Erika Dreifus

• At the Yale University Library, Cynthia Ozick’s literary archive has recently opened to researchers. “Comprising 329 boxes, the Ozick papers include correspondence, handwritten and typed drafts of essays, short stories, and novels, and other personal papers dating from her youth through the library’s acquisition of the archive. The papers offer insights into her writing, thinking, and life, as well as those of the many noted writers and editors with whom she corresponded, including [John] Updike, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, Gordon Lish, Helen Weinberg, Elie Wiesel, and Merrill Joan Gerber.” (Many thanks to Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn for bringing this to my attention.)
• Having read an advance copy of Rabbi Diana Fersko’s We Need to Talk About Antisemitism (I recommend it; it will be out next week), I was particularly interested to find Andrew Silow-Carroll’s new Q&A with the author. (Some of you reading this may be particularly interested in a snippet about one editor’s rejection of the book.)
• Noted yesterday in a newsletter from the New York Public Library: “Award-winning author James McBride’s new novel, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, is now available to read on our free e-reader app, SimplyE, as part of NYPL and WNYC’s September book club. In McBride’s latest, the bond between Jewish and Black residents of a small town is tested when a shopkeeper and janitor help a young deaf orphan avoid being institutionalized. Start reading now and join us for librarian-led discussions throughout September and an author talk with McBride at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL).” For more about McBride’s new book, I suggest this piece by Julia Gergely for New York Jewish Week; a recording of the recent conversation between McBride and Sandee Brawarsky that’s referenced within can be found online, too.
• Among the latest settings for discussion of that perennial question, “what are Jewish stories?”: a ComicCon panel. So far I’ve managed only to read Donald H. Harrison’s report for San Diego Jewish World; I’m hoping to watch the panel recording soon!
• And if you’ve been waiting for a chance to purchase Quiet Americans: Stories and Birthright: Poems (for yourself, or possibly for gift-giving purposes), you have until tomorrow evening (midnight, HST) to bid on signed copies that I’ve offered up for the Books for Maui auction to benefit Maui relief efforts. And be sure to browse the stunning array of auction items, a number of which, I’ve noticed, feature Jewish books (and bookish services, such as critiques and consultations, from Jewish creators/publishing professionals).

Shabbat shalom.