Photo Credit: Reut Miryam CohenEvery Friday My Machberet presents an array of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.
Did you follow that recent brouhaha about a so-called “banned” book in Israel? Liel Leibovitz dug deeper into that story for Tablet; read his piece. (See also Michele Chabin’s report for The Jewish Week.)
“If the American Jewish story is, on balance, a very happy one, why are our books so miserable? Where are the well-adjusted Jewish writers?” In a new review for Tablet, Adam Kirsch spotlights one of the happy ones: Herman Wouk, who has a new memoir out.
I’d fallen behind on the “Israel in Translation” series; here’s a tribute segment for Amir Gutfreund, the Israeli author who passed away this fall.
Shabbat shalom. PS: I’ll be traveling for the next few days; comment moderation and response will resume after my return.
Just wanted to share with you a couple of sentences from a woman in her mid-90’s who took my short story class this fall (which included your book, QUIET AMERICANS). She wrote: “I want to thank you for the course which opened my eyes to how good a short story can be. I guess I had a typical reaction to the short story in the past—not worth reading—but your pointing out how good writers can be in a different style. So thank you…I hope you can be persuaded to do a follow-up.” Never too late to learn new things!
Thank you for including Liel Leibovitz’ piece in your last Machberet post!
Of course!
Erika—
Just wanted to share with you a couple of sentences from a woman in her mid-90’s who took my short story class this fall (which included your book, QUIET AMERICANS). She wrote: “I want to thank you for the course which opened my eyes to how good a short story can be. I guess I had a typical reaction to the short story in the past—not worth reading—but your pointing out how good writers can be in a different style. So thank you…I hope you can be persuaded to do a follow-up.” Never too late to learn new things!
Oh, that is really something! Thank you so much for sharing! (P.S. For said follow-up, may I suggest Michal Lemberger’s AFTER ABEL AND OTHER STORIES? It was shortlisted for two major Jewish lit awards this year (so far). I wrote about it here: https://edreifus.wpengine.com/2015/04/from-my-bookshelf-after-abel-and-other-stories-by-michal-lemberger/. And later in 2016, please look out for my friend Rachel Hall’s outstanding collection, HEIRLOOMS, which was selected by Marge Piercy for the latest BkMk Press Short Fiction prize: https://sunygeneseoenglish.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/rachel-halls-fiction-selected-for-prize-by-poet-novelist-marge-piercy/)