Posts Tagged‘TBR’

Home » TBR » Page 25

TBR: How to Spot One of Us, Poems by Janet R. Kirchheimer

by Erika Dreifus on
2

One of the highlights of this past week was my attendance at a conference on “German-Speaking Jews in New York City: Their Immigration and Lasting Presence.” Co-sponsored by the Leo Baeck Institute and the Baruch College Jewish Studies Center, the conference featured several panels. I was on one of those panels, and that’s where I met Janet R. Kirchheimer, fellow panelist, poet, and author.

In our session, Janet read several poems from her 2007 collection, How to Spot One of Us. The first poem she shared, “This Is How My Opa Strauss Died,” nearly brought me to tears. (The poem is available online, so you can read it for yourself. I dare you not to be moved. Then, you can read some additional poems of Kirchheimer’s on the same site.)

Janet is a daughter of Holocaust survivors, and her identity and familial experience are at the heart of this book. With this collection, as Rabbi Irwin Kula notes in his foreword, she “has taken a particular Jewish event—the Holocaust—a particular family’s experiences, and the personal and intimate details of particular people in particular places at particular moments and has aspired to a universal revelation of a new sense of reality. There is no easy catharsis here and yet as we read the poems and experience the intimacy of tragedy, loss, anguish, and despair we are invited with fierce grace to preserve our humanity and faith.” Or, as Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg adds in an introduction, these poems “…so shall the words written in this book not return empty-handed but will infuse the mind of every reader, giving life to the dead and compassion to the living.”

I’d hoped to manage to return to the conference for an evening conference session, where I’d have been able to buy a copy of How to Spot One of Us and ask Janet to sign it for me. Alas, life intervened, and I had to make do with an online order. Luckily, the book has already arrived (thank you, Amazon Prime!). And somehow, it seems to be autographed.

I really can’t wait to read this book. It’s the absolute next title on my TBR list. Perhaps it should be on yours?

The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
4
  • If you’re looking for some short stories to read online, you might begin with the StorySouth Million Writers Award list of notable stories for 2010.
  • Ellen Meeropol has a dual perspective on bookstore readings: She has participated as an event organizer and as an author. Which makes her advice especially insightful.
  • This may be old news already for some of you, but here goes: Last Sunday evening I watched 60 Minutes for the first time in awhile. And one of the show’s segments was about author Greg Mortenson, author of the presumably nonfictional Three Cups of Tea: “[L]ast fall, we began investigating complaints from former donors, board members, staffers, and charity watchdogs about Mortenson and the way he is running his non-profit organization. And we found there are serious questions about how millions of dollars have been spent, whether Mortenson is personally benefiting, and whether some of the most dramatic and inspiring stories in his books are even true.”
  • If you haven’t visited the Poetry Foundation’s website for awhile, you should click on over and check out the redesign.
  • I keep reading wonderful reviews of Meghan O’Rourke’s new book, a memoir titled The Long Goodbye (here’s one). And part of me really wants to read it. But part of me is just too afraid to. I’m afraid that it will make me unbearably sad. Have any of you ever felt that way about a book?
  • Our friend Wordamour has a short essay in a new book, Flashlight Memories, which, according to Wordamour’s blog, “is all about people’s early experiences with reading and books, otherwise known in academia as ‘literacy autobiographies’ or ‘literacy narratives.'” To celebrate the book’s publication–and to celebrate all of our personal literacy stories–Wordamour will award a copy of Flashlight Memories to one of the commenters on her blog. You have until May 15 to post your narrative.

    • The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • If you review translated books, you’ll be interested in these thoughts from prominent literary translators. (via the German Book Office)
  • Speaking of reviewing, get to know critic Ron Charles, aka “the Totally Hip Video Book Reviewer.”
  • Check out this sneak preview of Silver Sparrow, the next novel by Tayari Jones.
  • While we’re talking fiction: Jacob Appel suggests “10 Ways to Start Your Story Better.”
  • Yet another set of excellent tips for freelancers from Kelly James-Enger.
  • Another week, another worthwhile writing prompt from Midge Raymond.
  • Photos (by Anthony Buccino) of the women poets who took part in last Saturday’s “Girl Talk” poetry reading in West Caldwell, N.J. (yours truly included). Many thanks again to Diane Lockward for organizing the event.
  • Want to see something else that’s pretty cool? My fellow Last Light Studio author, Jane Roper, has just launched the website for her novel, Eden Lake. (Kind of makes you realize what a summer hit it’s going to be, doesn’t it?)

    • Notes from Around the Web: Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • Mazel Tov to Austin Ratner, who has won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature in fiction for his debut novel, The Jump Artist (Bellevue Literary Press), and to Joseph Skibell, who is the runner-up and recipient of of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Choice Award. His award-winning novel is A Curable Romantic (Algonquin). Two more books on my to-read list.
  • Make that three. After reading Sandee Brawarsky’s review, I’m putting Sharon Pomerantz’s Rich Boy atop the list.
  • “With new Jewish-themed television programs, critically acclaimed Jewish fiction, experimental electro-klezmer bands and Jewish-Muslim theater groups, British Jews are producing obviously Jewish-inflected artworks in increasingly vibrant and creative ways, which often become part of the mainstream culture,” writes Rebecca Schischa, for The Jewish Week.
  • Adam Kirsch reviews the newly-available translation (by Tim Wilkinson) of Imre Kertesz’s Fiasco.
  • For his part, Jonathan Kirsch reviews and recommends a new novel by Alan Cheuse, Song of Slaves in the Desert, which features a character “who stands in for the 3 to 5 percent of American slaveholders in the antebellum South who were Jewish.”
  • Job alert: “New Voices and JSPS [the Jewish Student Press Service] are seeking a full-time Editor in Chief/Executive Director. New Voices is the only national, independent magazine written for and by Jewish college students. Published by the Jewish Student Press Service (est. 1971), New Voices and newvoices.org cover Jewish issues from a student perspective. JSPS also runs the annual National Jewish Student Journalism conference, now in its 40th year.”
  • Another job alert, this time from the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Fla., which is seeking a part-time PJ Library Community Coordinator.

    • The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • Having championed the work of Henry James in the past (including among some unreceptive MFA classmates), I was intrigued by Jay Parini’s take on James’s “afterlife.”
  • From The Missouri Review‘s Evelyn Somers Rogers: some thoughts on why some manuscripts get rejected.
  • Diane Lockward presents poet Jehanne Dubrow’s collection, Stateside, which I’ve been meaning to read for quite awhile. Must. Get. To. It.
  • The ever-reliable Midge Raymond offers up another provocative writing prompt.
  • To celebrate the success of her Dollars & Deadlines blog, freelancing expert Kelly James-Enger is offering a special giveaway.
  • And speaking of freelancing, over on Beyond the Margins Necee Regis shares tips to help freelancers stay sane.