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Sunday Sentence

by Erika Dreifus on
3

Another Sunday in which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, which asks others to share the best sentence(s) we’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

In addition to Reb Shimon’s Society for Morality in the Young, that town of three thousand Hebrew souls had a Society for the Dissemination of Russian Culture, a Society for the Dissemination of German Science, a Resettlement in the Holy Land Society, a Resettlement (Anywhere) Society, a Society for Talmud Study, a Society for Torah Study, a Society for the Study of the Prophets, a Sickbed Society, a Burial Society, an Interest-Free Loan Society, and a Society for the Dissemination of Knowledge Among the Jews.

Source: “Fire Year,” in Jason K. Friedman’s story collection of the same title.

Friday Finds for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

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

  • Lots of good news from the (U.S.) National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) this week, especially for the recipients of the Creative Writing Fellowships. But even more of us are likely to benefit from the “Art Works” grants to presses and journals, whether simply by encountering writing that those grants will support or, in some cases, benefiting from the increased author/contributor payments promised by such publications as American Poetry Review, AGNI, and n+1.
  • Interesting issues raised in David Duhr’s “Hi! I Reviewed Your Book! A Twitter Guide.”
  • Great piece by Michelle Nijhuis for the NYT “Draft” column, on “The Science and Art of Science Writing.”
  • “Last October, after [Kaylie] Jones woke up one morning feeling particularly frustrated by the plight of many of her students and colleagues, who typically write artistic, literary novels not deemed commercially viable, she called one of her MFA students and her bosses, asking if they’d help her if she started an imprint. The answers were emphatic yeses.” Read more about Kaylie Jones Books.
  • “The 2013 Nobel Lecture in Literature was replaced by a pre-recorded video conversation with the Laureate: ‘Alice Munro: In her Own Words’, shown at the Swedish Academy on 7 December 2013.” I plan to watch the video this weekend; if you haven’t yet, you might want to do the same.

    • Have a great weekend, everyone.

    Friday Finds for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4

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

  • Looking for some good essays to read? Check out this list for some source recommendations. (h/t Brevity blog)
  • In keeping with my interest in and appreciation for “writing on writing,” I point you to Daniel Bosch’s poem “Call for Submission” on the NewPages blog.
  • An analysis of President Obama’s recent book purchases.
  • A video visit with fiction writer George Saunders, on the campus of Syracuse University, where he teaches.
  • Some interesting career-oriented items crossed my screen this week. First, this New York Times piece describes “the real humanities crisis” as the circumstances that prevent artists and writers from practicing their craft. Then, of special interest to me as a writer with a full-time, non-teaching job in a university, this Inside Higher Ed column takes a closer look at “alt-ac” careers.

    • Have a great weekend, everyone.

    Wednesday’s WIP: Hanukkah Stories

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
    Watching my grandfather--a refugee from Nazism and a U.S. Army WWII veteran--kindle the Hanukkah candles in 1972.
    Watching my grandfather–a refugee from Nazi Germany and a U.S. Army WWII veteran–kindle the Hanukkah candles in 1972.

     

     

    This evening brings the conclusion of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

    Two years ago, I was privileged to have a short story included on National Public Radio’s “Hanukkah Lights” broadcast. That story, “Fidelis,” was on my mind last week when I caught this article in The New York Times Magazine about a World War II battle (Tarawa) that is central to it.

    “Fidelis” is still available online, if you wish to listen to it. It’s the fourth of the four stories in the 2011 broadcast.