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Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
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Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
  • Among the books on my tbr list is a review copy of the New American Haggadah, whose novelist creators attracted the attention of The New York Times last weekend. (For more about the new Haggadah, see Jeffrey Goldberg, who makes an important guest appearance in the NYT article. Or check out Amy Meltzer’s Homeshuling post, where you can also enter a giveaway and perhaps win a copy of the New American Haggadah for yourself.)
  • The Patagonian Hare, an English version of Claude Lanzmann’s memoir, translated by Frank Wynne, is out this week. Carlin Romano writes about it.
  • In the new Atlantic, Joseph O’Neill writes about Philip Roth and “The American Trilogy.”
  • From Israel, Judy Labensohn shares “The Writing Workshopper’s Prayer.”
  • There’s a new book club in town.

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Jewish Book Carnival

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    Mid-month brings the Jewish Book Carnival.

    This month’s carnival is hosted over on Ann D. Koffsky’s blog and features contributions from several wonderful bloggers, including a number of posts on books for children.

    Please go take a look, and enjoy.

    P.S. For some reason, when I try commenting on other people’s WP sites/blogs (as for the Carnival), the comments don’t “take.” Anyone have any idea why that might be happening?

    Thursday’s Work-in-Progress: Packing My Bags & Polishing My Prose

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4


    One week from today, I’ll be heading to Charlottesville, Va., for a few jam-packed days. As I’ve mentioned here before, I’ll be teaching a freelancing seminar at WriterHouse, participating on a short-story panel for the Virginia Festival of the Book, and speaking at a local Jewish congregation.

    My seminar handout has been emailed to WriterHouse, and I know what I’ll be reading from Quiet Americans for the panel. This weekend, I’ll finish polishing my presentation for the congregants. In my “things-to-take-with-me” pile I’m carefully placing the ARC I need to read en route so I can write a review that’s due one week after my return.

    I’m so looking forward to this trip–and immensely grateful to everyone who is welcoming me in Charlottesville.

    The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4
  • I’m so grateful to those writers who are sharing their AWP wisdom with those of us who couldn’t make it to Chicago for the conference. For instance, throughout this week, Chloe Yelena Miller is posting presentations from a panel titled “Will Write for Food: Writers Working Outside Academia.”
  • Continuing with that theme: Fiction Writers Review shares Sarah Van Arsdale’s awesome AWP-based success story.
  • And over on her blog, Cathy Day continues to post items relating to the panel on “A Novel Problem: Moving from Story to Book in the MFA Program.”
  • In other news: What sort of music helps you write? Here’s my take on Chopin.
  • Attention, biographers: The Leon Levy Center for Biography is planning what looks to be a phenomenal (and free!) conference in New York for Thursday, March 29. I’ll keep an eye out for any videos that become available for those of us who can’t attend (even if we live in New York).
  • On the #writerwithadayjob theme: Check out “A Day in the Life,” a post by Eric Weinstein on the Ploughshares blog.

    • Quotation of the Week: Julia Alvarez

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4

    “For me, the writing life doesn’t just happen when I sit at the writing desk. It is a life lived with a centering principle, and mine is this: that I will pay close attention to this world I find myself in. ‘My heart keeps open house,’ was the way the poet Theodore Roethke put it in a poem. And rendering in language what one sees through the opened windows and doors of that house is a way of bearing witness to the mystery of what it is to be alive in this world.”

    –Julia Alvarez, quoted in 1998 in The Writer magazine, with the quotation republished in “Great Writing Tips from 125 Years of The Writer,” in the magazine’s April 2012 issue.