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Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish literary news from around the Web.

  • Let’s start with this: “The editor of a Polish Jewish monthly was awarded a European Union Prize for Literature for a novel that deals with Holocaust memory. Piotr Pazinski, the editor of the Warsaw-based Midrasz, won the award for his novel ‘Pensjonat’ (‘Boarding House’), which was published in Poland in 2010.”
  • Next up: If you’ll be in New York October 21-22, you may want to stop by the Center for Jewish History, which will be hosting an impressive Second-hand Book Sale. “Authors include: Sholem Aleichem, Marc D. Angel, Paul Arnsberg, Martin Buber, Chaim Grade, Itzik Manger, Thomas Mann, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Stefan Zweig, and others.”
  • December will bring us a new book from Elie Wiesel. This time, he has written a memoir, Open Heart, which stems from his recent experience as a bypass patient.
  • Job alert: “JNS.org, a Boston-based international wire service providing content to Jewish publications across the U.S., is seeking a Washington correspondent to cover major developments in the nation’s capital for a Jewish audience.”
  • If you’ve been wondering how Deborah Feldman has been faring since the publication of her controversial Unorthodox, here’s an update. (Hint: Security guards are involved.)

    • Shabbat shalom.

    From My Bookshelf: THERE’S JEWS IN TEXAS? Poems by Debra L. Winegarten

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    So here’s a tribute to the power of social media and technology.

    In addition to participating in the monthly Jewish Book Carnival, I’m a member of the Carnival’s group on Goodreads. The Carnival isn’t intended for authors to promote their own books–the idea is to provide a forum for readers to share news, reviews, and/or interviews featuring (other) authors and books of Jewish interest.

    But last week, our moderator created a new thread in the Goodreads group where authors can promote their own books. And when I scanned that thread, I noticed Debra L. Winegarten’s post about her poetry chapbook, There’s Jews in Texas?

    There’s Jews in Texas? won Poetica Magazine’s 2011 Chapbook Contest. It comprises 13 poems, the first several of which are situated in childhood and evidently reflect aspects of Winegarten’s upbringing in Texas in the 1960s (see a sample poem on the author’s website). Winegarten’s mother is a lively voice in these early poems. Even after Ruthe Winegarten’s passing (midway through the collection, “The Three R’s” discloses that she died the same week as Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles), she remains present as the book moves forward in time. (And move forward it does: “The Price of a World,” is a response to the March 2011 massacre of the Fogel family.)

    In her Goodreads post, the author helpfully noted that the book is available to Amazon Prime members as part of the Kindle Lending Library; that is how I obtained and read it (another thumbs-up for technology). The poems in There’s Jews in Texas? are both accessible and provocative, and I’m glad to have discovered and read them.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish literary news from around the Web.

  • First up: This week’s New Yorker features a new story by Lara Vapnyar, “Fischer vs. Spassky.” Bonus: Deborah Treisman’s Q&A with Vapnyar about the story.
  • Next: Nina Badzin reviews a new anthology titled Living Jewishly: A Snapshot of a Generation.
  • I learned about the life and work of poet Naomi Replansky this week thanks to Benjamin Ivry’s coverage for The Forward.
  • “On October 16, Leo Baeck Institute will unveil DigiBaeck – a comprehensive digital version of its collections to be made available to all for free online. DigiBaeck encompasses more than 3.5 million pages of documents from German-Jewish history.” Attend the launch (or watch streaming video online).
  • Writing a Jewish-themed YA novel? “In honor of Jewish Book Month, The Whole Megillah is hosting its second annual Write Your Own Megillah event. Think of it as the Jewish equivalent of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). From November 7 through December 7, 2012, you’ll have the opportunity to write the novel you’ve always wanted to write.”

    • Shabbat shalom.

    From My Bookshelf: A Wedding in Great Neck, by Yona Zeldis McDonough

    by Erika Dreifus on
    4

    Today marks the release date for A Wedding in Great Neck, the latest novel by Yona Zeldis McDonough. My Machberet wishes Yona a hearty Mazel Tov!

    Some of you may recognize Yona for her role as fiction editor for Lilith magazine. I can still remember picking up the phone in my kitchen 10 years ago when Yona called to let me know that she and the magazine wanted to publish my short story (which the magazine retitled “Polar Region”). Yona is responsible for affirming and advancing the work of so many fiction writers, especially those of us on the emerging end of things. We owe her a lot.

    Which is one reason why I was so happy to be offered a complimentary advance reading copy of A Wedding in Great Neck, and why I’m equally pleased to give it a public shout-out here. If you follow me on Goodreads, you know that I read this hefty book in all of two days. It’s a family story–reminiscent of tales spun by Jonathan Tropper and Joshua Henkin–that takes place in a brief span (in this case, a single wedding day). There are lots of Jewish characters, some of whom you’ll likely respond to more positively than others. (Personally, I wanted to shake teenaged Justine more than once, especially each time she began spouting off against Israel.)

    Here’s wishing Yona and her new book much success as they meet the world together.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish literary news from around the Web.

  • First up: The Natan Award is an exciting new prize for a nonfiction book-in-progress. This award “brings Natan’s values of infusing Jewish life with creativity and meaning into the intellectual arena by supporting and promoting a breakthrough book on Jewish themes intended for mainstream audiences.” No entry fee. Applications due December 3.
  • The latest issue of Jewish Book World is now online, in its entirety.
  • Poet Gerald Stern is profiled in The Forward.
  • The Yiddish Book Center has announced a new Translation Fellowship Program for those with at least an intermediate-level proficiency in Yiddish. “Beginning in the winter of 2012, the Center will select five Translation Fellows who will receive yearlong mentorship and training to complete book-length projects in Yiddish translation. As an incentive to produce works of the highest caliber, each Fellow will receive a grant of $5,000.” There is no application fee. Application deadline is November 15, 2012.
  • Finally, I am delighted that my home congregation has added live-streamed services to its offerings. Now I can much more easily share something that’s so important to me with all of you. For example: our senior rabbi’s most recent Rosh Hashanah sermon, archived for everyone to absorb. Let’s just say that there was a lot I agreed with in what he said about Israel this year.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen

    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish literary news from around the Web.

  • Let’s begin: It took me a few days to catch up and read it, but Tablet magazine has published its first original work of short fiction, a story by Aimee Bender titled “The Doctor and the Rabbi.” Read it, and then see what Zackary Sholem Berger has to say about it.
  • You may remember that Sigmund Freud left Vienna in 1938. His sisters weren’t so lucky. The Forward reviews a novel that imagines the story of one of them.
  • Praise from Mark Athitakis for The Book of Mischief, “a magisterial collection of 17 short stories by Steve Stern that encompasses his three-decade career.”
  • This week brought us the latest Jewish Book Carnival, hosted for the first time by the Bagels, Books, and Schmooze blog (and including a giveaway).
  • Finally, I’m proud to announce that I’ll be participating in the JCC Lane Dworkin Jewish Book Festival in Rochester this fall. My event is scheduled for November 11, but I encourage you to take a look at all of the festival offerings this 20th anniversary season.

    • Shabbat shalom.