Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer
Three quick updates.
1. I’m busy polishing and proofreading the February issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0, which will go out to subscribers on Sunday.
2. I’m also (still!) busy preparing for the class that I’ll start teaching next week!
3. As I’ve mentioned before, the class is focused on “Holocaust Literature.” Today, the anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jewish communities worldwide also observe another commemoration, Yom HaShoah, every spring).
I expect to share with this semester’s students clips from “Children of the Holocaust: Writers of the Next Generation.” (I happened to be in the audience when the event took place here in New York several years ago.)
Especially if you’re a fan of writers such as Ruth Franklin, Daniel Mendelsohn, and Sarah Wildman—all of whom participated that evening—you may want to check it out, too. Especially today.
I wonder if you have recently looked at a small and beautiful book by Primo Levi “Moments of Reprieve” that I just read in a day…I’d read the more known books but never this one. there are perhaps a dozen small pieces, perfect for teaching, each has such strength and humility. Can also recommend Gail Newman’s “Blood Memory” for wonderful poems about her parents, survivors of Auschwitz.
I don’t know that Levi book, Barbara–thanks for mentioning it. And yes, I am familiar with Gail Newman’s book. Thanks again.
Thank you for all you do…you are such a fine and really personal presence in this world of distant connections. If you have a chance, “Moments of Reprieve” is truly beautiful and the final story connects with our present as a warning…we all feel these warnings. Barbara
Also recommend the autobiographical novel “Tell Me Another Morning” by Zdena Berger (who survived Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen).