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.
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.
Photo Credit: Reut Miryam CohenEvery Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish literary news from around the Web.
First: This week brought the release of an English translation of a newly discovered poem, “Hora to an Exiled Girl,” by Hannah Senesh.
Next up: Michael Chabon’s latest novel, Telegraph Avenue, will be released next week. Reviewer Diane Cole describes it as a “lively portrait of a community where blacks and whites, Jews and Christians, politicians of every party, all manage to overcome their own latent (and sometimes blatant) prejudices to settle conflicts, both personal and public, and live peacefully together.”
And if you’re looking for some more fall books on Jewish themes, this preview should help you find a few.
A college student whose grandmother survived the Nazi occupation of Budapest reflects on “generational memory” of the Holocaust and her writing. (I can’t help thinking that, as is being reported, not everyone in the third generation may be “traumatized” by their grandparents’ histories. But there sure are increasing numbers of us writing about it these days.)
And if you missed it on my other blog, a couple of days ago I shared some thoughts about (and examples of) “Bat Mitzvah poetry”–plus a family photo.
Photo Credit: Reut Miryam CohenEvery Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish literary news from around the Web.
First up: this month’s Jewish Book Carnival, hosted by Needle in the Bookstacks, a blog from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) librarians.
A brand-new issue of JewishFiction.net is now available for our reading pleasure.
I read it first in the print magazine, but it looks as though Moment has made Edith Pearlman’s short story, “The Kargman Affliction,” available online, too.
Photo Credit: Reut Miryam CohenEvery Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of Jewish literary news from around the Web.
First up is an event taking place this Sunday–in Yiddish–at NYC’s Center for Jewish History: “The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research together with the Congress for Jewish Culture, CYCO Books, the Forward Association, the Jewish Labor Committee, and the Workmen’s Circle invite you to attend a commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the death of Soviet Yiddish writers and other members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee at the hands of Stalin. There will be several short films based on the poetry of Perets Markish; Boris Sandler, editor of the Forward, will read his own poems; well-known singers Hy Wolfe and Paula Teitelbaum will sing and recite poetry; Shane Baker will recite poetry; David Mandelbaum of New Yiddish Rep and Paul Glasser of YIVO will read prose. The emcee will be Tom Bird of Queens College.”
Lots to think about in Ilana Sichel’s review of Anouk Markovits’s I Am Forbidden.
In somewhat related news: Zackary Sholem Berger profiles “the writers and editors behind the astonishing rise of Orthodox magazines and fiction.”
The passing of businessman and philanthropist Sami Rohr this week has been noted in many quarters. Among the most lovely tributes is Gal Beckerman’s.
Finally, yet another contest from The Whole Megillah: “Yom Kippur often gets us thinking about our departed loved ones and our own lives. Perhaps you’ve even written your reflections about your family or yourself. If you have a memoir manuscript in progress, consider submitting its first page to The Whole Megillah First Page Competition for Memoir.”
Photo Credit: Reut Miryam CohenSome Jewish literary links to close out the week.
First up: Looking for some titles for your book club? Check out Makom’s suggestions for books by Israeli writers (books in English translation).
Next: Earlier this summer, I was lucky enough to attend “The Uses of History in American Jewish Fiction,” featuring novelists Anna Solomon and Dara Horn and moderated by Josh Lambert. And now, all of you are lucky enough to be able to watch the event on video.
Guess who’s coming to CUNY’s Baruch College this fall? Etgar Keret! I’m already marking my calendar.
As we begin preparing for Rosh Hashanah, The Whole Megillah has announced its First Pages Competition for Jewish-themed middle grade and young adult manuscripts (fiction or nonfiction). Deadline to enter: September 15.
