Highlights this week include Grace Paley, Nicole Krauss, and much more.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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3 thoughts on “Finds for Writers

  1. Barbara Baer says:

    Your link to Nicole Krauss’ story “Drawn from Live” such a gift. Her brilliance, unusual and amazing way to portray the depth of feeling, suffering, acceptance makes one humble. Thank you.

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      I’m so glad you thought so, Barbara. And I hope you saw *more* about Nicole Krauss in the latest Jewish lit links on My Machberet.

  2. Barbara Baer says:

    I’m not sure I did, so perhaps I need to go back and look. Once I began reading “Drawn from Life”, re reading the first two paragraphs before really getting into the story, I just held my breath. So many stories/essays touch on the sorrows of Covid but none as deeply as Krauss’ story. Such a talent and such a dedicated writer.

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