Notes from Around the Web

by Erika Dreifus on
1
  • The new issue of Jewish Book World is hot off the press. Here are some of the reviews within its pages, and here are all of the books discussed in this issue.
  • Cannot wait to dig in to The Jewish Week‘s fall literary guide.
  • David Kaufmann considers the Jewishness of poet C.K. Williams as reflected in Williams’s latest book, Wait.
  • IntheMoment, Moment Magazine‘s blog, has launched a weekly book feature.
  • From Fiction Writers Review: this excellent interview with author Janice Eidus, who “is particularly passionate about Jewish identity, contemporary culture, and women’s issues.”
  • It was nice to learn this week that Lilith has added my short story, “Polar Region,” which was published in the magazine several years ago, to its online Adoption Anthology.
  • Some important reminders about Holocaust books from Jewish Literary Review.
  • Inspiring article about student journalists at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America.
  • Less inspiring, but still important to acknowledge: Jewish Ideas Daily shares an analysis of the anti-Israel record of the influential London Review of Books.
  • On a more positive note, and as mentioned a couple of days ago, the November Jewish Book Carnival went live earlier this week. Next month, the itinerant Carnival will be hosted right here.

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Tablet Magazine Seeks Interns (and Will Pay Them!)

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    From Tablet Magazine:

    Tablet Magazine is looking for interns for our spring term, which runs from the beginning of the new year through May.

    If you have experience in journalism and are familiar with the landscape of American Jewish life, we’d love to hear from you. We are hiring interns to work either two or three days a week at our office in New York City. Interns will contribute blogposts and full features as well as assist the editorial staff with research and administrative tasks. They will be paid stipends. If you’re interested, please send a cover letter, a résumé, and three writing clips to mtracy(at)tabletmag(dot)com, by Friday, December 3. We look forward to hearing from you.

    Good luck to anyone who applies!

    November Jewish Book Carnival

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    It’s mid-November, and you know what that means….

    It’s time for the monthly Jewish Book Carnival!

    This month’s Carnival is hosted by JewishBoston.com, and David Levy has done a lovely job highlighting the fact that next month’s Carnival will be hosted by yours truly. I’m looking forward to it!

    In the meantime, however, do check out all of the interesting Jewish lit links at the JewishBoston.com Carnival post.

    Nonfiction Contest: New Writing on the Old World

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    As you may know, on my other blog, I limit contest announcements to competitions that do not charge entry fees. For contests interested in specifically Jewish content, however, there’s a more limited pool of information to share, so I (reluctantly) expand listings to fee-charging programs.

    Here’s a new one to share with you:

    The Summer Literary Seminars SLS Jewish Lithuania/Litvak Experiences Program is pleased to announce a new non-fiction contest: East-European Roots: New Writing on the Old World, held this year in affiliation with Tablet Magazine, an online magazine providing a “new take on Jewish life”, and judged by Philip Lopate.

    The theme for the contest is Eastern European Histories: people’s roots and ancestral heritage.

    The contest winner will have their work prominently featured online in Tablet Magazine. Additionally, they will receive free airfare, tuition, and housing to our 2011 SLS Jewish Lithuania/Litvak Experiences Program.

    Second-place winners will receive a full tuition waiver for the 2011 SLS Jewish Lithuania/Litvak Experiences Program, and third-place winners will receive a 50% tuition discount.

    A number of select contest participants, based on the overall strength of their work, will be offered tuition scholarships, as well, applicable to the 2011 SLS Jewish Lithuania/Litvak Experiences Program. Read the full guidelines.

    Note that there is a $15 application fee, and the application deadline is March 15, 2011.

    Good luck to anyone who enters this competition!

    Notes from Around the Web

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • Robert Lee Brewer’s interview with poet (and former Hebrew school teacher) Erika Meitner–and Meitner’s poem, “1944,” that Brewer included with the interview material–persuaded me to order a copy of Meitner’s latest book, Ideal Cities.
  • Speaking of poetry, I am very grateful for “Cut the Challah, but Slice it Slant: A Response to the ZEEK Poetry Manifesto.” Thank you, Zackary Sholem Berger!
  • Over on HTMLGIANT, “a literature blog that isn’t always about literature,” author Kyle Minor, raised as a self-described fundamentalist Christian, explains why he is “Jealous of the Jews.” Hint: Roth, Bellow, Malamud, Ozick, and at least one of the Singers have something to do with it.
  • Chanukah is coming! And the Jewish Literary Review prepares us with some poetry.
  • My latest pre-publication post about my forthcoming story collection, Quiet Americans, takes this week’s anniversary of the Kristallnacht to reflect on that event in my own poetry and prose.