Next Sunday in NYC: Imagination and Catastrophe: Art and the Aftermath of Genocide

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Next Sunday (January 10, 2010) in New York City, the Center for Jewish History presents a symposium titled ““Imagination and Catastrophe: Art and the Aftermath of Genocide”:

Join filmmakers, writers, and musicians to discuss the complexity of creating art that deals with genocide and its aftermath. These artists and critics will discuss how the imagination wrestles with historically catastrophic events. The program will include segments of films, readings of fiction and poetry and a musical presentation, “The Golden Peacock” by Hugo Weisgall. In the creation of art out of catastrophe, genocide can be understood in more complex ways.

“There can be no poetry after Auschwitz.” – Theodore Adorno

Join Atom Egoyan, director, writer, producer, Academy Award nominee; Peter Balakian award winning poet; Emily Duncan-Brown, soprano; Donna-Lee Frieze scholar of genocide, philosophy and film studies, Marcie Hershman novelist; Laura Leon, pianist, and R. Clifton Spargo, writer to discuss:

–Is the artist obligated to tell the truth about history?

–What is the ethical impact of fictionalizing genocide?

–How does the artist use his or her medium to depict the horrors of history without sentimentality?

Admission: $20 general, $15 CJH members

Tenement Saga: Early Jewish American Literature (NYC Event, January 7)

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Coming up at the Tenement Museum in Manhattan on Thursday, January 7: “Tenement Saga: Early Jewish American Literature,” a free event (RSVP requested). “Annie Polland, Sandford Sternlicht and Suzanne Wasserman discuss early 20th century literature of the Jewish LES including The Rise and Fall of David Levinsky and Bread Givers. Wasserman previews a clip of her documentary about Anzia Yezerska.” This program is part of an “evening series of lectures, readings, panel discussions and programming that provides perspective on New York City’s rich culture.”

Friday Find: Experiences with Editors

by Erika Dreifus on
2

The “featured resource” in the current issue of The Practicing Writer (which went out to subscribers on Wednesday) is a new series over on the Emerging Writers Network blog. Its title is “Experiences with Editors,” and it features authors describing “some of the best (and occasionally, worst) experiences they’ve had with editors at both literary journals, and publishing houses. A peek inside the process and what it is that has excited (or upset) various authors through their years of publishing.” Definitely worth reading.

Enjoy, happy new year, and happy weekend! See you back here on Monday.

The Wednesday Web Browser: NYT Edition

by Erika Dreifus on
2

As usual, the NYT After Deadline blog provides useful reminders on grammar, usage, and style.
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How wonderful it was to open the paper a few days ago and see a big, fat article about Open Letter Books, “a small, year-old press here affiliated with the University of Rochester that publishes nothing but literature in translation.”
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Like many of you, I suspect, I was caught up for several days this summer following the coverage of Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s passing. I’ve been meaning to read his memoir, True Compass (and I’ll do so in 2010). All of which made this piece by Jonathan Karp, the memoir’s editor/publisher, compelling reading.
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Adam Begley’s travel article on Stendhal’s Parma was also quite relevant to me!
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Finally: The NYT asked six prominent authors to name (and read from) books they could never discard.