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.”

• I was planning to share Penelope Green’s profile of Barbara Kingsolver and her latest novel, Demon Copperhead, with you even before Oprah announced the title as her latest Book Club pick.
• When I think of Kingsolver, my mind automatically goes to The Poisonwood Bible, which was the first of her books that I read. I recall being dazzled what I now know to call that novel’s polyvocalism. What is polyvocalism? As she launches her own polyvocal novel this week, Sara Lippmann explains.
• “These past few months have been a magical cornucopia of all the good things being a Deaf writer can mean: creating something that hasn’t been made before just by telling the truth, teaching hearing people about our (and their) history and culture, giving deaf kids a place to see themselves in literature. Watching hearing people identify with deaf characters, and in those moments, glimpsing our humanity.” But in her latest Substack newsletter, Sara Nović shares some recent frustrations, too—and how she’s coped with them.
• Did you miss the litmag world’s latest brouhaha? On Monday, Becky Tuch provided a pretty thorough summary (with links) to catch you up.
• And there’s a fresh set of Jewish-lit links posted over on the My Machberet blog.

Have a wonderful weekend.