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Quotation of the Week: Sarah Stone

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

I met Sarah Stone many years ago at a conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, and she has long impressed me as a very smart writer. So I wasn’t surprised to see this words of wisdom show up on her Twitter feed sometime this past week:

#writing note: put your people between a rock and a hard place. Don’t put them on a rock and then have them think about it.

SO TRUE!

The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
6

Between an extended weekend in Massachusetts, an especially busy week at the day job, and a conference presentation coming up (gulp!) tomorrow, this hasn’t been the best week for me so far as my keeping an eye on the Web goes. But I’ve done my best, and I’m happy to share these finds with you.

  • My trip to Massachusetts was prompted by the always-excellent Muse & the Marketplace conference that is organized by the fine folks at Grub Street, Inc. Click here to read an interview with Grub’s founder, Eve Bridburg, and then move on to Nina Badzin’s conference recap. (You can also scroll through all of the #Muse2011 posts on Twitter to get a sense of some of what went on and the inspiration and camaraderie that the conference engendered.)
  • I loved Ellen Meeropol’s recent blog post on moral ambiguity in fiction (and I’d have loved it even without its generous mention of my story, “For Services Rendered.”
  • Tayari Jones (who will be our Q&A guest in the June issue of The Practicing Writer) shares “Five Things I Wish I Had Known When I Published My First Book.”
  • Time to remind you that May is Short Story Month! I’m proud to be part of the team at Fiction Writers Review that is celebrating with a slew of projects and special posts. Author and editor Matt Bell has a nice collection of other participating sites/blogs/etc. over on his homepage. Please remember that there’s still plenty of time for you to enter the short-story collection giveaway right here on Practicing Writing (copies of Midge Raymond’s Forgetting English and my own Quiet Americans are up for the winning).

    • The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • The annual BookExpo America (BEA) extravaganza is coming up, and Publishers Weekly provides a guide for those who will be attending (or wish that they could).
  • April is coming to an end, and I didn’t write nearly as many poems as I wish I had. But I’ve bookmarked Robert Lee Brewer’s Poetic Asides blog’s April “Poem-A-Day” prompts, and I’ll be returning to them for inspiration. (Frankly, I think Brewer should collect them in a little book/ebook. I’d download a copy!)
  • If April is coming to an end, then May is just about to arrive. And that means that Fiction Writers Review will soon be celebrating Short Story Month. Check out the Collection Giveaway Project details here, and give yourself a chance to win one of Practicing Writing’s own giveaway offerings, too.
  • Poet E. Ethelbert Miller has created a forum for sharing writing wisdom from author Charles Johnson, and in this post, Johnson addresses the art of book reviewing. (Thanks to @mathitak for the find.)
  • If you’re interested in long-form journalism/narrative nonfiction, you’ll want to read all about Byliner, launching soon. (Thanks to @Kathy_Crowley for the find.)
  • Yet another example of ever-reliable, agent-focused advice from Nathan Bransford. (And if you’re looking for more resources re: agents, check those that I’ve listed toward the end of this page.)

    • The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4
  • If you’re looking for some short stories to read online, you might begin with the StorySouth Million Writers Award list of notable stories for 2010.
  • Ellen Meeropol has a dual perspective on bookstore readings: She has participated as an event organizer and as an author. Which makes her advice especially insightful.
  • This may be old news already for some of you, but here goes: Last Sunday evening I watched 60 Minutes for the first time in awhile. And one of the show’s segments was about author Greg Mortenson, author of the presumably nonfictional Three Cups of Tea: “[L]ast fall, we began investigating complaints from former donors, board members, staffers, and charity watchdogs about Mortenson and the way he is running his non-profit organization. And we found there are serious questions about how millions of dollars have been spent, whether Mortenson is personally benefiting, and whether some of the most dramatic and inspiring stories in his books are even true.”
  • If you haven’t visited the Poetry Foundation’s website for awhile, you should click on over and check out the redesign.
  • I keep reading wonderful reviews of Meghan O’Rourke’s new book, a memoir titled The Long Goodbye (here’s one). And part of me really wants to read it. But part of me is just too afraid to. I’m afraid that it will make me unbearably sad. Have any of you ever felt that way about a book?
  • Our friend Wordamour has a short essay in a new book, Flashlight Memories, which, according to Wordamour’s blog, “is all about people’s early experiences with reading and books, otherwise known in academia as ‘literacy autobiographies’ or ‘literacy narratives.'” To celebrate the book’s publication–and to celebrate all of our personal literacy stories–Wordamour will award a copy of Flashlight Memories to one of the commenters on her blog. You have until May 15 to post your narrative.