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Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress

by Erika Dreifus on
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A few professional highlights from the past week:NSSWM

1. A visit to the new Scarsdale Library Writers Center, where I had the honor of presenting the first lecture in the center’s Professional Series. The topic: “Mapping the Changing Publishing Marketplace.” Thanks so much to my gracious hosts and to the great crowd that turned out.

2. The arrival of my contributor copy of the 2014 Novel and Short Story Writers Market. (The volume includes my article on “Habits of Highly Successful Short-Story Writers,” with sage insights and advice from Roxane Gay, Michael Griffith, and Midge Raymond.)

3. Publication of my article, “10 Ways to Celebrate Jewish Book Month,” on The Forward‘s “Arty Semite” blog.

How about you? Anything you want to share from the past week or so?

Wednesday’s WIP: Celebrating Grace Schulman’s Newest Book

by Erika Dreifus on
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WithoutaClaimI’ve had the good fortune to meet a number of very talented, very generous writers through my (non-teaching) day job at The City University of New York. One of those writers is poet Grace Schulman, Distinguished Professor of English at CUNY’s Baruch College. Last Friday, at Grace’s kind invitation, I attended a party to celebrate the publication of her most recent collection, Without a Claim.

It was a lovely evening, not least because copies of the book were scattered around the room on small tables. They weren’t for sale, alas, but I stole a good long look. I’ve often found Grace’s Jewishly-inflected poetry especially moving, and one poem in the new book (“Havdalah”) is one I’m looking forward to revisiting many times once the copy I’ve ordered arrives.

Grace read just one poem for us on Friday evening: “Celebration.” A fitting poem for the occasion, to be sure. But I wasn’t alone in wishing that she’d read much more.

Wednesday’s WIP: An Evening with Etgar Keret

by Erika Dreifus on
2

If you’re a practicing writer, you’ve surely attended your share of author readings; if you’re a publishing writer, you’ve perhaps read work of your own. And if you’re an author–especially an author with the support of a big press–you’ve probably embarked on an reading tour.

Film Etgar Keret sm 150x150Few of us, however, occupy the literary limelight as Israeli author Etgar Keret does. And even fewer do so to such effect. As my writer friend Sara wrote in an email after we attended “A Special Event with Etgar Keret” at Manhattan’s Symphony Space this past weekend: “I knew I like Keret’s work, but to see him on film, in the flesh, and through his stories was really moving. It is a rare and beautiful thing to make an audience laugh and cry in the same beat – and [Keret]’s humanity and heart were palpable – not something I necessarily feel at run of the mill author readings.”

Indeed. (Sara really has a way with words!)

Allow me to take you through the evening as closely as I can. (more…)