Erika Dreifus

Each week (typically Fridays), the Practicing Writing blog offers writing and publishing resources, news, and reflections to peruse over the weekend.

• At some point, “a writer decides they need more discipline, a stricter schedule, or a new productivity app. What they often need instead is gentler. They need a Joy List. Not a gratitude journal. Not a hustle plan. Not a personality makeover.” What is a Joy List, you ask? Allow Deanna Martinez-Bey to explain.
• As Matthew Snyderman shares in Lit Mag News, for one short story he was trying to find a home for, the 148th submission was the charm.
• Even in its partial (because: paywall) form, Jan Harayda’s take on “a new scandal over freelancer Alex Preston’s AI overuse” at The New York Times Book Review is one I recommend reading, especially if, like me (but for your own reasons) you’ve been a bit distracted this week and haven’t been following said scandal especially closely.
• No new batch of Jewish Literary Links yesterday (because: Passover, the observance of which for many Jews continues today in ways that proscribe work, fyi). But I do plan to get something new posted over on My Machberet over the weekend.
• April’s Practicing Writer 2.0 did get out to subscribers on time; it’s reliably packed with opportunities that do not charge reading/app fees and do pay for/fund writers’ work. So far, the listings earning the most clicks include: Cutleaf‘s current submissions window; the Nancy Ludmerer Fellowship for Flash Fiction and Nonfiction; the Arts Center of Yates County’s Artist-in-Residence Program; the Bethany Arts Center’s Fall Multidisciplinary Artist Residency; and Miami Book Fair’s Emerging Writer Fellowships (this year: an Emerging Writer Fellowship for Prose and a Mindich Fellowship for Jewish Fiction). Find the newsletter (and subscribe, if you haven’t yet!) here.

Wishing everyone a good weekend.