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.”
- Over on Jane Friedman’s site, Penny Sansevieri offers advice on “How to Secure Early Endorsements (Blurbs) for Your Book.” (Check also my own archival contribution to this subject.)
- Meantime, Sharon Oard Warner describes “the pleasures and particulars of the novella” for Fiction Writers Review.
- Once upon a time, I was a Boston-based Francophile grad student trying to build a book-reviewing practice, and one of the publishers whose books most appealed to me was Godine. Thus, Mark Shanahan’s recent “Q&A with David Godine about ‘Godine at Fifty’ and the press he founded to publish ‘books that matter for people who care’” appealed to me, too. (H/T The Literary Saloon; let me advise you that if you’re not a subscriber and have already accessed your quota of free Boston Globe articles, you may not be able to read the full piece online.)
- If you’re trying to keep up with the end-of-year book lists (even though, of course, IT’S STILL NOVEMBER! Sorry—I’m personally just not ready for these lists!), the Largehearted Boy “list of lists” will help you.
- And, yes, you’ll find the latest Jewish literary links posted over on the My Machberet blog.
Have a great weekend, everyone.