Jewish Book Carnival: September 2013

My Machberet is proud to serve as September 2013 host for the Jewish Book Carnival, “a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read, and comment on each others’ posts.” The posts are hosted on a participant’s site on the 15th of each month.

Herewith, this month’s goodies-which also mark the first Carnival of the new year 5774! (more…)

Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

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

  • Big news: A translation of a new David Grossman novel is coming in March. Check out Library Journal‘s Barbara Hoffert’s “prepub alert” for the details.
  • On Moment‘s blog, Claudia Roth Pierpont answers questions about her forthcoming study of Philip Roth.
  • The 3rd Annual Jewish Playwriting Contest is taking submissions until November 21st.
  • The Yiddish Book Center has an intriguing weekend program coming up in November: “The Family Singer: Three Siblings and Their Stories.”
  • The 2013-2014 track of the Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artists Program has officially kicked off, bringing 10 Israeli artists [including writers] for residencies at top universities across the United States.”
  • Just added to my tbr list: Molly Knight Raskin’s No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet. Liel Leibowitz’s Tablet piece is the reason why.
  • I’d already heard about MOST of the books included in Sandee Brawarsky’s big fall preview article for The Jewish Week. But not all of them.
  • Please be sure to come back here to My Machberet on Sunday, when the September Jewish Book Carnival will be posted. In the meantime, Shabbat Shalom. And a good fast!

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

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

  • In Jewish Woman magazine, Sandee Brawarsky introduces a slew of fall books, including Dara Horn’s latest novel, Jillian Cantor’s Margot, and Ruchama King Feuerman’s In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist, all of which are on my tbr list.
  • And speaking of Dara Horn–icymi, you may want to read her essay in last week’s New York Times Book Review.
  • Etgar Keret has annotated for one of his stories. (via Galleycat)
  • Adam Kirsch reviews Jonathan Lethem’s Dissident Gardens, a novel that “traces three generations of an American Jewish family, showing how its tradition of radicalism mutates to meet the fashions of each new decade, and leaving us with the question of whether that radicalism still exists in any meaningful form.”
  • Shabbat shalom and shana tova!

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

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

  • Just in time for Rosh Hashanah: a new issue from JewishFiction.net.
  • Etgar Keret recalls writing his first short story.
  • Tent: “immersive, intense, free, week-long workshops for anyone, ages 21 to 30, who’s curious about the connections between Jewishness and modern culture.” Offerings include workshops in creative writing and journalism.
  • “Starting in September, Lizzie Skurnick Books, an imprint of Ig Publishing, will begin rereleasing the classic Y.A. literature that Skurnick has already made a career of celebrating.” Including the All-of-a-Kind Family series.
  • And finally, an essay by yours truly, “Childless Does Not Mean Clueless,” on The Forward’s “The Sisterhood” blog.
  • Shabbat shalom.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

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

  • Publishers Weekly has given a starred review to Jason K. Friedman’s short-story collection, Fire Year, which won the Sarabande Press Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction. Here’s the review’s first line: “These seven funny, fearless outsiders’ tales set in Savannah and Atlanta—some depicting bygone orthodox Jewish communities, others the rife-with-irony “New South”—gravitate toward taboo.” The book will be published in November. (h/t Racelle Rosett)
  • Over on Tablet, Marjorie Ingall recommends three Jewish biographies (ostensibly for children) that “are so unabashedly fabulous, such a perfect blend of writing and art, so good at explaining complicated subjects, so inspiring without being sappy, you need to stop what you’re doing and buy them all right now.”
  • An exemplary “negative review”Michael Berenbaum’s sage and sensitive analysis of BDS advocate Alice Walker’s latest book. (On a related note: my reaction to the news that the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women had rescinded an invitation for Walker to address its 50th-anniversary celebration gathering.)
  • On Bloomberg.com, Manuela Hoelterhoff takes readers through what Laurie Muchnick calls “surprising tour of novels and memoirs about the Nazi period.”
  • The Forward‘s “The Sisterhood” blog is asking readers for brief submissions (up to 200 words) to include in a larger package on the role of Jewish women in mourning. Submission deadline is August 28. Details and submission form provided here. (NB: This is a nonpaying opportunity.)
  • Shabbat shalom.