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Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: J Journal Essay (and a Giveaway!)

by Erika Dreifus on
15

JJournalSpring2013coverMy contributor copies of the spring 2013 issue of J Journal: New Writing on Justice arrived last week. (My contribution, “My Life as a Bully,” is an essay describing one of the more shameful episodes from my childhood.)

In case you’re not familiar with J Journal, here’s how it is described on its website (which is in the process of being redesigned): “J Journal: New Writing on Justice examines its subject through creative work, directly and tangentially. Housed at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, one of the nation’s premier criminal justice institutions, J Journal’s contributors have included established and new writers, professionals in the law enforcement field, lawyers, professors in the humanities and social sciences, and prison inmates. Unlike other CJ publications, J Journal, which comes out twice a year, is the country’s first to present its analyses of contemporary justice issues through creative, not scholarly work. The short stories, poems, and personal narratives in each volume expand reflection on the question: What is justice?”

Since I’m a J Journal subscriber (and advisory board member) as well as a contributor, I’m awash in spring 2013 issues! And so I’m offering to mail one of my copies to one of you. Please just leave a comment below, and the random number generator will do its job one week from today (please note that I can send only to mailing addresses in the U.S.).

Good luck to everyone who enters the giveaway! And for some other coverage of J Journal, please check out the following:

  • American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Spectrum on J Journal
  • NewPages on J Journal
  • The Review Review on J Journal
  • Utne Reader on J Journal
  • An article of mine on themed/niche literary journals, with comments from J Journal‘s editors.

    • UPDATE: The Random Number Generator chose our giveaway winner–Commenter #1, Michelle Tackabery! Congratulations, Michelle, and thanks to EVERYONE for the interest in playing along.

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: My Summer Teaching Gig

    by Erika Dreifus on
    5

    Whidbey Island scenery (photo from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts Facebook page.)
    Some of the scenery I can look forward to! (photo from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts Facebook page)
    As I mentioned briefly in the most recent issue of The Practicing Writer, I have some exciting news to share: August will find me traveling across the country to serve as a visiting faculty member in the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program.

    Here’s a one-word summary of my feelings about this: thrilled.

    I’ve followed the progress of the Whidbey program (housed within the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts) from its inception. Now, I have the privilege of being part of it.

    The August residency schedule was posted online last week, and I’m thoroughly impressed by the offerings. (In the “it’s a small world” department, I’ve also noted that one of my fellow faculty members is an accomplished writer whom I met during the summer of 1988–when I was a college-age resident advisor in the academic enrichment program that she was attending as a middle-schooler.)

    In case you don’t have time to delve into the online schedule, here’s a brief description of what I’ll be teaching. First, I’ll be leading a two-session sequence on “Writing What We Know: Writing About Writing.” The course material will be modified from a single half-day session that I’ve offered elsewhere in the past. Its purpose is to familiarize participants with some freelancing basics and point out opportunities for writers to write about something that they know and love: writing. The possibilities are considerable: book reviews, author profiles, literary travel articles, and so forth. I’m able to share some of my own background/experience writing these kinds of pieces (and getting paid for them), and I’ll suggest possible paths for the participants to pursue themselves.

    Then, I’ll be offering two single-session classes, both geared to fiction writers. The first one is titled “Putting Your Characters to Work,” and it builds on my longtime interest and previous teaching experience in enhancing character development by delving into fictional work lives. The second one will examine “Structuring Short Story Collections.” There, the course material is somewhat newer, and I expect to spend quite a bit of time in the next weeks preparing it for presentation (suggestions welcome!).

    I’m immensely grateful for this opportunity. Any Whidbey folks reading this now who might want to say an early hello?

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: A Visit to the Museum of Jewish Heritage

    by Erika Dreifus on
    3

    ato_down_01This evening will be special: I will be meeting with the Young Friends group at the Museum of Jewish Heritage downtown to talk about my story collection, Quiet Americans. The icing on the cake is that after our discussion, we’ll be able to tour the museum’s new exhibit, “Against the Odds: American Jews and the Rescue of Europe’s Refugees, 1933-1941.”

    The exhibit opened last week, and it has already received some excellent press coverage. (See, for example, The Wall Street Journal and this Associated Press item in The Huffington Post.)

    Most of you who visit this blog regularly know that my paternal grandparents, whose experiences inspired much of Quiet Americans, were German Jews who found refuge in the United States in the late 1930s. So I’m sure you can understand why I’m especially moved to have the opportunity to share the book and see the exhibit on the same evening. And why I think that it’s something very special.

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: A Brief Look at BIO

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    schedLast weekend, I had the happy opportunity to spend a few hours at the fourth annual “Compleat Biographer Conference” organized by the smart and intrepid folks behind Biographers International Organization (BIO), “the only organization of its kind, completely devoted to all aspects of the art and craft of biography.” The conference migrates. This year, it took place here in New York City; when I was offered the chance to visit, I snapped up the opportunity.

    As a child, I was blessed with an early love for reading that was sustained, in part, by feeding a hearty appetite for biographies. I gobbled up the standard early-elementary introductions to Abraham Lincoln and other stalwarts, but I also read (and reread) a collection of profiles of other (albeit less) famous Americans published by Highlights. I was also an avid consumer of the Scholastic Book Club titles, and I remember in particular one book, They Led the Way: 14 American Women, which I encountered just a few years after its 1973 publication.

    So maybe it’s not all that surprising that some of my earliest freelancing assignments were biographical profiles for encyclopedias. Or that my first idea for a history dissertation topic was a biography, of a French author and activist named Suzanne Prou (here’s the New York Times obituary that inspired my interest). My dissertation ended up taking a different direction, but I’m still drawn to biographies as a reader. (Most recently, I’ve read Jonathan Kirsch’s new biography of “boy avenger” Herschel Grynszpan, and I’ve just published a Q&A with the author on my other blog.) I continue to look for and file away possible subject ideas for my own writing purposes.

    All of which is to explain why I’ve followed the development of BIO (I wrote a brief profile of the organization for The Writer magazine some years ago), and why I was so pleased to visit the conference. If I ever do plunge more bravely into the waters of biography-writing, I’ll definitely depend on BIO for guidance.

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: Short Story Month Giveaway!

    by Erika Dreifus on
    6

    QACover2011
    UPDATE: SHARY has won the giveaway! Shary, I’ll be in touch with you shortly. Meantime, I thank you all for participating and for sharing your short-story suggestions. Some great finds there.

    It has taken me until the middle of May–Short Story Month–but I’m finally announcing the 2013 SSM giveaway of Quiet Americans. Details in a moment.

    First, I want to encourage you to go over to Books, Personally and read Jennifer’s wonderful post all about Short Story Month (complete with links to other celebrating sites, including Fiction Writers Review, where I’ve done my bit to contribute to this year’s festivities).

    Then, please come on back here and leave a comment. Bonus points if you mention one of the stories (or collections) you’ve most enjoyed over the past year. Extra bonus points if you mention a story that’s available online and give us a link to it. (I’m serious–you’ll get one or two additional entries in the giveaway if you do these things when you leave your comment.)

    Comment anytime between now and May 30. On May 31, I’ll announce the giveaway winner. Please note that I can ship your SIGNED copy of Quiet Americans only within the U.S. at this time. And thanks for playing along!