Erika Dreifus

• Another stellar short story by Omer Friedlander—this time, presented to us as the winning entry in the latest Moment Magazine-Karma Foundation short fiction contest.
• And speaking of short fiction: Next Tuesday the National Library of Israel will host Dr. Nora Gold, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the online literary journal Jewish Fiction .net, for a discussion of “Jewish Fiction Written in 16 Languages.” (Online Zoom event.)
• “New from Bayit’s Liturgical Arts Working Group comes this collaborative compilation of liturgy, poetry and art for this Tisha b’Av. Here are poems, prayers, artwork, and readings for Tisha b’Av 2021, looking back on the last pandemic year as we sit with what’s broken and nurture the seeds of hope for repair. This offering is organized through the frame of four stages of mourning, evoking both our own personal losses and our communal journey of global grief. Available both as a downloadable PDF and as google slides suitable for streaming / screenshare.”
• Things have been…difficult…in the (Jewish) kidlit sphere lately. I haven’t wanted to say too much about this situation, although I’ve shared a couple of items on social media. But I do think it’s worth reviewing these three items if you’ve been wondering about the brouhaha.
• And icymi over on the Practicing Writing blog: a review of 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium that I found particularly pleasing AND some good news for some other writers with regard to their Jewishly-focused work.

Shabbat shalom.