Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

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.

  • Terrific profile of Cynthia Ozick—whose 18th book is about to be published—in The New York Times Magazine.
  • A beautiful essay “on what a dying language leaves behind” (the dying language in this case being Ladino), by Rachel Hall. (Bonus: a radio broadcast in which Rachel discusses her forthcoming book of short fiction.)
  • Reminder: The June 30 deadline for Moment magazine’s editorial fellowship is approaching.
  • In this week’s mail: the latest issue of the Jewish Review of Books (some content can be accessed online).
  • And for those of us who missed the latest conference of the Association of Jewish Libraries, the #AJLCon16 hashtag provides some highlights.
  • Shabbat shalom, all!

    Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

    #YeahYouWrite

    Spoiler alert: We have no dearth of reading series here in New York City. But there’s a fairly new one that I had the good fortune to discover last week.

    And I’ll be returning.#YeahYouWrite

    I found out about #YeahYouWrite when the amazing Sara Lippmann, whom I’m lucky enough to call a good friend, let me and a few other people know that she’d been invited to participate. I would have gone to support Sara in any case (even if she hadn’t generously offered to feed her fans). But the fact that Jacob Appel was on the roster to read the same evening was a definite plus: I’ve admired Jacob’s work for years but had never had the chance to meet him. (Unfortunately, the third featured reader, E.J. Levy, turned out to be unable to be there.)

    Sara read, and Jacob read (and, to my delighted surprise, gave me one of his books in addition to the one that I bought on site), and the excellent event curator led a terrific Q&A session. Throughout, there were delicious drinks (including the specialty cocktails described to the right) and yummy food.

    And then, the evening segued into an open mic session during which audience members read from their work. (We were told that the first reader was an MFA student who was appearing in order to earn class credit! An interesting idea for all of you instructors out there, yes? If you have reading series nearby?) I read two (as yet unpublished) poems.

    And I was photographed! (more…)

    Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

    Amy K.A Rainy Evening’s Reading

    Not even heavy rain kept the crowd from filling the event space at the Barnes & Noble on Manhattan’s Upper West Side last Thursday evening. Everyone had come for Amy Koppelman‘s reading from her latest novel, Hesitation Wounds.

    Here’s Amy listening to the very first question from the audience–(her husband happened to be the one who posed the question). Also present for the occasion: one of Amy’s early writing teachers, Michael Cunningham, who by her account, sounds as though he is the epitome of a generous writing mentor.

    And it definitely looks as though there’s more than one writer in the family: Amy posted a link yesterday to this lovely essay by her teenaged daughter. Go take a read. Especially if you ever felt friendless/alone as an adolescent. (Spoiler alert: It’s really a happy essay! And poetry plays a part!) (more…)