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.

  • So much excellent work on Hevria this week, including “How the Rebbe Inspired Me to Be a Writer”; “Orthodox Writers, Meet Your Role Model”; and “Mermaid Esther: An Astonishing Fire.”
  • Montreal has a new mural–honoring Mordecai Richler.
  • A follow-up to Moment magazine’s recent list of Jewish podcasts—this time featuring readers’ recommendations.
  • If video is more your thing, check out the Forward‘s list of 10 Jewish movies you can stream for free (the Forward is calling them “overlooked,” but I’m not sure that’s always the case).
  • From the revelation that it took him about two years to really inhabit the protagonist of To the End of the Land to a reflection on how each of his books has been necessary to the writing of those that have followed, David Grossman shared a multiplicity of quiet insights—personal, professional, and political—during his recent appearance at the JCC Manhattan.
  • Shabbat Shalom.

    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.

  • People are talking about The Secret Book of Kings, the fifth of Yochi Brandes’s six novels, which is now available in English translation (by Yardenne Greenspan). Check out Israel in Translation’s spotlight.
  • TBR: special section in the new issue of Words Without Borders on Yiddish literature (curated and introduced by Sebastian Schulman).
  • My bookshelves will never forgive (or even accommodate) me if I bring in piles of new tomes, but if YOU have space for more books—and can spare the $25 for admission—check out the upcoming “Raid the Shelves” event hosted by the Jewish Book Council here in New York (and let me know what you bring home!).
  • Among this week’s many tribute to the late, great Gene Wilder, I recommend Tablet magazine’s re-publication of Abigail Pogrebin’s profile.
  • And be sure to check out the latest newsletter from Fig Tree Books, publishing the best fiction and nonfiction on American Jewish experience.
  • Shabbat shalom.

    From My Bookshelf

    Sulak_GidaliLast week I had the great pleasure of attending a celebration in honor of Marcela Sulak and her new translation, Twenty Girls to Envy Me: Selected Poems of Orit Gidali (University of Texas Press). Sulak is another writer I’ve become acquainted with online. She is the author of three collections of poetry and three earlier book-length translations. She directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar Ilan University, where she is an associate professor of English. She also hosts the weekly “Israel in Translation” podcast on TLV1 FM, which you’ll see listed on the My Machberet blogroll.

    The evening gathering in New York was absolutely lovely. And I was able to purchase a copy of the new book, which I greedily read this weekend. (more…)

    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.

  • Some Israeli publishing data for 2015, courtesy of the country’s National Library.
  • “The Koffler Centre of the Arts is proud to announce a significant new literary award in Canada – the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature.” (Unfortunately, I’ve found out about this too late to help anyone for the current round–submissions closed in early June.)
  • If I can manage to sit through a three-hour play, it may well be this one. And I’m sorry to have to miss this one–which I’ve just learned about but won’t be able to catch during its brief engagement.
  • In this talk, novelist and literary scholar Dara Horn explores the role Hebrew can play in a living contemporary American Jewish culture, as she has experienced it as a reader and as an American writer. This lecture was part of the 2016 Stroum Lectures, ‘Hebrew and the Creative Imagination,’ hosted by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies of the University of Washington.”
  • And ICYMI: a note about a new essay of mine, on being a “3G” writer.
  • May it be a good and peaceful Shabbat for all. Shabbat shalom.

    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.

  • Whatever happened to Hodel? We’ll soon learn one possible outcome for Tevye’s second daughter, via Alexandra Silber’s After Anatevka (as described in The New York Times).
  • Simone Zelitch writes about “How Philip Roth Predicted the Rise of Donald Trump” for the Forward.
  • Chaya Lester memorializes “Hallel, Of Blessed Memory…” on Hevria.
  • Some strong words from Cynthia Ozick in this Boris Kachka piece.
  • And a powerful essay by Carly Pildis—“I Am Woke: Why I Am Finally Raising My Voice Against Jewish Erasure in the Anti-Racism Movement”—on Tablet.
  • Shabbat shalom.