Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

Singing for My Supper (Technically, Lecturing for My Lunch)

I’ve written here about the New York Society Library before. It’s a lovely, lovely institution where yesterday I gave a brief “Writing Life” talk titled “Writing Contests 101.”

NYSocLib

The group was delightful, and I had a wonderful time. After the session, the librarian who had invited me to speak, Carolyn Waters, treated me to a delicious lunch at a nearby restaurant.

(I didn’t “advertise” this event ahead of time, because it was limited to Library members only. But I’m happy to share the resource handout that I distributed there.)

Recent Reads

It has been quite a reading week for me! I breezed through Anita Diamant’s highly readable The Boston Girl (it’s a good thing that I read it so fast, because my plan is to pop in on today’s inaugural Jewish Women’s Archive Book Group discussion that will focus on it).

Less famous, but by no means less resonant, are two other volumes I’ve spent time with in recent days. These are a privately-published collection of poems titled Eavesdropping at Heaven’s Gate and an anthology titled Women of Spirit: Exploring Sacred Paths of Wisdom Keepers.

I am the lucky recipient of copies of each, the poetry collection autographed by its author, Jon Racherbaumer, and the anthology signed by one of the book’s contributors, Deborah Elbaum. Jon and Deb are each very special to me, and I will treasure these volumes.

NewBooks

So I’ve had a pretty great week, right?

But, Wait! There’s More

Adam Gopnik has long been one of my favorite writers. So you can imagine how I jumped at the chance to attend this event at the CUNY Graduate Center:

EssaySeminar

I RSVPd sufficiently ahead of time to receive a packet with samples of Gopnik’s New Yorker essays (only one of which I don’t think I had seen before) to review before the event. He’s a fantastic speaker, and this session lived up to my high expectations. A bonus: I discovered two new places to enjoy his work: BBC’s “A Point of View” series and The Moth. I cannot wait to dig into those!

6 thoughts on “Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

  1. Erikia, your generosity of spirit is really wonderful. It makes me feel like I am a part of some kind and magnanimous international writers’ community. Kol hakavod! and Thank you.

  2. Nina says:

    I love your NYC literary life!

  3. Erika Dreifus says:

    Ah, two of my favorite commenters! Thank you both. (Nina, yesterday was NOT a typical day! But I certainly did feel lucky to be here in NYC!)

  4. Cherri says:

    Thanks so much, Erika for sharing the handout from your talk. Great information!

  5. Jo says:

    Erika, thanks so much for sharing your resource handout. Much appreciated!

  6. Erika Dreifus says:

    So glad it’s useful!

Comments are closed.