Sunday Sentence

by Erika Dreifus on
3

Another Sunday in which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, which asks others to share the best sentence(s) we’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

“As if the humanities were not in sufficiently dire straits, as if our graduates did not already need to struggle to manage their debt and find jobs in a bleak economy, as if public institutions of higher learning had not already seen their budgets slashed over the past few years, you have added fuel to the flames by turning the world’s attention to the ASA’s proclivity to political activism over scholarship and the intellectual exchange of ideas.”

Source: Sharon Ann Musher’s “Why I Left the American Studies Association,” a letter to the ASA leadership republished in The Times of Israel.

(Cross-posted from My Machberet)

Friday Finds for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
2

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

  • An inspirational success story — it seems the seventh time was the charm — from Gigi Rosenberg.
  • And on the other hand: “If you stay in the creative writing game long enough you accumulate plenty of quirky, sad, disheartening, and even enraging publication stories.” So writes John Vanderslice, before detailing one such story of his own (and then offering some broader reflections).
  • Were those creepy V.C. Andrews novels part of your adolescent reading history (as they were part of mine)? Then you’ll definitely want to read “The Ghost Of V.C. Andrews: The Life, Death, And Afterlife Of The Mysterious ‘Flowers In The Attic’ Author.” Maybe even before tomorrow evening brings us a TV-movie adaptation of Flowers in the Attic on Lifetime.
  • I’ve only read one of the three short-story collections that are up for this year’s Story Prize. How about you?
  • And, cross-posted from my other blog (My Machberet): a video of a recent conversation between Alan Cheuse and Joyce Carol Oates.

    • Have a great weekend, everyone.

    Wednesday’s WIP: Odds & Ends

    by Erika Dreifus on
    13

    Some nice developments in my writing life over the past week or so:

  • I’ve received two exciting book-reviewing assignments (I can’t talk about them in any detail yet–but I’ll let you know when I can!).
  • I’ve joined the roster of panelists who will be participating in The Whole Megillah Conference on Jewish Story in May.
  • I’ve submitted my first article invoice for 2014 (that article won’t be out for quite awhile, but again, I’ll let you know when it’s available).

    • Some not-so-nice developments:

  • Another contest loss and another litmag rejection.
  • Another article-pitch rejection from a publication that I’m beginning to think simply won’t ever publish me.
  • I’m still waiting on some freelance payments that should have reached me in 2013–but didn’t.

    • So that’s what’s “in-progress” with me. What about you?