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Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: More About Book Clubs

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

As if the promise of a video visit with yours truly were not enough to entice book clubs around the world to order truckloads of copies of Quiet Americans, here’s another incentive: author Robin Black’s magnificent and generous manifesto (as I am terming it): “A Book Club Guide to Discussing Short Story Collections.”

Black, author of the acclaimed If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, explains:

I’m writing this because in the year and a half since my short story collection came out, I have had some amazing experiences discussing it with book clubs but I have also been told by many other groups that they find it hard to “tackle” story collections. First they run into a too-common reluctance to read those books at all, but then, for reasons inherent to the form, it’s also difficult to structure a conversation. There isn’t one set of characters to discuss. There isn’t one plot. There may even be stories that feel as though different authors wrote them. These things may seem obvious, but how to craft a cohesive discussion in spite of them, isn’t so clear.

And so I have been thinking about advice to give, strategies to suggest, mostly because I really do believe that although the approach may have to be be a little different, the experience of talking about stories is truly one of the great joys to be found among exchanges about literature.

Please go read Black’s suggested strategies. And then, please suggest that your club take up the cause of the short-story collection. You certainly don’t have to choose Quiet Americans. (But of course, I’ll be grateful if you do!)

Five Twitter Feeds to Follow So You’ll Know What’s Happening in Israel

by Erika Dreifus on
2

You know, if the population of any American city were living under the barrage of rockets that continues to rain on southern Israel, we’d be hearing about it all the time, 24/7. But whenever I look at my Twitter timeline, I see almost everyone talking about almost everything/anything but the rocket attacks.

If you want to stay informed–and I hope that you do–I recommend “following” these Twitter feeds for updates:

  • @IDFSpokesperson
  • @IsraelConsulate
  • @StandWithUs
  • @GPOIsrael
  • @NJJN (because, as they’ve done this week, my hometown Jewish newspaper covers our “sister community” in southern Israel–Ofakim–which I visited last fall)

    • I can’t sit around and worry about what’s happening in Israel all day, every day. But at least when I see updates from these feeds, I can say a quick, silent prayer. And I can stay informed.

    If you have additional feeds to recommend, please share them in comments. Thank you.

    The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2
  • The fact that I live in NYC by no means makes me an expert on literary life here. So I’m delighted to see the latest addition to the Poets & Writers City Guides: New York City!
  • I’ve just finished reading an advance reading copy (provided by Coffee House Press) of Ben Lerner’s novel, Leaving the Atocha Station. Since I have no idea when I’ll be able to offer cogent commentary of my own on this most intriguing work, I’ll point you to David Shields’s contribution for the Los Angeles Review of Books in the meantime. (But stay tuned: I do have a review of another Coffee House book in the works.)
  • Fadra Nally discusses “How to Get Unfollowed on Twitter.”
  • Another social-media tidbit: In “When Students Friend Me,” Cathy Day offers a sample text that other teachers might adapt to explain their social-media policies on syllabi.
  • I’ve read a number of commentaries sparked by the recent release of the film version of Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help. Nothing is quite like Roxane Gay’s essay for The Rumpus.
  • Kelly James-Enger suggests “5 Ways to Take Your Freelance Career Seriously.”
  • Remember my explanation re: how I got to know author Rebecca Makkai? Here’s a lovely essay that Rebecca has written about the online community where we “met.”

    • Words of the Week: Jeffrey Goldberg (via Sarah Wildman)

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    “This is where it breaks down for me with hyper-whiney critics: If you are Jewish and deal with Jewishness, you have to deal with the fact that half the world’s Jews live in Israel and there is something called peoplehood. It is particularistic, and it is territorial. It is a story of a group of people with a relationship to a certain place, and you have a relationship to that place.”

    Source: Jeffrey Goldberg, quoted in Sarah Wildman, “How Do We Talk to Our Children About Israel?”

    Quotation of the Week: Jocelyn Bartkevicius

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    “Here is the most important thing: The best MFA program is the one that’s best for you—for your writing and related professional aspirations. Don’t rely on any “best of” guides or hearsay. Know your writing and where you want to take it. Are you an essayist? Make sure there’s an accomplished essayist teaching workshops in your dream program. Read what the faculty members in your genre are writing. Read their latest works in journals as well as their books. If they have interviews, articles, or reviews, read those, too. Do an aesthetic check. How likely are they to understand and embrace your vision? Are they superstars? Make sure they actually teach classes. Writers often teach or work as editors. Will your dream program allow you to teach and edit? Look for in-house and national literary journals, a solid reading series, a sense of community, and an opportunity to teach creative writing as well as composition.”
    –Jocelyn Bartkevicius
    University of Central Florida in Orlando

    Source: Poets & Writers feature, “Advice from the Programs.”