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This Week In Jerusalem

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Somewhat belatedly, I’m reading all about the first International Writers Festival in Jerusalem, which took place this past Monday-Thursday (May 12-15). And I’m wishing I’d been there.

You can read some of the press coverage here, here, and, in tandem with coverage of a similar event taking place to celebrate Palestinian literature, here.

Of course, all “boycott” talk I’ve found so far has to do with urges to boycott the Israeli-planned festival, not the Palestinian one (and I’m not going to do the proponents of that cause any favors by linking to anything explaining their “reasoning”). It seems that Nadine Gordimer, in particular, was the target of appeals urging her to cancel her participation. Kudos to Ms. Gordimer for resisting the pressure.

Mazel Tov to Arnost Lustig

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

A heartfelt “Mazel Tov” to Arnost Lustig, the latest recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize. (Learn more about Arnost and about the prize here; thanks to The Literary Saloon for posting the news.)

I had the honor of participating in one of Arnost’s fiction workshops at the 2004 Prague Summer Program. It was during my time in Prague as well that I read his extraordinary novel, Lovely Green Eyes. If you are going to read just one of his books, read that one.

ArtScroll Announcement

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

I’ve been busy the past several days attending (and reporting on) the 2008 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) annual conference in New York City. Now that I’m catching up with myself (and the mail that accumulated because although I came home each night to a Manhattan apartment I had zero time to read through anything), I’ve had a chance to read through the latest Jewish Week.

And I was intrigued to find there an announcement from ArtScroll welcoming Mrs. Miriam Zakon to the company as Acquisitions Editor. ArtScroll added this note: “We invite authors whose works are on a high literary and Torah standard to contact Mrs. Zakon with proposals and manuscripts at zakon(at)artscroll(dot)com.”

I’m always interested in learning more about publishers that focus on books of Jewish interest, and I hope to share more discoveries like this one here on the blog in the future.

Sami Rohr Prize Nonfiction Finalists Named

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Faithful readers of my other blog may recall my enthusiastic mention of last May’s ceremony celebrating the fiction winners for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. The Jewish Book Council, which administers the prize, has now selected five finalists for the prize in nonfiction (the genres alternate).

The nonfiction finalists are Ilana M. Blumberg, for Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books (University of Nebraska Press); Eric L. Goldstein, for The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race and American Identity (Princeton University Press); Lucette Lagnado, for The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family’s Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World (Ecco); Michael Makovsky, for Churchill’s Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft (Yale University Press); and Haim Watzman, for A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel’s Rift Valley (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

To learn more about the prize, which awards emerging authors in the field of Jewish literature who have written books of exceptional literary merit stimulating interest in themes of Jewish concern, please click here.

Children’s Books on Jewish Culture/Religion

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Thanks to my friend B.J. Epstein, among whose many areas of expertise is the field of children’s literature. She recently forwarded a link to this annotated list of children’s books about Jewish culture and religion. I’m always looking for good book suggestions for the little ones in my life. Please share your own recommendations (or comparable links) in comments.