Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
2

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • One of this week’s favorite reads: Roz Chast’s “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?” in The New Yorker.
  • Just in time for Purim, Rebecca Klempner shares some literary lessons from the Book of Esther.
  • Superb profile of Molly Antopol by Sandee Brawarsky for The Jewish Week. (I’ve finally bought Antopol’s The UnAmericans–now I just need to find the time to read it!)
  • From the same source that brought us the PJ Library: “The Massachusetts-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation recently launched Maktabat al-Fanoos, Arabic for Lantern Library, which provides Arabic children’s books to Arab Israeli children in kindergarten and pre-K.”
  • I’m unfortunately not likely to make it to this event, but if you’re in New York, you may want to try to attend “Making it New: Contemporary Novelists and the Jewish Literary Tradition,” a program that will feature Jonathan Rosen, Tova Mirvis, and Josh Lambert ($10 admission fee).

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Wednesday’s WIP: An Evening with The Little Prince (and Adam Gopnik)

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4

    Calling all writers who are fans of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince”! If at all possible, you must get yourselves to the lovely Morgan Library here in New York before April 27, when an exhibit titled “The Little Prince: A New York Story” will close.

    “It may come as a surprise,” the Morgan’s website tells us, “that this French tale of an interstellar traveler who comes to Earth in search of friendship and understanding was written and first published in New York City, during the two years the author spent here at the height of the Second World War.” The exhibit focuses on this period, exploring “the creative decisions Saint-Exupéry made as he crafted his beloved story that reminds us that what matters most can only be seen with the heart.” (more…)

    Words of the Week: Liel Leibovitz

    by Erika Dreifus on
    1

    To argue that only an openness to all points of view is acceptable, to claim that unless we invite our fiercest critics into our house and let them thunder we’re somehow abdicating our responsibilities as mindful and moral human beings is to adhere to the most flightless form of relativism, the kind that believes in nothing save for the fact that all values are equal, which, of course, makes all values meaningless.

    Source: Liel Liebovitz, “Why Talk About Israel With People Who Want It To Disappear?” (Tablet)

    Monday Markets for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Monday brings the weekly batch of no-fee competitions/contests, paying submission calls, and jobs for those of us who write (especially those of us who write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction).

  • Don’t forget that the March issue of The Practicing Writer went out to subscribers at the end of last week. Tons of opportunities as per usual within.

    • (more…)

    Sunday Sentence

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    MudAnother Sunday when I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, which asks others to share the best sentence(s) we’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

    It’s much muddier than a binary, and I’m not the only writer who has lived in the mud.

    Source: Leslie Jamieson, for The New Republic, on “MFA vs. NYC”