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.”
- “You Have a Great Idea for a Story. Where Do You Start?” (Joni Cole for Jane Friedman’s site).
- “Covid, Inclusivity, and Mindfulness: Three Years of Picture Book Trends” (Elizabeth Dulemba for Publishers Weekly).
- Douglas Glover, a longtime faculty member for the Vermont College of Fine Arts low-residency MFA program, recently announced his resignation for that program. In a series of Substack posts, he has shared some (unsurprisingly, lovely) writing about teaching, and the history of low-res MFA programs, and, well, life. The evidently final installment came this week (if you need to catch up, here are the first and second ones).
- A timely reminder from Mike Scalise: “List season is starting early this year, so I’m issuing my annual reminder that if your book gets on year-end lists, you wrote a good book. And if your book doesn’t get on year-end lists, guess what you wrote a good book.”
- And there’s plenty to check out (including a new fellowship) in the latest Jewish-lit links on the My Machberet blog.
Have a good weekend! (And rest up: The November issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0 is coming your way early next week!)