“Writing Jewish Worlds”: NYC Event on Friday, November 18

by Erika Dreifus on
2

If I weren’t traveling to New Jersey on November 18 for an author event of my own, I’d do my very best to get over to the Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York. What promises to be a fascinating program will begin at 4 p.m.: “Writing Jewish Worlds.”

“Join authors Mikhal Dekel (English, City College), Marianne Hirsch (English and Comparative Literature, Columbia), Nancy K. Miller (Comparative Literature, English and French, CUNY Graduate Center), Lara Vapnyar (Comparative Literature, CUNY Graduate Center), and Wayne Koestenbaum (English, CUNY Graduate Center) as they discuss the genesis of their recent books, the rewards and impasses of writing about Jewish subjects, and the tensions between the personal and historical motivations of their work— whether in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, literary criticism or history.”

The program is free, but it seems as though they’d like reservations. Click here for more info. And if you go, please report back! I’d love to hear all about it.

Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled
  • Beautiful essay by Thomas Israel Hopkins on Tablet, on grieving, Jewishly, for a non-Jewish parent.
  • Anna Solomon’s Little Bride continues to attract lots of attention. See Judy Bolton-Fasman’s post for The Forward‘s Sisterhood blog for some especially interesting thoughts.
  • Kevin Haworth revisits “The Catskills” for Defunct, “a literary repository for the ages.”
  • Poet and professor Rick Chess reflects on Amichai, Asheville, and more.
  • Last call! Come join us on Sunday afternoon to talk about “Looking Backward: History, the Holocaust, and Literary Writing in the Third Generation.”

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Attention, High Schoolers (and Parents Thereof)

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    It’s not every day (or, frankly, any day) that I wish I could be a high-schooler again. This new program is perhaps the only thing that could entice me to go back in time if I had the opportunity to do so.

    Great Jewish Books brings together eighteen rising high school juniors and seniors to read, discuss, argue about, and fall in love with some of the most powerful and enduring works of modern Jewish literature.

    During a week-long residency at the Yiddish Book Center on the campus of Hampshire College, participants will study with some of the nation’s most respected literary scholars, meet prominent contemporary authors, and connect with other teens from across the country. The 2012 program runs from Sunday, July 29 through Sunday, August 5.

    High school students entering their junior or senior year in fall 2012 are eligible to apply.

    Apply now!

    Tuition, room, meals, and books will be provided for accepted students through a generous grant from Michael Steinhardt.

    Application deadline is March 15, 2012. There is no application fee.

    Lily Renée, Escape Artist

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4

    Alerted and intrigued by Trina Robbins’s guest post for the Jewish Book Council blog, I spent part of Sunday afternoon at the lovely Books of Wonder bookstore in Manhattan, where Robbins and Lily Renée, the subject of Robbins’s Lily Renée: Escape Artist, spoke to a large group of admirers. (FYI: One of those admirers told me that she runs a website titled “Ladies Making Comics,” for those of you who may want to learn still more about “all the awesome women who make comics.”)

    Subtitled “From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer” and illustrated by Anne Timmons and Mo Oh, Lily Renée, Escape Artist, chronicles the early life of one such awesome woman: Lily Renée. Born in Vienna, Lily Renée Wilheim was a young teenager when the Nazis annexed Austria. She became part of a Kindertransport to England and was eventually reunited with her parents in New York, which is where her artistic talents helped her obtain paying work for a comic book publisher. That is the story and timespan covered in the new book.

    I must admit that I don’t normally read graphic narratives, and I also don’t spend much time with middle-grade literature, which is how this book seems to be categorized. I read through it quickly—it’s not long, and it captured and held my attention. I was impressed, and I hope that in the not-too-distant future I’ll be able to share it with my niece (8).

    I was interested to read others’ impressions of the book, not only on Goodreads, but also elsewhere on the Web. If you’re similarly intrigued, please click on.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • Last week, I mentioned that I wouldn’t make it to the Amos Oz event at the 92nd Street Y. But Andrew Silow-Carroll was there.
  • Fantastic interview with author Allegra Goodman on her own (and others’) Jewish fiction. (via @realdelia)
  • Beth Kissileff reports on an International Conference on the Life and Work of Aharon Appelfeld, held October 26 and 27 at the University of Pennsylvania. Appelfeld was in attendance.
  • Over on the Literary Commentary blog, D.G. Myers argues that fantasy is a genre of Christianity.
  • A reminder that I’ll be speaking as a guest of the Jewish Historical Society of New York on Sunday, November 13. The topic: “Looking Backward: History, the Holocaust, and Literary Writing in the Third Generation.”

    • Shabbat shalom!