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.”

• On the matter of dialogue tags: insights from Lincoln Michel.
• In a post titled “Oppenheimer,” Radha Marcum shares a personal take on “the challenge of writing famous people and events into poems.”
• Happening August 10: “The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) invites you to join us remotely for ‘Residencies, Grants, and Fellowships for Writers: Nailing the Application.’ Writer Kyle Carrero Lopez will moderate a conversation with writers Maggie Millner and Jemimah Wei, followed by a Q&A.” Cost: “Pay what you wish.”
• Happening sooner (as in: today and tomorrow), and in-person: “New York City’s three library systems—Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), New York Public Library (NYPL) and Queens Public Library (QPL)—are partnering up with the New York Life Foundation to give away 15,000 books for free to New York families across the city.” Details via Shaye Weaver/TimeOut New York.
• And don’t miss the latest Jewish literary links on the My Machberet blog (including some archival history embedded within David Grossman’s To the End of the Land; news about a newly-launched journal that’s focused on matters Sephardic/Mizhrahi; a Jewishly-inflected reading list on Electric Literature, and more).

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend. (As for me, among other activities, I’ll be finalizing the August edition of The Practicing Writer 2.0. Remember that there’s still time to follow up on multiple opportunities presented in the July issue.)