Notes from Around the Web: Literary Links for Shabbat
Shabbat shalom!
Friday Find: AWP Podcast Series
Like podcasts? Then you’ll be glad to read this announcement from the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP):
“Welcome to the AWP Podcast Series. These podcast episodes feature recordings from selected events at the AWP Annual Conference. We are pleased to present readings and discussions from Rae Armantrout, Mary Jo Bang, Charles Baxter, Toi Derricotte, Stuart Dybek, Cornelius Eady, Nick Flynn, Carolyn Forche, William Gass, Linda Gregerson, Donald Hall, Edward Hirsch, August Kleinzahler, Philip Lopate, Heather McHugh, Alice McDermott, Honor Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Marilynne Robinson, Patricia Smith, Gerald Stern, Mark Strand, C.K. Williams, C.D. Wright, and many other wonderful writers!”
New podcasts are being added each Wednesday. But note this one catch:
Podcast Episodes from the 2007 conference will remain open to the public for listening. Episodes from the 2008 conference onward are available to AWP Members only through AWP eLink, an online service portal providing our members with the most up to date AWP resources for writers, teachers, and writing programs. Please check back for the most recently published episodes and below for a complete list of recordings currently available through eLink.
So, although most of the content is limited to AWP members, everyone can enjoy some of it for free. Perhaps you’ll try out one of the offerings this weekend.
However you spend your weekend, have a good one, and we’ll see you back here on Monday.
Thursday’s Post-Publication Post
Last weekend, I attended my 20th college reunion. I brought promotional postcards with me (although I hadn’t had the foresight–or chutzpah–of a fellow classmate-author who’d somehow managed to get postcards of her book inserted into every attendee’s registration packet).
And friends old and new expressed genuine interest in my short-story collection, Quiet Americans. One friend whipped out his iPhone on the spot and immediately purchased a copy from Amazon.com. Another ordered a signed copy via my website almost as soon as she got home. Classmates who’d already read the book praised it to others. All of this meant so much to me.
I was also quite moved to learn from two other classmates, in separate exchanges, that they, too, are grandchildren of refugees from Nazi Europe. I wonder how many other such grandchildren may be among the 1600 of us in the Class of ’91. I may have to pose this question on the class Facebook page….
In other news: While I was away, my friend Anne Fernald posted thoughts about Quiet Americans on her blog (which has been part of my blogroll as long as I’ve had a blogroll). And she had lots of complimentary things to say. But she also shared some reservations, specifically about the way she perceived two of the stories dealing with “political” issues. I value honesty, so I appreciate all of Anne’s analysis–even the criticisms (not that I necessarily agree with them, of course…;-)).
And right after I returned from the reunion, Fiction Writers Review published a wonderfully generous (and, as always, gorgeously designed) feature. The teaser: “In conversation with Anne Stameshkin, debut author Erika Dreifus shares true stories that inspired her collection, Quiet Americans; wonders when it’s kosher for authors to write characters from backgrounds they don’t share; explores how reviewing books makes us better fiction writers; and recommends favorite novels and collections by 21st-century Jewish authors.” The interview: here.
Finally, this week brought us the beginning of June, and with it, the latest issue of Shelf Unbound. Click here to peruse the issue, which features a Q&A about Quiet Americans and an excerpt–a full story–from the book. (I’m not going to reveal which story. I’ll let you be surprised!)