Friday Find: Experiences with Editors

by Erika Dreifus on
2

The “featured resource” in the current issue of The Practicing Writer (which went out to subscribers on Wednesday) is a new series over on the Emerging Writers Network blog. Its title is “Experiences with Editors,” and it features authors describing “some of the best (and occasionally, worst) experiences they’ve had with editors at both literary journals, and publishing houses. A peek inside the process and what it is that has excited (or upset) various authors through their years of publishing.” Definitely worth reading.

Enjoy, happy new year, and happy weekend! See you back here on Monday.

The Wednesday Web Browser: NYT Edition

by Erika Dreifus on
2

As usual, the NYT After Deadline blog provides useful reminders on grammar, usage, and style.
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How wonderful it was to open the paper a few days ago and see a big, fat article about Open Letter Books, “a small, year-old press here affiliated with the University of Rochester that publishes nothing but literature in translation.”
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Like many of you, I suspect, I was caught up for several days this summer following the coverage of Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s passing. I’ve been meaning to read his memoir, True Compass (and I’ll do so in 2010). All of which made this piece by Jonathan Karp, the memoir’s editor/publisher, compelling reading.
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Adam Begley’s travel article on Stendhal’s Parma was also quite relevant to me!
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Finally: The NYT asked six prominent authors to name (and read from) books they could never discard.

New Publication: "Solar Damage," in the Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine

by Erika Dreifus on
9

Just about a year ago, I alluded to a challenging experience I was dealing with. A single comment from one medical professional whom I met through that experience sparked a new poem. (You all know how that works.)

I am proud to say that that poem has just been published by the Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine (YJHM). The poem’s title, drawn from the comment in question, is “Solar Damage.”

(By the way, for those of who may recall and/or share my dilemma over how to determine whether a given piece should be written as prose or as poetry, you may find this comment from the YJHM poetry editor interesting [he’s referring to both poems I submitted, although he accepted only one]: “Your poetry has a strong flavor of prose and I considered whether these poems should actually be prose poems. However, I don’t think so. The enjambment and slant rhymes make them work as verse.”)

I invite you to read my poem and, more important, to get to know the broader offerings of the YJHM.

Quotation of the Week: Willa Cather

by Erika Dreifus on
7

Once again, I bring you a quotation that came to me via The Southeast Review‘s writing regimen (although I do think I’ve heard it bandied about in the past).

“Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.” –Willa Cather

What do you think, practicing writers? Agree? Disagree? How is this quotation relevant (or not) to your own writing practice?