Light And Less Light in August

[Sarah Seltzer]

Hello subscribers old and new.

For those of you who have just signed up, the deal is: I send this newsletter out every 3-4 months, it has tons of links, you click the ones you like, ignore the rest of them, and that's it.

Many, many thanks for tuning in! Onto the clips: 

Recent and Upcoming:

I have a new piece up at Lilith about how hard it has been reading and watching the news this anguish-filled summer, and whether there's anything we can learn about change.

Hearken unto me telling a story about the suburbs with Vol 1. Brooklyn on October 2. I will be in really, really good company.

Austenania

At Salon, I explored Manfeels Park, an an amazing new webcomic that combines Jane Austen and feminism and makes my heart happy. Example below (scroll down for more links)

Politrix

Last month, I weighed on on geopolitics by writing a piece about Gaza and empathy that caused something of a stir. Previously: my piece on anti-Zionist but very Jewish punk rock band The Shondes facing censorship from a DC JCC. 

I also fumed about Hobby Lobby, abortion clinic buffer zones, and so forth at the Forward, and about campus rape for XoJane. I interviewed the badass anonymous activist behind the "bell hooks hotline" which distracts creepy dudes by hitting them with some intersectional feminist truth-bombs.

Cultural and topical...

Then to distract myself and sound a somewhat lighter, sharper, and creamier note, I discussed the finer arts of networking.. with cheese... at the Hairpin.

I wrote about loving highbrow and lowbrow fiction at XoJane and got quoted in the Op-Talk blog of the New York Times. I penned a letter from Feminism to actress Shailene Woodley that also got love in the (print) Times, and wrote a piece about race and gender and the Creative Writing Workshop that got picked up by NPR's Code Switch blog. 

I also had the chance to write about "abortion rom-com" Obvious Child, twice. Go see this film, for it is groundbreaking. And also so funny.

Fiction

Chanel and I yakked about fiction and social justice for ZEEK's summer fiction issue, which I curated and edited (read Ester's fiction therein, too!). 

My short story about old friends and weddings, "Giving Grace Away," got a nod from the Flavorwire fiction contest--it's one of my favorite things I've written-- and my story "After the Bar-Mitzvah," which fits into one of my WIPs, was appropriately published in WIPS journal. 

Interviews

I talked to friends and fiction writers Mary Rickert at Flavorwire and Jamie Reich at fwriction : review--and the amazing Deborah Jiang Stein, an activist and writer who was born in prison, at the Forward.

Then the script was flipped and teen Jewish organization Ma'aYan interviewed ME, and kept in all my "likes" and "you knows" because, like, why not, it's all kind of adorable, you know.

Ephemera

I wrote about my unorthodox career trajectory at the Billfold. And reviewed a book of "essays on the body" at Review31.

Speaking of essays, I along with my brilliant pal Emily C, are now editing CNF for litmag Atlas and Alice, which my other pals Ben and Mahtem are spearheading. 

You should submit!

What I'm reading.

You can find my fiction reading list on Goodreads. Elsewhere, I think you should read about a brave abortion provider at Esquire, and a piece about how "America is not for black people" at Deadspin that's equally sobering and important. My former colleague Pamela wrote about Missouri, too, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Pals' writing: Simon interviewed Paul McCartney, again. Kristen wrote about how drug laws still hurt moms even post-decriminalization. Julianne talked to Janet Mock for Rookie. Robin has a new project called Clinic Stories. Yes, my friends are awesome.

Okay, I don't have any dog or cat pictures to share, as many of my favorite freelancers do in their newsletters, but here is a snake I saw with Lauren and Kristen at my parents' place in Ghent. 

  

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sarah....@gmail.com
www.sarahmseltzer.com
Twitter: @sarahmseltzer