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.”
- From Rebecca Makkai on Twitter: “Okay so I AM starting a Substack (probably 11/28) and I’m really excited about it but since I don’t have the signup link yet, you can click through and sign up for my regular list and you’ll be added; just posting now in case Twitter is about to blow up.” What can we expect in this Substack? “It is going to be writing advice and prompts, books in translation, and lots of silly fun stuff. There might be audio content where I drink stuff with other writers.”
- “‘Often, we see the pursuit itself of publishing as a validator—that anyone who doesn’t seek shelf space isn’t ‘serious’ about their work.” But is publication really the end-all/be-all? From a must-read post by Allison K. Williams on the Brevity blog.
- And speaking of publishing: “Desperate Writer Query Template*” offers some writerly humor from R.L. Maizes (via Electric Literature).
- Writer’s Digest has announced a call for nominations for the 2023 edition of its annual feature, “Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers.” Nominations will remain open until December 6. (I was happily surprised to find our own Practicing Writing blog on the 2022 list!)
- Jewish Book Month begins today (the start date—one month before the first night of Hanukkah—varies by year according to the Jewish calendar). If you don’t already subscribe to the My Machberet blog and enjoy the weekly “Jewish Lit Links” that are posted there, here’s this week’s batch.
Have a great weekend!
