"Looking for your next #book club pick? Want to support emerging #Jewish #women #writers? Why not do both!?

These writers have broken through barriers and written #stories that captivate #readers, all while infusing their work with Judaism, whether it’s in the people, the history or culture. Magical realism? Family drama? Secrets? These #novels have something for everyone. So pick one or pick them all — your #bookclub friends will thank you!"

https://www.kveller.com/breakout-novels-by-jewish-women-to-add-to-your-tbr-right-now/

Ursula K. Le Guin
AUTHOR
Oct 21, 1929 - Jan 22, 2018

"I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope.

We will need writers who can remember freedom."

“Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

#UrsulaLeGuin #literature #writers

A quotation from Voltaire

As you have it in your power, sir, to do some service to letters, I implore you not to clip the wings of our writers so closely, nor to turn into barn-door fowls those who, allowed a start, might become eagles; reasonable liberty permits the mind to soar — slavery makes it creep.
 
[Puisque vous êtes, monsieur, à portée de rendre service aux belles-lettres, ne rognez pas de si près les ailes à nos écrivains, et ne faites pas des volailles de basse-cour de ceux qui, en prenant l’essor, pourraient devenir des aigles: une liberté honnête élève l’esprit, et l’esclavage le fait ramper.]

Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Letter (1733-06-20) to a First Commissioner [Lettre á un premier commis] [tr. Tallentyre (1919)]

More about this quote: wist.info/voltaire/85298/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #voltaire #censorship #control #enslavement #freepress #freedomofthepress #liberty #regulation #restrictions #writers

"For more than two decades, #PJLibrary has mailed free #Jewish #childrensbooks to families around the world. Today, it distributes roughly 670,000 #books monthly in more than 40 countries. According to #AlisaKoyrakh, the organization’s director of books, those stories have historically reflected a familiar slice of Jewish life.

“There are just a lot of #Ashkenormative #stories out there—a lot of stories about #Yiddish, the #LowerEastSide and immigration from Eastern #Europe,” #Koyrakh said. “Those are all really important stories. But we saw gaps. It was kind of obvious.”

The #Sephardic Stories Initiative intends to fill those gaps, bringing together Sephardic and #Mizrahi #writers for a year of workshops, editorial mentorship and critique from their peers."

https://forward.com/culture/841487/pj-library-sephardic-stories-initiative/

It would be exciting to stop begging for inclusion and just suck it up and move on.

"#Jewish #writers say they are dismayed to learn that one of the nation’s largest free outdoor #literary festivals is scheduled to take place during the two days of #RoshHashanah, September 12 and 13.

#PrintersRowLitFest, an outdoor #bookfestival that draws thousands of #authors and $book lovers to the streets of #Chicago’s South Loop, announced the festival’s dates in April. But only recently, amid rising concerns about #antisemitism in the #publishing world, did some Jewish authors realize the schedule conflict. This year’s Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Friday, Sept. 11 and ends at sundown on Sunday, Sept. 13.

#BrianBerg, a spokesman for #PrintersRow, said that scheduling difficulties caused the overlap with Rosh Hashanah."

https://forward.com/culture/books/841358/a-major-chicago-literary-festival-overlaps-with-rosh-hashanah-jewish-authors-are-dismayed-to-learn/

"Some #American #Jews have been explaining to non-#Jewish friends, neighbors, and colleagues the fear and apartness they have felt since #Oct7, 2023, when #Hamas breached Israel’s southern border and launched an attack that sparked the #Gaza #war and the anti-#Israel – and in some cases #antisemitic – backlash that followed.

In interviews, they describe a sense of disorientation, as if they have been jolted into an entirely new era, in which some have lost friendships and a sense of belonging. This is especially true in some #progressive social circles that never condemned the Oct. 7 violence, and in some cases even within their own Jewish communities that hold differing opinions on what supporting Israel means.

Jewish #writers and #filmmakers report being excluded from talks and festivals and experiencing difficulties in getting new #books #published."

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2026/0722/american-jews-antisemitism-violence?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Q: Where do you do your best thinking?

A: On the EGYPTAIR flight home. . . . There is no better place to think than somewhere over the Atlantic after Egypt has scrambled your brain.

This week's Longreads Questionnaire, with BECOMING BABA author Aymann Ismail: https://longreads.com/2026/07/15/questionnaire-aymann-ismail/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Books #Egyptian #Egypt #Writers #Journalists #Reporting #Reading #Interviews

"#PENAmerica’s president has resigned after the #freespeech group released a report detailing how #Israeli and #Jewish #writers have faced “rising isolation and exclusion” in the aftermath of 2023’s #Oct7 attacks in #Israel and the subsequent war in #Gaza.

The #Ethiopian #novelist #DinawMengestu had held the organization’s leadership position since December 2025. He told The #NewYorkTimes that Pen America’s report, which examines the impacts of cultural boycotts, unfairly maligns the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, an attempt to economically isolate Israel.

The July 9 report, titled “A Silent Moratorium,” was the work of three #authors. They include PEN America’s editorial director #LisaTolin, a veteran of #NBCNews and the #AssociatedPress, as well as its chief communications officer #GeraldineBaum, a longtime former staff #writer for #TheLosAngelesTimes who earned a #Pulitzer Prize for Public Service early in her career at #Newsday."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/pen-america-report-jewish-writers-president-resigns-1236646474/

Writers and bloggers, does this happen to you?

You sit down to write a weeknote or some journal entry, but suddenly, one of the topics becomes really long and you decide to split that off into its own separate post. You continue with your original piece (back to square one); but it happens again. 😅

View full note: https://burgeonlab.com/notes/2026/0712-152352/

Syndicated via #Indiekit

#weeknotes #bloggers #bloggingcommunity #writingcommunity #indieweb #writers #blog #blogs #blogpost

A quotation from Jean Kerr

SYDNEY: A lot of writers drink. Some drink before they write and some drink after they write. The ones that concern me are the ones who drink instead of writing. Even though a number of people have tried, no on has yet found a way to drink for a living.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Poor Richard, Act 1 (1965)

More about this quote: wist.info/kerr-jean/30921/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jeankerr #alcohol #alcoholism #creativework #drinking #intoxication #job #vocation #work #writers #writing

@nixCraft Like the article states: "but it isn’t an isolated case."
It's a great research of only one example. Unfortunately, publishing houses/their authors loose thousands of dollars by fake-sites and fake books. Such companies even sell fake biographies when a well-known author launches a book. Meanwhile, they fake even voices, videos. Smaller publishing houses often give up ...
What we need are big publishers

#writers #authors #writing #writingcommunity #writingtips #AISlop #deepfakes

“I want to apologize for living far away, but I think wherever tita Eda is, I might still be a boy in the Philippines, asking her for pamasko and movie tickets. I want to be whenever she is.”

—Joseph Trinidad

https://longreads.com/2026/06/16/lucky-creatures-joseph-trinidad-philippines/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Books #Philippines #Filipino #Authors #Writers

Usenet is accessible via TOR and open access servers that don't require registration or identifying information.

The writer can write and discuss using a pseudonym or pen name without fear of retaliation from employers, government, friends, and family. This encourages some people to share their innermost thoughts they would otherwise not express. Of course it also encourages trolls, but there are plenty of trolls everywhere else.

Usenet is text-centric so unlike the fediverse there is not a stream of distracting images.

Even after all these years I still prefer reading and posting Usenet newsgroups over all other forms of so-called, 'social media'.

#Usenet #NewsGroups #NNTP #NetworkNews #NetNews #Anonymous #Anonymity #Writers #Writing