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.”

• “What is Substack? What is a Substack lit mag? How do writers and readers make sense of this new newsletter world?” A conversation launched by Becky Tuch.
• And speaking of Substack: Zina Gomez-Liss has recently spotlighted “10 Substacks to Try About the Craft and Business of Writing,” (and it’s lovely to see The Practicing Writer 2.0 included here in some pretty impressive company!).
• Sticking with Substack sourcing for the moment: In the latest edition of Counter Craft, “Lit Mags and Money (or the Lack of It),” Lincoln Michel shares “thoughts on genre mags, literary mags, and trying to [make?] money on stories.”
• And now for something pretty different: Lauren Oyler’s cover feature for the May Harper‘s, which I read in print this week, had me spellbound. Officially, it’s a piece about Oyler’s (assigned) voyage on “the Goop cruise.” But there’s also quite a bit about writing. And David Foster Wallace. Among other things.
• And don’t miss the latest Jewish lit links over on My Machberet.

Have a good weekend.