Posts Tagged‘Anglo-Jewish literature’

Home » Anglo-Jewish literature » Page 7

Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish news, primarily of the literary variety, from around the Web.

  • I’m looking forward to delving into this special “Writing from Israel” poetry and translation feature from The Bakery.
  • Thrilled to see this interview with my former poetry teacher, Matthew Lippman, on The Whole Megillah.
  • See also an interview with Israeli poet Moshe Dor and translator Barbara Goldberg, courtesy of Moment magazine’s blog.
  • On Tablet: New translations of powerful Holocaust poetry by Chava Rosenfarb.
  • D.G. Myers interprets Howard Jacobson – and reviews Jacobson’s Zoo Time – for Jewish Ideas Daily.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    My Year in Jewish Books (2012 edition)

    by Erika Dreifus on
    6

    Last year, I found it useful (and kind of fun) to look back on “my year in Jewish books.” So, borrowing some of the same introductory wording, I’m going to attempt to do something similar for 2012.

    Reviewing my reading for 2012 (thank you, Goodreads!), I can see that I do not and would not ever limit my reading to “Jewish books” exclusively. (By the way, I define “Jewish books” as books with substantive Jewish content/themes. In my view, non-Jewish authors can write “Jewish books.” And Jewish authors can write books that don’t strike me as particularly Jewish. I read several of those books this year, too.)

    But this year, as usual, I did read quite a few books that fall within the “Jewish book” category. And, as an advocate for Jewish literature, I’m proud of that.

    Below, you will find these books presented in the order in which I read them. (more…)

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

    Every Friday, My Machberet presents a set of Jewish Literary Links to close out the week.

  • First, and in case you missed it, I devoted a post on my “Practicing Writing” blog earlier this week to some reflections on Israeli author Shani Boianjiu’s forthcoming novel, The People of Forever Are Not Afraid.
  • Next, the latest Jewish Book Carnival went live earlier this week. This month’s Carnival marks the project’s second anniversary.
  • Lilith fiction editor (and prolific author in her own right) Yona Zeldis McDonough is the Association of Jewish Libraries Facebook Writer-in-Residence for the month of July.
  • On Monday, the Jewish Book Council hosted author Francesca Segal, who chatted with readers via Twitter about her recasting of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence in her own recent novel, The Innocents. You can read the transcript if you missed the fun. And take note of the next JBC Twitter chat, featuring Joshua Henkin and The World Without You in September.
  • Finally, yours truly has a piece up on The Forward’s Arty Semite blog, “Remembering Munich, in Fact and Fiction.” (That would be in my fiction: in “Homecomings,” a story in Quiet Americans.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    From My Bookshelf: THE INNOCENTS, by Francesca Segal

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Just a couple of days ago I mentioned that I’ve been reading The Innocents, the debut novel by Francesca Segal. As I noted, Segal’s book updates Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and transplants it to a tight-knit Jewish community in contemporary London.

    I picked up a complimentary pre-publication copy (and had it signed by the author) at last month’s Book Expo America here in New York City. I also had the good fortune to catch one of Segal’s tweets about a reading she was giving at a bookstore in my neighborhood that same week, so I had the chance to hear the book’s opening section read aloud with a suitably British accent.

    But it took a few weeks until I managed to start reading the book myself. Once I began, it was tough to put the book down. I’m not at all certain that all other readers will be as captivated by both elements of the book–the adaptation of the Wharton tale and the depiction of a Jewish community and its customs–as I was. But they sure captivated me.

    I’ll leave you with a sampling of brief excerpts–passages that I found so resonant that they inspired me to dog-ear their respective pages and return to think consider them more intensively. (more…)

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday, My Machberet presents a set of Jewish Literary Links to close out the week.

  • First up: I’m currently reading Francesca Segal’s The Innocents, a novel that updates Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and transplants it to Jewish London. You still have time to read a copy yourself before the Jewish Book Council’s Twitter chat with the author, which is slated for July 16.
  • Also looking just a bit ahead: If you’re in New York, you may want to catch “Four Jewish Guys: Poetry and Performance,” scheduled for July 19 and featuring Jake Marmer, Jay Michaelson, Yehoshua November, and Philip Terman.
  • Not easy to read, but noteworthy nonetheless: “The American Girl in the Bunker,” a first-person account of a volunteer from New York serving in an IDF paratrooper unit–and dealing with rockets from Gaza.
  • Very different material, but also worth your time: Deborah Eisenberg’s new short story, “Cross Off and Move On.”
  • And over on Bagels and Books, there’s a nice recap of this spring’s Writers’ Festival in Jerusalem.

    • Shabbat shalom!