Finds for Writers
Each week (typically Fridays), the Practicing Writing blog offers writing and publishing resources, news, and reflections to peruse over the weekend.
- Lots of worthy tributes to Dolly Parton this week. In case you’ve missed them, I’ll point you to just a sampling: this Substack note by Elissa Altman, who was Parton’s editor at HarperCollins (hat tip to Sarah McCraw Crow); Jan Harayda’s reminder of what Parton did for young readers; and an appreciation from The Jewish Book Garden that points to Parton’s influence on the emergence of the PJ Library program.
- In which Susan Shapiro recounts what happened when, as a popular, longtime creative-writing teacher, she resisted her university’s demands to incorporate more technology into her courses. (Spoiler: It worked out better for her than for the university!)
- Among this week’s Jewish Literary Links on My Machberet: an upcoming (free! virtual!) Authors’ Summit; reflections on the “Jewish joy” of self-publishing; a collective response to a troubling magazine package; more.
- Waiting can be hard! Unfortunately, the waiting game is also part of the publishing process. If you’ve been querying literary agents and may possibly be wondering “when and how to nudge” them, you’ll appreciate this excerpt, on Jane Friedman’s site, adapted from The Modern Guide to Querying Literary Agents by Alyssa Matesic and Patrick McDonald.
- Coming soon (as in: MONDAY!): the September edition of The Practicing Writer 2.0. As usual, it will be packed with opportunities that do not charge sub/app fees and do pay for winning/published work. Each month’s issue goes out in full to all subscribers; it’s never too late to join. And don’t miss the multiple opportunities in the August issue that remain open past month’s end—access to August’s issue will be limited to paid subscribers once the September issue has been published.
Wishing everyone a good weekend.
The piece by Susan Shapiro is inspiring and familiar. Thanks so much for the reference! After 53 years of university teaching and five of rtirement, I was called back to finish the term of a faculty member in an emergency. It was a course I’d taught for nine years, but now mediatd by Canvas. Horribly anti-educational. Distrustful of both students an faculty. Happy I had retired. Happy to be publishing my own stories. Happy to read this!
I do think that there are some good points to the online systems–or at least, that’s what I’m telling myself today as I “activate” my own fall “course site”!