We get quite a view visitors from Canada here at Practicing Writing. This is for you, friends!
I’ve been meaning to share this find (which I discovered thanks to the Paying Writer Jobs group) with you for awhile, and now seems to be the time! It’s a list of resources and tips for Canadian writers, with a focus on locating grants and awards. Enjoy.
The hype’s been everywhere (or so it seems), but it was this Fiction Writers Review piece on Wells Tower’s new story collection that really motivated me to attend a reading featuring Tower the other evening. Great event. Now, I must get the book.
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Speaking of hype–I’m sure plenty of you followed last week’s big online story about another online story: Dan Baum’s Twitter-based revelations of his association with the New Yorker. Here’s something a bit different: an interview with Baum, courtesy of The Renegade Writer, focusing on “writing for the big names – and the future of journalism.”
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And on a sad, yet inspiring note: check out the online home of a spring term Pomona College course, English 166: David Foster Wallace. The site includes a blog maintained by the course participants, as well as a link to the wiki that has emerged from it. An amazing resource for anyone interested in Wallace and his work – and, I think, for teachers of literature and writing.
Over the weekend, I completed my first review for Jewish Book World. I can’t yet share the review with you, but I’ll tell you this much: I reviewed a (very good) forthcoming novel, and the review is scheduled for publication in the fall issue.
If you’re not familiar with Jewish Book World, and you’re interested in books on Jewish themes and subjects, you really owe it to yourself to get to know this quarterly magazine. It’s a publication of the always-impressive Jewish Book Council, and you can find learn much more about it (and read sample reviews) here (click “Jewish Book World”).
And if you subscribe, you’ll get to read my review in due course! (Note to potential reviewers: The magazine welcomes new reviewers, but unfortunately does not pay cash for reviews. I’m considering my [relatively short] review dual community service, for the Jewish and literary communities.)
I’ll come clean for you, my dear readers: I haven’t jumped on the Twitter bandwagon yet. I have no Twitter account. I don’t always use the word “tweet” correctly.
Given my lack of Twitter savvy, I’m grateful to Jane Friedman for posting “Best Tweets for Writers” summaries on her blog, There Are No Rules. She’s turning these summary posts into a weekly feature. Check out what she has discovered so far, and share my gratitude that she “watch[es] Twitter, so you don’t have to.”
(By the way, if anyone wants to share views about Twitter for writers, pro or con, please feel free to do so in comments.)
Have a happy weekend, everyone!
Given my not-so-harmonious history with the National Book Critics Circle blog, I was wary yesterday morning when Practicing Writing’s site statistics revealed a surge of readers coming right from precisely that source. But what I found when I checked the NBCC blog was a very pleasant surprise.
You see, the post that was driving traffic to Practicing Writing was Rigoberto González‘s “Spotlight on Blogs.” From the post:
I attended a forum recently in which MFA graduate students impressed upon the audience the importance of reading blogs as a way to stay in the loop and keep abreast of the goings-on in the literary world. And when I wholeheartedly agreed, I was duly asked which blogs I would personally recommend. I had to think for a moment and I gave an on-the-spot reply, but I promised to relay a more substantial response once I went home and thought about it more carefully.
And that response (the post) included a full list of recommendations. Including–you guessed it–Practicing Writing.
We’re in some great company (including a couple of blogs new to me). Be sure to check them out at the post.
So here’s a big thank you to Rigoberto González (we met briefly at a CUNY event two years ago, but I’m not sure he’ll remember that), a warm welcome to all our new readers, and happy weekend wishes to the regulars!