Sunday Sentence

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

15147_grandeIn which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, sharing the best sentence I’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

Now on our backs
in Fayetteville, Arkansas,
the stars are falling
into our cracked eyes.

Source: James Tate’s “Coda,” quoted by Cody Walker on KenyonReview.org.

Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Every Friday My Machberet presents an array of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Hosted by Deborah Kalb, the latest Jewish Book Carnival was posted this week.
  • Quite an interesting piece by Beena Kamlani on editing Saul Bellow’s last novel.
  • As editor, I’m always pleased to share the latest issue of the Fig Tree Books newsletter. (Check out the giveaways now being offered!)
  • Unless you’ve been living under a rock of some kind, you’ve likely been reading and hearing a lot about Harper Lee this week. Notable in the discourse: Alexandra Levine’s piece on “Harper Lee’s Jewish Lessons,” for The Forward.
  • And the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles is advertising for a PJ Library Program Assistant.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    The Association of Jewish Libraries Conference in Review

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    As many of you know, last month I had the great pleasure of attending the annual conference of the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) for the first time. I was there in my capacity as Media Editor of Fig Tree Books; you may have even caught my account of one of the conference sessions, a panel on book-reviewing, over on the Fig Tree blog.

    Indeed, I did sneak out to a few of the many wonderful sessions. But I remained based primarily at the table where Fig Tree books, galleys, and flyers were displayed.

    So I’m especially happy to see that the AJL has very generously assembled a set of conference proceedings. (more…)

    Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

    by Erika Dreifus on
    9

    New Essay/Article-in-Progress

    At long last, I have begun devoting chunks of time to the project I agreed to back in February: a chapter in a forthcoming volume tentatively titled Third-Generation Holocaust Narratives: The Intergenerational Transmission of Memory, Longing, and Loss. My own contribution, titled (for the moment) “Theory and Practice of Third-Generation Writing,” will ideally combine reflection on my own writing experiences and analyses of works by others. (more…)