Finds for Writers
Each Friday, the Practicing Writing blog shares writing and publishing resources, news, and reflections to peruse over the weekend.
- Fifty (count ’em!) newly streaming recordings from the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature at the Library of Congress.
- Lovely column by Jane Brody on the healing powers of poetry.
- Minnesota’s been on many people’s minds lately—and not for uplifting reasons. All the more reason to pay attention to something different: Laurie Hertzel’s “A New Exhibit Argues for the Timeliness of Famed Minnesota Author Sinclair Lewis.” (Confession: I’ve had a soft spot for Lewis since the time he was the focus of a high-school research paper.)
- A veritable mini-craft-lesson on the use of second person in (flash) fiction, courtesy of Kathy Fish.
- And there’s a nice new batch of Jewish Literary Links waiting for you over on the My Machberet blog.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
Erika: I think that asking readers to “pay attention to something different,” as you’ve phrased it, makes light of the turmoil in Minnesota. It trivializes what our country is going through right now and the suffering and anguish of people on many different levels. I have been following your blog for quite some time and am surprised and disappointed that you would make such a strained insensitive juxtaposition between current events and a feature article about famed writer Sinclair Lewis.
Lisa, you’re right that the presentation is strained. It did not seem possible to mention anything (positive) happening in Minnesota without an acknowledgment of the much more painful circumstances that have been dominating my own (and certainly, many others’) attention this week. But, having failed in the moment to find adequate phrasing, perhaps it would have been better to omit any mention. I apologize.