Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat
Shabbat shalom.
Author Archive
Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: Negative Reviews on the Brain
On my mind lately: negative reviews.
The topic came up during my recent visit to the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program, not just within the book-reviewing discussions I had with students, but also in a presentation by another faculty member, who told us that he was fired from one of his freelancing gigs (as a food critic) after negatively reviewing a restaurant whose ad dollars helped fund the publication he was writing for.
It came up again when I returned home and discovered a new, negative (two-star) review of Quiet Americans on Goodreads (go ahead and look for it if you want to). I didn’t mind quite so much the disdainful adjectives the reviewer applied to my writing style–everyone’s entitled to an opinion–but I was bothered (and stunned, really) by one other judgment about its substance. If I were to engage with the reviewer (which I won’t; we all know authors should NOT follow that understandable impulse), I would ask for some specifics. That’s one thing about negative reviews–it’s especially frustrating when the reviewers don’t provide details, examples, or other evidence to support their arguments. It’s not all that dissimilar from getting a negative workshop critique that offers painfully little (if anything) to help you understand what, exactly, the critiquer objects to.
And then, last week, I read a negative review that seemed exemplary: sensitive, thoughtful, detailed, and evidenced. Read it here, and be sure to read through to the end, which offers some powerful closing lines (yes, I’m always reading as a writer!).
Meantime, just this past Monday, David Abrams’s always-interesting Quivering Pen blog presented, as part of its “My First Time” series, a guest post by Doreen McGettigan on her first bad review. Which brought back memories of my own similarly-themed “My First Punch-in-the-Gut Review” for the same feature.
So, yes, I have negative reviews on the brain. Any thoughts on the subject or relevant links you care to share?
Jewish Book Carnival: Call for Submissions
If you follow the My Machberet blog, you may recall that every month, the blog and I participate in the Jewish Book Carnival. Organized by the Association of Jewish Libraries, the Carnival is a monthly online event “where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read and comment on each others’ posts.”
Each month’s Carnival posts on or about the 15th of the month, and different bloggers volunteer to serve as hosts. I’m proud to announce that the September 2013 Jewish Book Carnival–which will be the first Carnival of the new Jewish year 5774–will be hosted here on My Machberet.
New contributors are welcome! Please take a look at past Carnivals to get a sense of the posts that are featured. (Authors who blog–please note that we do not feature posts in which authors blog about their own books.)
If you’re interested in participating, please send the link to your selected contribution to me no later than Thursday, September 12 (earlier is better!). I look forward to hearing from you.
Words of the Week: Ban Ki-moon
“Unfortunately, because of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, Israel’s been weighed down by criticism and suffered from bias — and sometimes even discrimination,” Ban told the group, YNet reported. He was responding to a student who claimed Israelis felt their country was discriminated against at the UN.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Ban said, adding that Israel should be treated equal to all the other 192 member states.
Source: Ben Harris, quoting The Times of Israel, “Ban in Jerusalem” (do read Harris’s piece in full), JTA.org.
UPDATE: Looks as though Ban Ki-moon may be backtracking–which is also “an unfortunate situation.”
Monday Markets for Writers
Monday brings the weekly batch of no-fee competitions/contests, paying submission calls, and jobs for those of us who write (especially those of us who write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction). (more…)