Posts Tagged‘Resources for Jewish writers’

Home » Resources for Jewish writers » Page 30

Bad News for Jewcy and an Update from Zeek

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Disappointing news for fans of the online cultural magazine Jewcy: The Fundermentalist reported last week that Jewcy’s primary funders have pulled financial support from the magazine. “The staff is now looking for new funders and will continue to sell ads, but will not take a salary for now, nor will it be able to pay its 60-70 contributors.”

Once I read about Jewcy’s problems, I did wonder about the fate of Zeek, which has partnered with Jewcy for the past year. Here’s the text of an e-mail message from Zeek’s editor, addressing the issue:

Dear Zeekers,

If you read Jewish newspapers or blogs, you may have heard that the online Jewish magazine, Jewcy, just lost their funding and will have to shut their offices.

For the past year, Zeek has partnered with Jewcy at www.jewcy.com/zeek. This partnership has brought a lot to Zeek—it has quadrupled our number of readers, given us multimedia capabilities, and brought us much more attention from the mainstream Jewish world. The staff of Jewcy particularly have been great partners: I’d like to single out Tahl Rahz, Jewcy’s founding editor; Craig Leinoff, Jewcy’s techincal guru; and Tara Rice, Jewcy’s art director, as true menschen.

The staff of Jewcy plans to continue to maintain the Jewcy site, and you will find Zeek there for at least the next month. We are currently looking at partnering with other Jewish media or at returning to a redesigned Zeek site. We will let you know as soon as we make a decision. To be honest, one aspect of our decision is funding—to maintain our own Zeek site, we would need to locate at least $10,000 in funding per year. If you or someone you know would be interested in making that kind of tax-free donation, please contact me.

In the meantime, please keep your browser tuned to www.zeek.net. It will automatically take you to wherever Zeek lives online. Visit soon. In the next two weeks we will feature a new short story by Riad Baidas, a revised Freedom Seder from Rabbi Arthur Waskow, a piece on affordable housing from David Gottlieb, an autobiographical essay from Jay Michaelson, poems by Maya Bejerano and Courney Druz, and of course, Angela Himsel’s Wednesday column, Angetevka.

Jo Ellen Green Kaiser
Editor, Zeek magazine
Executive Director, Zeek Media, Inc.

P.S. We are searching for a few angels to help us transition our website. If you can help, please email me at joellen(at)zeek(dot)net

Stay tuned.

More Resources for Reading and Writing

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Many thanks to Naomi Firestone for posting “A Word from the Israeli Literary Front” last week during the Jerusalem International Book Fair. The post highlighted two resources I’m passing along to you.

First, check out Fiction is Real, the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Book Club Resources for Israeli Fiction. It provides reading group guides to works of Israeli literature available in English.

And then, for those who may be writing in Israel, check out The Studio. Situated north of Netanya, it is author and translator Evan Fallenberg’s center for writers and readers of English.

Journalism/Jewish Literature Taglit-Birthright Israel Trip

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

It’s not often that I wish I were younger–life is just fine right now, thank you–but when I received an announcement from the Jewish Book Council about one particular opportunity, I wished I could be 18-26 again.

The Council is now working with Hillel to provide a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip focused on journalism and Jewish literature. This free trip is open to Jews who are 18-26 years old and have never been on a peer-group trip to Israel. Registration opens next week, and will be open until March 4.

If this trip appeals to you (or might appeal to someone you know who fits the eligibility criteria), click here for more information.

Reminder: Jewish Fiction Writers’ Conference

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Just a reminder that the Jewish Fiction Writers’ Conference scheduled for Sunday, March 15, 2009, at the 92nd Street Y in New York City is currently accepting early-bird registrations. But time for the discount is running out! You have until February 16 to save on the registration fee (it’s $115 until then, and $135 until March 9, when registration closes). Your conference registration will include a kosher breakfast and lunch.

And it will include the chance to attend numerous focused presentations—including the one I am having a lot of fun preparing. My session on “Publishing Your Jewish Short Stories” will include up-to-date information from all the magazine and journal editors who are so kindly responding to my inquiries at the moment. Plus lots of other guidance from someone who has managed to publish her share of Jewish-themed short fiction (in Lilith, Mississippi Review Online, TriQuarterly, and several others). Haven’t managed to publish a book-length collection, though, which is why I, personally, am eager to hear what the agent/editor types presenting that day will have to tell us.

For lots more information, and a downloadable brochure, click here. Hope to see you on March 15!

Nextbook’s Call for Film Festival Criticism

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

According to its Web site, Nextbook is partnering with The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center “to bring an exciting opportunity to our New York area readers: the chance to be a film critic-for-a-day. If you attend any of the 32 screenings that are part of the 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival, you will be eligible to submit a review to be published on Nextbook.org.”

Nextbook will be giving away two tickets for each of the festival’s screenings. But whether you respond to the ticket offer or not (or in time to obtain complimentary admission), you’ll still be welcome to review festival films and submit them to Nextbook. The filmgoer who writes the best review will receive a boxed set of the Nextbook/Schocken Jewish Encounters book series, plus a one-year membership to The Jewish Museum.

Details and guidelines, as well as information on the festival films, are all available at the Web site.