Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
  • This week, one of the little ones in Auntie Erika’s life turned 8, and as per usual, he received a birthday gift of a book. I sent him Richard Michelson’s Lipman Pike: America’s First Home Run King, which was recently named a Sydney Taylor Notable Book for Young Readers. Check out this interview with Mr. Michaelson (part of the latest blog tour featuring Sydney Taylor Award titles).
  • The above-mentioned interview pointed me to Richard Michaelson’s website, where I discovered this essay Michaelson published some years back, on writing outside one’s own racial/cultural experience.
  • Win a copy of Joan Leegant’s wonderful novel, Wherever You Go.
  • Chas Newkey-Burden (“OyVaGoy”), presents a list of recommended books about Israel.
  • Terrific essay by Sara Ivry for Tablet on a Judy Blume classic, Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself.
  • The Jewish Book Council has announced the winner and runner-up for this year’s Sami Rohr Prize: “This year’s prize is for non-fiction and is awarded to journalist Gal Beckerman. His book, When They Come for Us We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), is a comprehensive and enthralling chronicle of the history of the Soviet Jewry movement. The judges believe Beckerman’s work shows ‘his clear commitment to becoming a storyteller for the Jewish people.’ This is Beckerman’s first book. The runner-up is Oxford lecturer Abigail Green, for her biography, Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero (Belknap Press of Harvard University). She receives a $25,000 prize.”
  • Sample excerpts (translated by Jessica Cohen) from Israeli author Alex Epstein’s forthcoming collection, For My Next Illusion I Will Use Wings.
  • You’ll find a (somewhat overwhelming) list of intriguing new titles in Jewish fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in The Jewish Week‘s spring arts preview.
  • And as London’s Jewish Book Week celebrates its 60th anniversary, it attempts to list 60 great Jewish books of the past six decades.
  • Shabbat shalom!

    Friday Find: 10 Ways to Instill a Love for Reading

    Although I don’t have children of my own, I’m deeply invested the cultivating the next generation of readers–especially among the little ones who are related to me. And let’s just say that in certain cases, that has proved to be more–challenging–than others.

    So I’m always interested in others’ ideas and reflections on how to accomplish something hugely important. And I really like David B. Crowley’s “10 Ways to Instill a Love for Reading.” I hope that you do, too.

    Have a great weekend. See you back here on Monday!

    Thursday’s Work-in-Progress: Introducing My New Column

    Last week’s posts–about my day job and about how and where to locate forthcoming books for review–proved very popular. Thank you all for the comments, shares, RTs, and other indications of your interest! I hope that you’ll be pleased to know that today’s “work-in-progress” post takes up some of the threads from last week’s items. And that’s because I’m about to introduce a new “extra-curricular” writing activity grounded in my reviewing practice: a “First Looks” blog series/column for Fiction Writers Review, where I’m honored to be a contributing editor.

    As the first post–which went live yesterday–explains: “This series, which I’ll be writing each month, will introduce you to soon-to-be released novels and short-story collections that have piqued my interest as a reader-who-writes. Consider it a public “to be read” announcement of sorts, a way for me to point out a new title (or two) every month and explain what about it has caught my eye. For the most part, we’ll be concentrating on books that fall within FWR’s chief interest: fiction by emerging authors.”

    So go ahead. Take a peek and see which soon-to-released titles made it into the inaugural post (and why). Hope you enjoy!

    The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

  • If you’re an MFA student (past or present), or you teach in a graduate program in creative writing, please consider participating in Cathy Day’s quick survey on novels in MFA programs.
  • And on a somewhat related note: Since I seem to be having trouble enough writing anything long-form these days, my attention was caught by John Vanderslice’s post about his new workshop, which will focus on long poems.
  • The latest brouhaha in the creative-nonfiction world (check follow-up posts, too).
  • I was over on Carol Tice’s Make a Living Writing blog, and I just kept bookmarking posts to share with you. To save some time, I’ll simply send you to the homepage. Just keep scrolling down!
  • Another freelance tip: Consider the lesser-known holidays.