Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

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

  • Mazel tov to the latest winners of Canadian Jewish Book Awards, who will be honored later this month.
  • A poem for Yom HaZikaron.
  • And a poem of mine.
  • New resource: YIVO Digital Archive on Jewish Life in Poland.
  • Finally, as Mother’s Day approaches here in the U.S., I recommend that you spend a few minutes watching filmmaker Judith Helfand’s “Love and Stuff” on NYTimes.com. (It would have moved me to tears even if I hadn’t known the family and attended Florence Helfand’s funeral myself.)
  • Shabbat shalom.

    Words of the Week: Liel Leibovitz

    “But diversity, that sterling principle of our culture, is precisely what the privilege-checking throttles. To make an example of Fortgang once again, to assume that he, the grandson of a poor Jewish immigrant, stands shoulder-to-shoulder in the same privilege bracket as the grandson of, say, a well-heeled patrician just because both are white men whose parents can afford a good college is to assume that neither is able to transcend the happenstance of his birth and that both, despite having grown up in such radically different traditions, arrive at a conversation with precisely the same point of view, shaped exclusively by their skin, their cocks, and their cash. It is, in other words, to deny that diversity is even a possibility. And that, I hope it goes without saying, is a deeply illiberal thing to do.”

    Source: Liel Leibovitz, “Liberals, Don’t Check Your Privilege,” via Tablet.

    Wednesday’s WIP: After The Muse–and After the MFA

    muse2014Honestly, I don’t know how they do it, but the Grub Street team presents an outstanding (and outstandingly-organized) conference with The Muse and the Marketplace every year. I have so many thoughts/gleanings to share after last weekend’s conference, but I am trying to be equally organized (in my mind, before I even attempt the screen). Pending further commentary, I thought I’d share a bit about the session that I moderated on Saturday afternoon.

    The session that I’d proposed was titled “After the MFA: Constructing and Leading a Writing Life.” My super-accomplished co-panelists were Matt Bell, Patricia Park, and Laura van den Berg.

    For those of you who weren’t able to attend the conference and/or our session, here’s the text of the handout that I prepared for distribution. Please feel free to add your resource suggestions in the comments section. Thanks! (more…)

    My Machberet to Host May Jewish Book Carnival

    It’s my pleasure to invite contributions for the May Jewish Book Carnival, which will be hosted here on My Machberet.

    You ask, what is the Jewish Book Carnival?

    Per the Association for Jewish Libraries, the Carnival’s headquarters, it is “a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read and comment on each others’ posts.” It aims “to build community among bloggers and blogs who feature Jewish books, and it runs every month on the 15th.”

    You ask, how do I participate? (more…)

    Monday Markets for Writers

    dollar-sign-mdMonday brings the weekly batch of no-fee competitions/contests, paying submission calls, and jobs for those of us who write (especially those of us who write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction).

  • First things first: If you haven’t seen the May issue of The Practicing Writer yet, you’ll find a slew of no-fee competitions and paying calls for fiction, poetry, and cnf within.
  • (more…)