Posts Tagged‘Literary Events’

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Attention, High Schoolers (and Parents Thereof)

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

It’s not every day (or, frankly, any day) that I wish I could be a high-schooler again. This new program is perhaps the only thing that could entice me to go back in time if I had the opportunity to do so.

Great Jewish Books brings together eighteen rising high school juniors and seniors to read, discuss, argue about, and fall in love with some of the most powerful and enduring works of modern Jewish literature.

During a week-long residency at the Yiddish Book Center on the campus of Hampshire College, participants will study with some of the nation’s most respected literary scholars, meet prominent contemporary authors, and connect with other teens from across the country. The 2012 program runs from Sunday, July 29 through Sunday, August 5.

High school students entering their junior or senior year in fall 2012 are eligible to apply.

Apply now!

Tuition, room, meals, and books will be provided for accepted students through a generous grant from Michael Steinhardt.

Application deadline is March 15, 2012. There is no application fee.

Lily Renée, Escape Artist

by Erika Dreifus on
4

Alerted and intrigued by Trina Robbins’s guest post for the Jewish Book Council blog, I spent part of Sunday afternoon at the lovely Books of Wonder bookstore in Manhattan, where Robbins and Lily Renée, the subject of Robbins’s Lily Renée: Escape Artist, spoke to a large group of admirers. (FYI: One of those admirers told me that she runs a website titled “Ladies Making Comics,” for those of you who may want to learn still more about “all the awesome women who make comics.”)

Subtitled “From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer” and illustrated by Anne Timmons and Mo Oh, Lily Renée, Escape Artist, chronicles the early life of one such awesome woman: Lily Renée. Born in Vienna, Lily Renée Wilheim was a young teenager when the Nazis annexed Austria. She became part of a Kindertransport to England and was eventually reunited with her parents in New York, which is where her artistic talents helped her obtain paying work for a comic book publisher. That is the story and timespan covered in the new book.

I must admit that I don’t normally read graphic narratives, and I also don’t spend much time with middle-grade literature, which is how this book seems to be categorized. I read through it quickly—it’s not long, and it captured and held my attention. I was impressed, and I hope that in the not-too-distant future I’ll be able to share it with my niece (8).

I was interested to read others’ impressions of the book, not only on Goodreads, but also elsewhere on the Web. If you’re similarly intrigued, please click on.

Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled
  • Last week, I mentioned that I wouldn’t make it to the Amos Oz event at the 92nd Street Y. But Andrew Silow-Carroll was there.
  • Fantastic interview with author Allegra Goodman on her own (and others’) Jewish fiction. (via @realdelia)
  • Beth Kissileff reports on an International Conference on the Life and Work of Aharon Appelfeld, held October 26 and 27 at the University of Pennsylvania. Appelfeld was in attendance.
  • Over on the Literary Commentary blog, D.G. Myers argues that fantasy is a genre of Christianity.
  • A reminder that I’ll be speaking as a guest of the Jewish Historical Society of New York on Sunday, November 13. The topic: “Looking Backward: History, the Holocaust, and Literary Writing in the Third Generation.”

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • Library Journal looks forward to the April 2012 publication of Shalom Auslander’s Hope: A Tragedy, calling it “ripe for attention.”
  • Fascinating obituary of British Jewish poet Emanuel Litvinoff (1915-2011).
  • In The Jewish Journal, Jonathan Kirsch writes: “Now and then…we are offered a reading experience that reminds us of the gold standard in literature, and one such book is “Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere” by André Aciman (Farrar Straus and Giroux: $25).”
  • It is nearly impossible to keep up with all of the excellent press that Anna Solomon’s The Little Bride is receiving (brava, Anna!). But one of my favorite items from the past few weeks is Anna’s blog post for the Wordstock Festival in Portland, Ore. (where she’ll be appearing on Sunday, October 9). The post is titled “Becoming an American” and, well, let’s just say that certain elements really resonate for this granddaughter of Jewish immigrants who has also spent quite a bit of time among New Englanders.
  • Mazel tov to the winners of The Whole Megillah Picture Book Manuscript Contest!
  • Speaking of contest winners, it looks as though the latest Moment Magazine-Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest winners will be honored in New York on Monday evening. The ceremony is free, though registration is required.

    • Shabbat shalom, and an easy fast to you all as well.

    Six-Word Jewish Memoirs

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    I’m home recovering from successful surgery (yay!), and although I really couldn’t have hoped for things to have gone any better than they did, I am not planning to stray far from these four walls for awhile. So I’m likely to miss next week’s “Six Words on the Jewish Life” event at 92Y Tribeca here in NYC, but that doesn’t mean that you have to miss it. Even better–you could be one of the performers! See this Tablet post for the announcement.