Pre-Shabbat #JewLit Links
Every Friday My Machberet presents an array of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.
Sandee Brawarsky’s take on Yirmi Pinkus’s Petty Business (trans. Evan Fallenberg and Yardenne Greenspan), isn’t the first to draw my attention to the book. But it has motivated me to check the library catalog again, discover that the book is now available, and place a hold.
News from Mechon Hadar: “The Ateret Zvi Prize in Hiddushei Torah, launching in 5778/2018, will be extended yearly by Hadar to recognize a work of innovative and exceptional Torah scholarship. The prize is endowed in loving memory of Professor and Rabbi Zvi H. Szubin, a lifelong scholar and teacher who uncovered rich insights buried in traditional texts using legal, historical, and linguistic tools—an approach he termed ‘text archaeology.’ The competition aims to inspire scholarship and innovation in the study of Torah and is open to all.” Deadline: June 30, 2018. Prize: “The winner of the Ateret Zvi prize will receive $5,000 and be expected to attend a special event held in honor of the winning submission, which will be shared with a live audience in November 2018.”
Pre-ordered this week: Yossi Klein Halevi’s Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.
There are a few reasons that I’m sorry not to be heading to Tampa for the annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) next week, and the fact that the conference program seems to feature an unusually robust number of Jewishly-themed panel sessions is among them. (I have found 4 of them! Plus at least one that is interfaith with Jewish representation. Yes, 4[+] sessions compose a minuscule fraction in the grand scheme of the [very] grand AWP conference. And yet, this programming represents an improvement, particularly since the sessions seem to be tackling some new ground.) I’m especially sorry to be missing a Thursday panel on “Jewish Writing Versus Writing by Jews,” which will include Goldie Goldenbloom, Sarah Stone, Yehoshua November, Matthue Roth, and Riva Lehrer. Description: “Many of the great writers of the 20th century, from Kafka to Proust to Roth, were Jewish, but they rarely dealt with Judaism in their writing or work lives. In the fraught environment on campus today, it can be hard to come out as a religious minority. How do Jewish writers honor the human spirit while writing about religion and culture and what role does Judaism play in their work lives? Secular Humanists and Ultra-Orthodox Jews discuss their experiences as minority writers in today’s world.” If anyone who attends that session would be interested in writing a recap/summary for possible guest-post publication here on My Machberet, please be in touch. (I pay $25 for commissioned guest posts, via Paypal.)
Reminder: There’s still time to RSVP for a (free!) celebration of Leon Wiener Dow’s new book, The Going, at the NYC location of the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Shabbat shalom.
I wish I were going to Tampa, too, but finances don’t allow it. I’m glad to see the Jewish-related panels. In some years, there were none, and even if they were, like the one I moderated in 2013, it was scheduled on Saturday. For fun, I go through the program and check off the events/panels i would have gone to if I attended.
And I’ll bet that there are many!