Erika Dreifus

Most Fridays the Practicing Writing blog shares writing and publishing resources, news, and reflections to peruse over the weekend. But it’s been an excruciating week for so many of us. And frankly, I’ve paid next-to-no attention to garden-variety news from the writing and publishing spheres.

On Wednesday, however, I received an email from Facing History and Ourselves, a Boston-based global nonprofit organization that I’ve admired for many years. The email introduced a “mini-lesson” titled “Processing Attacks in Israel and the Outbreak of War in the Region.”

The resource isn’t perfect. (What resource is?) But one of its segments impressed me as something that, though intended for educators and students, could be clarifying for writers as well, in our work and in the rest of our lives. It’s a section titled “Avoiding Antisemitic and Islamophobic Tropes in Discussing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”

• The Writer has recently updated its list of “30 essential digital tools, apps, & resources for every writer.”
• Great piece on “the slogging reality of writing” by Nieman Storyboard editor Jacqui Banaszynski.
• Hurry up if you’re interested in this one: free presentation by Jane Friedman on “Today’s Key Book Publishing Paths: Traditional, Self, and Everything in Between.” (Happening this evening.)
• In which Anne Trubek demystifies the acquisitions process at Belt Publishing.
• Another week, another set of Jewish-lit links posted over on My Machberet.

Have a great weekend, everyone. (And yes, if you’re a newsletter subscriber, you should receive the May issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0 by day’s end. The issue will also be archived on Substack.)