The Future of Jewish News Reporting

Saw a small announcement in The Jewish Week about what looks to be an excellent event here in New York City next Monday evening (November 2): “‘The Future of Jewish News Reporting,’ a panel discussion featuring Ami Eden, editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Alana Newhouse, editor of Tablet Magazine; and Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, will take place on Monday, Nov. 2, at 8 p.m., at Lincoln Square Synagogue, 200 Amsterdam Ave. The moderator is Samuel Freedman, professor of journalism at Columbia University School of Journalism, author and columnist. The event, co-sponsored by Lincoln Square Synagogue and The Jewish Week, is free and open to the public.”

Becoming Americans: Writing the Immigrant Experience

If you’re in New York City and have time available on Tuesday evening, October 27, you may want to check out this event at Columbia University:

“Join Ilan Stavans, editor of The Library of America’s new anthology Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing, and two contributors, award-winning writers Jhumpa Lahiri and Gary Shteyngart, for an evening of readings and discussion. Open to public.”

Details here.

Sounds wonderful, but unfortunately I can’t get there. If any of our readers are going, please report back!

Upcoming Margot Singer Reading at Virginia Tech

Any of you who may be in the vicinity of Blacksburg, Va., will have the opportunity to catch Margot Singer present a free reading at Virginia Tech on Thursday, October 8. Margot is the author of the exceptional short fiction collection, The Pale of Settlement, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, and the Reform Judaism Prize for Jewish Fiction (and which I reviewed for Kenyon Review Online).

Upcoming Event: "Writing Between Worlds: On Being a Jewish Writer, with Tova Mirvis"

Here’s an event I’d want to catch if I still lived in the Boston area:

Writing Between Worlds: On Being a Jewish Writer with Tova Mirvis

Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Time: 6:00 pm Reception, 6:30 pm Talk and Book Signing

Location: Liberman-Miller Lecture Hall, Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis University

Event Description: Do you consider yourself a Jewish writer? Is this a Jewish book? These are often the first questions asked to a Jewish writer, and the ones that cause the most hedging and protest. HBI Scholar-in-Residence and author Tova Mirvis will discuss how both the preponderance of the question, and the anxiety in the response, are distinctly Jewish. By examining what larger issues are being asked in this seemingly straightforward question, and even more so, what ambivalences and tensions are expressed in the disclaimer-laden responses, Mirvis examines the landscape of contemporary Jewish American literature. A book signing of her novel “The Outside World” will follow.

For questions, or to RSVP, contact the HBI.

Mazel Tov to the Moment-Karma Short Fiction Contest Winners

A hearty Mazel Tov to the winners of the Moment-Karma Short Fiction Contest. I’m delighted to report that the first-place winner, Racelle Rosett, is a new friend whom I met at the Jewish Fiction Writers’ Conference last March. Racelle and the second- and third-place winners, Judith Groudine Finkel and Amy Graubart Katz, will be joined by the contest judge, Anita Diamant, for a reading and celebration at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on November 1. I can’t wait to see the winning work in the magazine!