Erika Dreifus

Writing- and publishing-related resources to peruse over the weekend.

• I’ve been meaning to re-read Willa Cather’s My Ántonia for eons. This thought came back to me when I read, via the Library of Congress, that December 2023 marks the 150th anniversary of Cather’s birth.
• Chill Subs is delving into what makes a literary magazine “good.”
• For me, one criterion for a good litmag is this: It avoids trafficking in antisemitic rhetoric and tropes. Which is why I wish that everyone in my literary communities would read this. It just might help reduce the antisemitism that I’m encountering far too often, in far too many places. (I’d like to believe that not every offender is aware of what they’re doing.)
• “Writing a Really Short Book Description Is Harder Than It Looks”—but over on Jane Friedman’s site, Amy L. Bernstein offers up some helpful hints.
• And this week’s post of Jewish lit links on My Machberet includes a re-up of my own short story “Fidelis,” which was commissioned for the 2011 NPR “Hanukkah Lights” broadcast.