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Quotation of the Week: Geraldine Brooks

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

“Foreign countries exist.”
–Geraldine Brooks

Extracting from Edward Nawotka’s recent Publishing Perspectives post, I discern that the introduction to the next volume of Best American Short Stories, which was edited by Geraldine Brooks, “notes a surprising parochialism in the stories” that Brooks reviewed in preparing the book.

Being me, I couldn’t help but reflect on some similar sentiments I’ve experienced (and expressed) along the way of my writing practice.

The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled
  • This was my latest #StorySunday contribution, but if you didn’t catch it then, read it now: “8:46,” a 9/11 story by Philip Graham.
  • On a related note: D.G. Myers has posted an extensive annotated list of 9/11 novels.
  • Fabulous piece by poet Philip Schultz in Sunday’s New York Times: “Words Failed Me, Then Saved Me.” If you’re a writer who has struggled with a learning disability, or you’ve ever loved anyone who has battled a learning disability, you simply must read this.
  • Smart suggestions from Midge Raymond on “Facebook for Authors.”
  • Monday marked not only Labor Day, but also the 39th anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Read my thoughts–and an excerpt from my story, “Homecomings,” on my “other” blog, My Machberet.
  • I always enjoy David Abrams’s “Front Porch” posts and David’s take on upcoming books. Here’s the latest one.
  • Gorgeous blog post from Susan Woodring (“The Habitual Writer”) on “When the Copyedits Arrive.”
  • The latest issue of The Short Review has gone live. This month I’m even more enthusiastic about it than usual. Guess why.

    • Quotation of the Week: Barbara Kingsolver

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    For a story to make the cut I asked a lot from it – asked of it, in fact, what I ask of myself when I sit down to write, and that is to get straight down to it and carve something hugely important into a small enough amulet to fit inside a reader’s most sacred psychic pocket. I don’t care what it’s about, as long as it’s not trivial. I once heard a writer declare from a lectern: “I write about the mysteries of the human heart, which is the only thing a fiction writer has any business addressing.” And I thought to myself, Excuse me? I had recently begun thinking of myself as a fiction writer and was laboring under the illusion that I could address any mystery that piqued me, including but not limited to the human heart, human risk factors, human rights….The business of fiction is to probe the tender spots of an imperfect world, which is where I live, write and read.

    –Barbara Kingsolver

    Source: Kingsolver’s introduction to Best American Short Stories 2001, ed. Katrina Kenison, Barbara Kingsolver (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), pp. xvii-xix.

    Friday Find: Literary Responses to 9/11

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    New York magazine has just published a pretty remarkable double issue framed around the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I haven’t managed to get through the entire issue yet–I’m reading it slowly.

    But there’s one item I want to be sure to point out to you: a representation of how a selection of “artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, video-game designers, and quilters responded to the attacks.”

    Look for fiction in magenta.

    And if you happen to be interested in the topic of literary response to 9/11—and how I was thinking about it not too long after the events of that day—AND you have access to some academic databases, you may want to look up my article, “Keeping Silent? Writing Fiction After September 11,” which appeared in Queen’s Quarterly in 2004 (111:1).

    Have a safe, peaceful, and happy holiday weekend.

    Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: Summer’s End

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    Remember when I posted my summer to-do list? What sort of progress have I made? I’ll share that below, in a second update-reprint (click here for the first one). 

    North of the equator, we’ve just begun summer. Although I’m still going to be working 40 hours a week in my day job, still running the usual errands, still partaking in the same family responsibilities (and joys), I’m also hoping to accomplish certain writing-related goals before we merge into fall.

    After all, for six weeks this summer, my 40 hours at the office will be recalibrated: heavier on Mondays-Thursdays with “summer Fridays” off. I hope to use those Fridays wisely. And I hope that I can use the general light and energy of the summer to help infuse some projects under way and others that I hope to start.

    Herewith, items on my list of writerly hopes, plans, ambitions, and commitments for the season.

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