Erika Dreifus

Toward the end of each week, the My Machberet blog presents a collection of links, drawn primarily from the world of Jewish books and writing.

• Happening online Tuesday, May 5: Jewish Book Council/Paper Brigade‘s free “Celebration of the Short Story”, featuring the authors of the two sto­ries pub­lished in the 2026 issue of  JBC’s literary magazine. “In con­ver­sa­tion with Paper Brigade​’s edi­tors, Ali Littman (“Coy­otes”) and Nicole Haz­an (“The Hotel”) will read from and dis­cuss their work. Par­tic­i­pants are warm­ly invit­ed to ask the authors questions.”
• Happening online Wednesday, May 6: “A Century of Literature for Jewish American Children” is the title for a free class, led by Judy Ehrenstein, from the Jewish Study Center. “The early 20th century saw the rise of literature for children and the beginning of formal recognition of excellence and parallel developments for Jewish children, including creation of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and Jewish Book Week. The publication of Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family was groundbreaking. The class will also discuss recent trends in publishing for Jewish youth, including sources and suggested reading for participants to explore after the session.”
• Newly surfaced correspondence reveals famous author J.D. Salinger’s concern about being pigeonholed as a Jewish-Irish writer if his background had been included on the book jacket for The Catcher in the Rye.
• “Thank you for your interest in the second meeting of [the Association of Writers and Writing Programs[ AWP’s Jewish Writers Caucus at the 2026 AWP Conference in Baltimore. Founded and sponsored by Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry, in affiliation with the Jewish Book Council, the Jewish Writers Caucus was created to invite writers to meet each other, discuss challenges and opportunities, share resources, and compile suggestions for how AWP can better include and support Jewish writers, all in a space of community welcoming to Jews of all denominations, degrees of religious engagement, races, ethnicities, sexualities, genders, socioeconomic backgrounds, and political affiliations.” So begins the latest meeting report from the AWP Jewish Writers Caucus, disseminated by Yetzirah earlier this week.
• And just in time for Jewish Heritage Month in Canada (remember: May is Jewish American Heritage Month here in the USA, too!): news of the launch of the Canadian Jewish Life Writing Project, “a national annual initiative to collect, archive, and digitally exhibit short autobiographical life stories of Canadian Jews from a wide range of ages, regions, and social, cultural, and religious experience.” Essay theme for 2026: “Growing Up Jewish in Canada.” Deadline: October 30. No fee to submit. No payment indicated. As always, be sure to read all the guidelines/information before you send anything in.

Wishing everyone a Shabbat shalom.