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.”

• In which Melissa Olson Petrie ponders “‘Giving Tuesday’ donation requests and everyday submission fees at lit mags.”
• News from a prestigious fiction competition: “The Nelson Algren Literary Award contest has been suspended for 2020-21 as we review the program.”
• This week brought news of a weird publishing-related phishing scam. Victoria Strauss summarizes.
• Far more inspiring tidings can be found in John Vanderslice’s Holiday Cheer(ful) Literary News, spotlighting plenty of student and faculty achievements from his campus. What a great way to bring the semester (and 2020) to a close.
• And of course, there’s a fresh set of Jewish-lit links posted on the My Machberet blog. Perfectly paired with Chinese food and a movie, for those of us who aren’t occupied observing Christmas.

Wishing a wonderful weekend to everyone—and a very Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating the holiday.