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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.

  • Mark your calendar for next Wednesday’s Jewish Book Council/Jewcy Twitter Book Club. The featured guest is Jami Attenberg, author (most recently) of The Middlesteins.
  • Tablet magazine’s correspondent met recently with Shani Boianjiu in Israel; the result is this profile of the author of The People of Forever Are Not Afraid.
  • Crash course in the history of Jews in Russia, courtesy of Lea Zeltserman (responding, it must be said, to a problematic remark made by Shimon Peres).
  • Want to win a copy of the English translation of Eduardo Halfon’s The Polish Boxer? Read (and comment) here, by Sunday afternoon.
  • The latest issue of JewishFiction.net went live this week. From its editor, Dr. Nora Gold: “In this all-women’s issue, you will find 14 wonderful works of fiction, originally written in Yiddish, Spanish, Hebrew, and English, by authors originating from the Ukraine, Argentina, Israel, England, Canada, and the United States. And with Chanukah just around the corner, we bring you also a Chanukah story from Israel (“Roller Coaster”).” (I’m proud to say that I am the author of one of those 14 works!)
  • And last, but not least, I’m about a week into my gig as the Association of Jewish Libraries Writer-in-Residence. Come join the fun (and discussions) on the AJL Facebook page!

    • Shabbat shalom–and warm wishes for a joyous Hanukkah.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
  • From Daniel E. Levenson, editor of New Vilna Review: “The New Vilna Review has been going through some changes the past few months, and our focus has shifted to offering an expanded selection of poetry, fiction and arts writing. We are once again accepting submissions, and look forward to continuing to publish some of the most interesting and thought provoking work in the world of Jewish arts and letters.”
  • Some fascinating background on the Jewish roots behind the Oscar-winning film, The Artist.
  • “The timing of my new mustache — 10 days after my wife miscarried, a week after I injured my back in a car crash and two weeks after my father found out he had inoperable cancer — couldn’t have been better. Instead of talking about Dad’s chemo or my wife’s blood transfusion, I could divert all small talk to the thick tuft of facial hair growing above my upper lip. And whenever anyone asked me, ‘What’s with the mustache?’ I had the perfect answer, and it was even mostly true: ‘It’s for the boy.'” From an essay by Israeli author Etgar Keret, translated by Jessica Cohen, in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.
  • One of my most memorable reads from last year, Johanna Adorján’s An Exclusive Love: A Memoir (trans. Anthea Bell) is now available in paperback. Check out my review for The Jewish Journal, which includes a recent Q&A with the author.

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    7
    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
  • The New York Times divulges author Nathan Englander’s Sunday routine.
  • Speaking of Nathan Englander, not everyone will agree with Adam Kirsch’s take on his latest work, but you can’t deny that Kirsch’s conclusion is tantalizing and provocative: “Perhaps the great Jewish fiction of the near future will have to be less psychological and social than is currently the norm, and more explicitly political. And perhaps the great dividing line in contemporary Jewish life is not the one between religious and secular Jews, but between those who see themselves as members of a historical Jewish nation, and those who find such an identity archaic or delusional.”
  • JTA, “the global news service of the Jewish people,” is hiring.
  • New graduate program in Jewish cultural arts.
  • Deborah Feldman’s new memoir, Unorthodox, is making waves. Read all about it.

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
  • Two fabulous Twitter book club titles coming up from the Jewish Book Council: in February, Anna Solomon’s The Little Bride; in March, Nathan Englander’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.
  • Tablet summarizes all the latest Jewish book award news (and then some).
  • Author Rachel Kadish writes about Hala Salah Eldin Hussein, an editor/translator in Cairo, “and the connection we’ve forged through working together.”
  • Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
  • Pleased and grateful to receive two gifts–both inscribed–in the mail this week: William C. Donahue’s Holocaust as Fiction: Bernhard Schlink’s Nazi Novels and Their Films, and Anthony Levin’s House of the Collective Unconscious, a new poetry collection.
  • If you haven’t yet seen Andrew Lustig’s remarkable video piece on “What It Means to Be a Jew,” you must.

    • Shabbat shalom.