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Notes from Around the Web: Literary Links for Shabbat

by on Friday, March 25, 2011 (0) Comments

  • Mazel Tov to Austin Ratner, who has won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature in fiction for his debut novel, The Jump Artist (Bellevue Literary Press), and to Joseph Skibell, who is the runner-up and recipient of of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Choice Award. His award-winning novel is A Curable Romantic (Algonquin). Two more books on my to-read list.
  • Make that three. After reading Sandee Brawarsky’s review, I’m putting Sharon Pomerantz’s Rich Boy atop the list.
  • “With new Jewish-themed television programs, critically acclaimed Jewish fiction, experimental electro-klezmer bands and Jewish-Muslim theater groups, British Jews are producing obviously Jewish-inflected artworks in increasingly vibrant and creative ways, which often become part of the mainstream culture,” writes Rebecca Schischa, for The Jewish Week.
  • Adam Kirsch reviews the newly-available translation (by Tim Wilkinson) of Imre Kertesz’s Fiasco.
  • For his part, Jonathan Kirsch reviews and recommends a new novel by Alan Cheuse, Song of Slaves in the Desert, which features a character “who stands in for the 3 to 5 percent of American slaveholders in the antebellum South who were Jewish.”
  • Job alert: “New Voices and JSPS [the Jewish Student Press Service] are seeking a full-time Editor in Chief/Executive Director. New Voices is the only national, independent magazine written for and by Jewish college students. Published by the Jewish Student Press Service (est. 1971), New Voices and newvoices.org cover Jewish issues from a student perspective. JSPS also runs the annual National Jewish Student Journalism conference, now in its 40th year.”
  • Another job alert, this time from the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Fla., which is seeking a part-time PJ Library Community Coordinator.

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    Writers Respond to “There Is a Mirror in My Heart: Reflections on a Righteous Grandfather”

    by on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 (1) Comments

    Uncharacteristically, my mother and I arrived a few minutes late. We missed the introductory remarks, but we managed to find two empty seats together in the large room that was filled with listeners who had gathered Monday evening at the Yeshiva University Museum/Center for Jewish History to hear poets present original writings in dialogue with an exhibition titled “There is a Mirror in My Heart: Reflections on a Righteous Grandfather.”

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    Notes from Around the Web: Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by on Friday, March 18, 2011 (0) Comments

  • Looking for some book suggestions? Check out these reviews from the spring issue of Jewish Book World. (Ahem, does one of those books look especially familiar???)
  • If you’re interested in writing Jewish-themed children’s books, you’ll want to take a look at this workshop offering.
  • Remember when I told you about The Forward‘s poetry contest commemorating the centenary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire? Here’s the winning poem in English. (And here is a special section from The Forward presenting translations of coverage from 100 years ago.)
  • Josh Lambert’s latest books column for Tablet features a number of Italy-themed offerings. (And why not?)
  • Continuing with Italy: This week, I happened to discover Janna Malamud Smith’s striking essay, “An Italian Tragedy.” Smith’s father was Bernard Malamud; her mother was the daughter of Neapolitan immigrants.
  • In my previous life as a student and teacher of 20th-century French history, I would have been sure to attend next week’s event at Columbia University, a conference at the Maison Française on “The Rescue of Jews in France and its Empire during World War II.” The conference is free and open to the public, and it will feature evening film screenings by Pierre Sauvage, whose work I’ve mentioned on this blog before.
  • This Tablet story is the kind of thing I read and immediately begin envisioning as a work of fiction. I seem to be drawn to moral quandaries that confront families.
  • And speaking of families, here’s a glimpse of my niece’s Purim costume. (Of course, when R. first told me that she’d be dressing up as “Three Musketeers,” Aunt-Erika-the-Author imagined a more literary outfit.)

    • Shabbat shalom, everyone, and Chag Purim!

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    Notes from Around the Web: Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by on Friday, February 25, 2011 (0) Comments

    Just a few literary links to share with you:

    • Publishers Weekly provides an overview of the Jerusalem International Book Fair. (See also my Monday post.)
    • Sweet essay on Tablet about one American student’s experience studying in Israel at the same time as Natalie Portman.
    • Speaking of Tablet, look who’s talking about Quiet Americans this week!
    • From The Jewish Week: A fascinating article by Miriam Intrator on the postwar fate of “Europe’s salvaged Jewish libraries.” And an equally superb piece by Paul Zakrzewski examines the current state of Jewish memoirs.
    • Next week will be a challenging one for our friend, Jewish Muse. Here’s why.
    • The next Jewish Book Council Twitter Book Club, featuring author Andrew Winer and his novel, The Marriage Artist, is scheduled for Wednesday, March 2. Details here.

    Shabbat shalom!

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    Notes from Around the Web: Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by on Friday, January 28, 2011 (0) Comments

    Many apologies for missing last week’s lit-links post. And fair warning: I’m unlikely to post next Friday as well: I’ll be away at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference. But don’t worry: I shall return!

  • The New Vilna Review presents an informative interview with Carol Hupping of the Jewish Publication Society, digging into the JPS’s past, present, and future.
  • Having recently gone to see the Hannah Senesh exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, I appreciated Elissa Strauss’s post about it for The Forward’s Sisterhood blog.
  • Fiction Writers Review has posted an exceedingly interesting interview with Jacob Paul, author of Sarah/Sara, which I reviewed (also for FWR) last year.
  • I’ve been noticing a growing cluster of Holocaust-related books authored by grandchildren of those who lived under Nazism. Among the latest (in addition, of course, to my own Quiet Americans, which was officially released last week) is Johanna Adorjan’s An Exclusive Love. Subtitled “A Memoir,” Adorjan’s book is, in the words of Jewish Journal’s reviewer Elaine Margolin, “an imaginative piece of work that blends fact and fantasy.”
  • And on a related note: Last Sunday’s New York Times Book Review featured a piece on Ferdinand von Schirach’s Crime (translated by Carol Brown Janeway): “To say that Germans and guilt have a special relationship would be to dive into the deep end of platitude, but in von Schirach’s case it’s difficult not to raise the issue, and not only because he’s titled his preface ‘Guilt.’ His grandfather, Baldur von Schirach, head of the Hitler Youth for most of the 1930s and later the wartime governor of Vienna, was convicted of crimes against humanity at Nuremberg.” Tbr, to be sure.
  • Finally, I hope that you’re following my virtual book tour for my new short-story collection, Quiet Americans. Several of the “stops” feature material of Jewish literary interest. Check out the itinerary (with brief content descriptions) here. (Plus, some really lovely reviews have been coming in.)

    • Shabbat shalom!

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