Sunday Sentence

Diary-of-the-Fall_06-242x390In which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, sharing the best sentence I’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

My grandfather lost a brother in Auschwitz, and another brother in Auschwitz, and a third brother in Auschwitz, and his father and his mother in Auschwitz, and his girlfriend of the time in Auschwitz, and at least one cousin and one aunt in Auschwitz, and who knows how many friends in Auschwitz, how many neighbors, how many work colleagues, how many people he would have been quite close to had he not been the only one to survive and set off on a boat for Brazil and spend the rest of his life without ever mentioning any of their names.

Source: Diary of the Fall, by Michel Laub, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa

Friday Finds for Writers

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

  • Tough talk for writers–but also very true talk–from Chuck Wendig. (h/t @ElectricLit)
  • Another not-quite-so-encouraging item: “How Personal Essays Conquered Journalism — and Why They Can’t Cut It,” by Eve Fairbanks. Some valid criticisms here.
  • On a more positive note: Nina Badzin shares “10 Resources for Writers & Bloggers.”
  • Also encouraging: Over on the Ploughshares blog, literary agent Eric Nelson argues for “Short Stories as a Path to Literary Success”.
  • “A to X Writing Advice, Courtesy of [Random House] Copy Chief Benjamin Dreyer”–via the Brevity blog.
  • Have a great weekend.