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.

  • Lilith held a launch party! Here’s a report.
  • Paper Brigade provides a snapshot of the previous year’s Jewish literary landscape while also exploring the history of Jewish literature in America and abroad. The publication is comprised of articles, interviews, personal essays, fiction, poetry, photography, and illustrations that, together, highlight the breadth and diversity of Jewish books today. The 2018 issue of Paper Brigade will be published in November 2017, and will primarily be focused on 2017 books.” Currently accepting “original, unpublished nonfiction between 1,500 and 2,500 words….Pieces should involve a 2017 book, and we encourage authors to be creative about the ways in which they accomplish this. (We’re not looking for straightforward book reviews.) The majority of our articles feature more than one book, and they often discuss trends in current literature or explore books in the context of older traditions.” Pays: “We provide a small honorarium for original nonfiction.” Deadline: “Submissions are due by April 24, 2017, and are accepted on a rolling basis. We encourage you to submit as early as possible.”
  • Over on The Whole Megillah, there’s an informative interview with Catriella Freedman, director of PJ Our Way, a programming initiative for kids who have “graduated” from PJ Library readership. Included in this interview is information for prospective authors.
  • “In the 1930s, enough people did share [Ezra] Pound’s anti-Semitism and fascism that they became world-historically important, rather than individually disturbing. Now that those same obsessions seem to be staging a comeback across the Western world, his case calls for stringent judgement, rather than the sympathetic evasions it has so often inspired.” From Adam Kirsch’s New Statesman review of a new Pound study. (via Mosaic magazine)
  • And this week brought the latest newsletter (assembled by yours truly) from Fig Tree Books LLC, a company devoted to literature of American Jewish experience.
  • Shabbat shalom.