Friday Finds for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
5

Treasure Chest
Writing-related resources, news, and reflections to enjoy over the weekend.

  • As I’ve mentioned elsewhere this week, Wil S. Hylton’s profile of Laura Hillenbrand for The New York Times magazine provides an excellent craft seminar in narrative nonfiction.
  • “In fact, it feels strangely simple: I have used up my material, the stuff from which I craft stories. I don’t have anything now. Maybe I will have more soon. Or not soon. Or not.” From Robin Black’s resonant (and much-cited among my Twitter connections) essay “On Being Empty: When a Writer Isn’t Writing.”
  • Terrific spotlight on poet Joan Naviyuk Kane in the latest Harvard Magazine.
  • To a considerable extent, librarian and book reviewer Deb Baker’s post “On Being ‘Discontinued'” is another installment in the ongoing “writing for free” discussion.
  • “Jill Lepore had written my book.” That’s what Noah Berlatsky discovered some months ago. Here’s what happened next.

    • Enjoy the weekend, all!

    Pre-Shabbat Jewish Lit Links

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

    Every Friday My Machberet presents an array of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • A hearty Mazal Tov to the winner and finalists for the latest Wallant Award: David Bezmozgis, Molly Antopol, Boris Fishman, and David Strayer-Petrov.
  • The Washington Jewish Film Festival is looking for a Production Coordinator
  • And the Boston Jewish Film Festival seeks an Artistic Director.
  • Fig Tree Books presents another array of online offerings from the world of American Jewish Experience.
  • For The Jewish Week, Sandee Brawarsky reviews Patrick Modiano’s newly translated novellas.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

    by Erika Dreifus on
    11

    Yer Out!

    The email arrived a few days ago. “Dear Erika Dreifus: Thank you for your application to NYFA’s Fellowship program.  We are sorry that we will not be able to award you a Fellowship this year. We received a record number of applications this year….” You know the rest.

    So now it is official: I have applied for fellowships unsuccessfully from the New York Foundation for the Arts in THREE genres: fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Now how many of you can say that?!

    three-strikes (more…)

    Sunday Sentence

    by Erika Dreifus on
    1

    snowflake_6
    In which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, sharing the best sentence I’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

    Somewhere in Connecticut, it started to snow, big early-spring flakes spreading over the bus windshield, melting as soon as they hit the asphalt.

    Source: Judith Frank, All I Know and Love