Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: J Journal Essay (and a Giveaway!)

by Erika Dreifus on
15

JJournalSpring2013coverMy contributor copies of the spring 2013 issue of J Journal: New Writing on Justice arrived last week. (My contribution, “My Life as a Bully,” is an essay describing one of the more shameful episodes from my childhood.)

In case you’re not familiar with J Journal, here’s how it is described on its website (which is in the process of being redesigned): “J Journal: New Writing on Justice examines its subject through creative work, directly and tangentially. Housed at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, one of the nation’s premier criminal justice institutions, J Journal’s contributors have included established and new writers, professionals in the law enforcement field, lawyers, professors in the humanities and social sciences, and prison inmates. Unlike other CJ publications, J Journal, which comes out twice a year, is the country’s first to present its analyses of contemporary justice issues through creative, not scholarly work. The short stories, poems, and personal narratives in each volume expand reflection on the question: What is justice?”

Since I’m a J Journal subscriber (and advisory board member) as well as a contributor, I’m awash in spring 2013 issues! And so I’m offering to mail one of my copies to one of you. Please just leave a comment below, and the random number generator will do its job one week from today (please note that I can send only to mailing addresses in the U.S.).

Good luck to everyone who enters the giveaway! And for some other coverage of J Journal, please check out the following:

  • American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Spectrum on J Journal
  • NewPages on J Journal
  • The Review Review on J Journal
  • Utne Reader on J Journal
  • An article of mine on themed/niche literary journals, with comments from J Journal‘s editors.

    • UPDATE: The Random Number Generator chose our giveaway winner–Commenter #1, Michelle Tackabery! Congratulations, Michelle, and thanks to EVERYONE for the interest in playing along.

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: My Summer Teaching Gig

    by Erika Dreifus on
    5

    Whidbey Island scenery (photo from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts Facebook page.)
    Some of the scenery I can look forward to! (photo from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts Facebook page)
    As I mentioned briefly in the most recent issue of The Practicing Writer, I have some exciting news to share: August will find me traveling across the country to serve as a visiting faculty member in the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program.

    Here’s a one-word summary of my feelings about this: thrilled.

    I’ve followed the progress of the Whidbey program (housed within the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts) from its inception. Now, I have the privilege of being part of it.

    The August residency schedule was posted online last week, and I’m thoroughly impressed by the offerings. (In the “it’s a small world” department, I’ve also noted that one of my fellow faculty members is an accomplished writer whom I met during the summer of 1988–when I was a college-age resident advisor in the academic enrichment program that she was attending as a middle-schooler.)

    In case you don’t have time to delve into the online schedule, here’s a brief description of what I’ll be teaching. First, I’ll be leading a two-session sequence on “Writing What We Know: Writing About Writing.” The course material will be modified from a single half-day session that I’ve offered elsewhere in the past. Its purpose is to familiarize participants with some freelancing basics and point out opportunities for writers to write about something that they know and love: writing. The possibilities are considerable: book reviews, author profiles, literary travel articles, and so forth. I’m able to share some of my own background/experience writing these kinds of pieces (and getting paid for them), and I’ll suggest possible paths for the participants to pursue themselves.

    Then, I’ll be offering two single-session classes, both geared to fiction writers. The first one is titled “Putting Your Characters to Work,” and it builds on my longtime interest and previous teaching experience in enhancing character development by delving into fictional work lives. The second one will examine “Structuring Short Story Collections.” There, the course material is somewhat newer, and I expect to spend quite a bit of time in the next weeks preparing it for presentation (suggestions welcome!).

    I’m immensely grateful for this opportunity. Any Whidbey folks reading this now who might want to say an early hello?