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Remembering The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Because Lockerbie and Pan Am Flight 103 have been back in the news lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about a book I read more than three years ago: Ken Dornstein’s The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky. The author’s older brother, David Dornstein, was aboard that doomed flight, and in the book, Ken Dornstein writes about his brother’s life–and about his brother’s death.

As I wrote back when the book was published, reading The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky held special meaning for me, because not too many years earlier, one of my stories won first prize in the literary competition that bore David’s name: the David Dornstein Memorial Creative Writing Contest. The competition sought stories specifically on Jewish themes, and was open to writers 35 years of age or younger.

With the demise the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE), which administered the award, the competition seems to have disappeared. I hope that it will return one day. Meantime, it is difficult to think of a better literary tribute to David Dornstein than his brother’s book.

What Are We Doing?

by Erika Dreifus on
5

Late last week, Lisa Romeo posted a fantastic post that began with these lines: “When it seems as if I’m busy, busy but getting nowhere, I write a DOING List. Not a TO DO list, but a look-what-I’m-doing/accomplishing/what-I-have-in-the-works list. Sort of like a motivation-approbation-affirmation rolled into one.”

Lisa then shared her latest “doing list,” and it was (not surprisingly, if you follow Lisa and her work) quite impressive. I loved the thinking that inspired it, so over the weekend, I decided to try drawing up a doing list of my own. Here goes:

…finishing a book review for a favorite site…submitting an essay to another couple of journals (and thinking of more possibilities to try once the September submissions floodgates open)…preparing the September issue of The Practicing Writer, which will include an interview with author John Griswold…preparing another author interview for the Practicing Writing blog…reading a review copy that arrived last week…preparing more items for both my blogs…reminding myself of the September 15 deadline to submit a poem for a themed journal issue and challenging myself to just write the thing already…

My list actually doesn’t make me feel as much approbation or affirmation as I think the project is intended to. Instead, it points out to me the paucity of “creative” work I am doing. At the same time, I have to remind myself that I do hold a full-time, 9-5 job. (If I had another 40 hours each week to focus on writing, I do believe that I’d get a lot more writing done!) And while the writing-related work that I am doing at the moment may not necessarily be advancing my own “corpus” all that much, I do take a great deal of satisfaction in advancing the work of others and engaging with the literary community through my newsletter and blogs.

The list does, however, motivate me: to do more. Right after I finished it, I stopped reminding myself of that September 15 deadline and just sat down to continue writing the damned thing. However the piece eventually turns out, I am just glad to be engaged in it.

What about you? What does your own “doing” list reveal? What’s on it, and what does the act of writing it out tell you?

JCC Jewish Literary Festival and Writing Contest

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

The Washington DCJCC will present the Hyman and Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival October 18-29, 2009. In conjunction with the festival, the JCC is running a writing contest:

“Coming-of-age stories are a genre unto themselves. Whether it’s young love in Philip Roth’s novella Goodbye, Columbus, teenage friendship in The Chosen, or the precocious musings of The Diary of Anne Frank, the stories are enduring.

Jewish tradition tells us that we come of age at 12 or 13, but what was your true turning point? Tell us the story of that first transformative moment.

A selection committee will choose ten entries to honor during the Festival and online. Submissions will be considered in two categories: 1) under 18 years and 2) 18 years and over. Send submissions of 250 words or less to litfest[at]washingtondcjcc[dot]org by September 30, 2009. The winning entries will be published on the Washington DCJCC website.”

You’ll find the announcement here.

(I learned about the festival and the contest via the Foundation for Jewish Culture‘s E-Newsletter, a worthwhile resource!)

Two Writing Opportunities for Taglit-Birthright Israel Alumni

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

If you’re a writer who is also a Taglit-Birthright Israel alum, you are in luck! There are two current opportunities you should know about.

First: the Fall 2009 Alumni Essay Contest. It’s actually open to poems, too. The contest theme is “Celebrating Ten Years: What Taglit-Birthright Israel Has Meant to Me.” Two first prizes of round trip flights to Israel will be awarded, with multiple second and third prizes of $300 and $150 Amazon.com gift certificates, respectively. Deadline: September 18, 2009.

Next: Birthright Israel NEXT and Nextbook Inc. invite submissions for a literary anthology written by Taglit-Birthright Israel trip alumni. “The book, to be published in 2011 by The Toby Press, will focus on the experiences you had on the trip, and afterword. It will include many types of content, from essays and poems to graphic art and photographs. What all the pieces will have in common is that they’ll be created by Birthright Israel alumni like you, and they’ll focus on how the trip has changed you.” I do wish the call for submissions included information on the compensation to be offered selected writers, but so far, I don’t see any. Submissions will be accepted soon (a link is coming), and should be sent before December 15, 2009.