Jewish Literary Festival Writing Contest Announced

From the DC JCC, home to the Hyman S. & Freyda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival (October 17-27, 2010):

Community Prize for Writing on a Festival Theme
Strangers in a Strange Land: The Lives of Jewish Immigrants

We surround ourselves with communities that sustain and enrich our lives. When we leave those communities—by choice, by force, or both—our lives are upended. What do we choose to take with us to the new environment, and what do we leave behind? This year’s Opening Night explores these questions of immigration and home.

Jews have often found themselves strangers in strange lands, but new environments are not always the result of physical displacement. Tell us a true story—from your life or a family member’s—of finding oneself alone in a new place or situation.

Submissions are open to all and will be judged blindly. Work will be considered in two categories: 1) 18 years and under, and 2) over 18. Please include your contact information and age category on the first page only. Send submissions of 500 words or fewer to litfest(at)washingtondcjcc(dot)org by September 27, 2010.

A selection committee will choose three entries in each category to honor during the Festival and online. These winning entries will be published on the 16th Street J’s website and The Blog at 16th & Q. The first place selection in each category will win the Community Prize for Writing and a $100 Visa gift card.

Note: No previously-published work, please.

High Holiday Poetry Contest 2010

MyJewishLearning is running a High Holiday Poetry Contest--and you're invited to participate.

Submitted poems "can be funny, or serious, or both. They can rhyme. They can be long (though we are from the Internet short-attention-span-generation). We want to be entertained, and we want to be inspired."

Submit by August 25. Winning entries will be published online in time for Rosh Hashanah.

There will be prizes!

For more info, check MyJewishLearning.

(via the Jewish Book Council)

Notes from Around the Web/Twitter

Benjamin Ivry's account of the disinvitation of Israeli writer and translator Esther Orner from an academic conference in France motivated me to respond: I immediately ordered two of Orner's books from Amazon.fr.
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Also from Monsieur Ivry: an intriguing description of a new play, "an imaginary conversation between [Georges] Mandel and [Léon] Blum when, during Germany’s occupation of France, both were imprisoned at Buchenwald." What can I say--this appeals to the historian-of-twentieth-century-France in me.
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Barbara Krasner provides a report on the first annual New York Sephardic Book Fair.
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Some new Jewish poetry has been posted over on the New Vilna Review's website. See especially Matthew Hartmann's "Warsaw is Burning."
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If you're between the ages of 22 and 35 you are eligible for an incredible opportunity: a "Writers' Seminar on the Jewish People," led by Samuel Freedman. (I'll 'fess up and admit that I tried [unsuccessfully] to gain admission the last time this seminar was offered...although I was already beyond 35!) There's no application fee, and you have until September 5 to apply. (Thanks to our friends at the Jewish Book Council for the news about this year's seminar.)
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Moment magazine is looking for an Assistant Editor. Details here.
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Oh, have you heard that Gary Shteyngart has a new novel out? I laughed a little when I saw this tidbit on Twitter: "SUPER SAD Moving Up List: Another day, another review, or two, for Gary Shteyngart’s satiric Super Sad True Love S... http://bit.ly/b3YhON" (source: earlyword). The publicity for this book has been incredible! I have to admit I am getting curiouser and curiouser...and the book is on my tbr list.

Shabbat shalom!

Notes from Around the Web

Direct from the Association of Jewish Libraries convention: book reviewing resources.
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The Boston Bibliophile interviews Carla Jablonski, author of a graphic novel, Resistance: Book 1, "which focuses on the French resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II and in particular about the efforts of a French family to save French Jews."
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Tablet tells us about 10 novels in a "Jewish fall fiction preview."
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You may have noticed a new addition to the blogroll: Jew Wishes, a superb site that features "book reviews on Jewish-related books and films, news on Jewish community, Judaism and such." (Thanks to Nina Badzin for leading me to it!)
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And, as a follow-up to Wednesday's post, you can learn more about JewishFiction.net in this "Arty Semite" interview with editor Nora Gold.
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Finally, although you can't read it online, I am THRILLED to announce that the July-August issue of Moment magazine includes my poem, "Pünktlichkeit" (see p. 32).

Shabbat Shalom!

Introducing JewishFiction.net

When I first heard about the establishment of JewishFiction.net, two aspects of the new online venue for English-language fiction on Jewish themes caught my attention.

First, I was impressed to learn that Toronto-based Dr. Nora Gold was the editorial brain behind the venture. I discovered Gold's story collection, Marrow, several years ago, thanks to a presentation at a conference of the Society for Jewish American and Holocaust Literature. And I thought the book was terrific.

I was less impressed, however, when I found out that the journal was going to charge $15 as a submission fee. I can be antsy about submission fees even for contests that promise cash prizes. I become very nervous when a journal charges a submission fee without even the chance of earning some pay for the work.

Happily, the editor informed me earlier this week that the submission fee requirement has been removed. If you're interested in submitting, or simply want to learn more about the project, please click here.

Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Awards

"The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute awards grants to support interdisciplinary research or artistic projects on Jewish women and gender issues. Scholars, activists, writers and artists who are pursuing research on questions of significance to the field of Jewish women's studies may apply."

Grant categories include: film and video, biography, history, social science, the arts (performance arts, visual arts, and creative writing), Judaism, and the Yishuv and Israel.

Junior grants (up to $2000) are awarded to graduate students enrolled in recognized Ph.D. programs and new scholars; senior grants (up to $5000) are awarded to established scholars and professionals.

Proposal deadline is September 15, 2010.

For more information, please click here.

Writing Jewish-themed Children's Books: A Conference Dispatch by Barbara Krasner

Writing Jewish-themed Children's Books: A Conference Dispatch
Guest Post by Barbara Krasner

For about two years, Kent Brown, head of the Highlights Foundation, and I had been discussing the possibility of bringing a workshop for writers of Jewish-themed books to the line-up of the Highlights Foundation workshops. We finally scheduled it for May 23-25, 2010.

Intended for ten participants only (okay, we let an extra person in for a total of 11), this three-day conference in an intimate workshop setting featured:

• Lisa Silverman, children’s book review editor of Jewish Book World and director of the Sinai Temple Blumenthal Library in Los Angeles
• Peninnah Schram, master storyteller and professor at Yeshiva University’s Stern College
• Jane Yolen, award-winning author of some 300 books
• Devorah Leah Rosenfeld, editor, Hachai Publishing
• Françoise Bui, executive editor, Delacorte (Random House)
• Rubin Pfeffer, agent, East/West Literary
• Mary Kole, agent, Andrea Brown Literary Agency
• Carolyn Yoder, editor, Calkins Creek Books
• Debra Hess, senior editor, Highlights for Children

Eleven participants gathered at the Poconos home of Highlights founders in Boyds Mills, PA. Among the participants, we had two author-illustrators and several accomplished authors.

After brief introductions, Lisa Silverman started us off with a comprehensive overview of Jewish children’s literature, starting with the 1930s Adventures of K’ton ton and moving through each decade to today’s contemporary YA. She then described the book review process at Jewish Book World and the author support services the Jewish Book Council offers.

Peninnah Schram talked about getting oral tradition down on paper. She told us a few stories and we could see why she’s a master storyteller. Several of us teared up at her stories, she told them so vividly.

After dinner, Lisa led us in a book discussion of three picture books and a chapter book.

Day Two began with an editors/agents panel, each one stating what he or she looks for. These talks will be available soon on my blog, The Whole Megillah, in video format. Each workshop participant had a scheduled time to meet with an editor or agent to discuss her work in depth. By late afternoon, we gathered as a group once more to hear about writing Jewish fiction from Jane Yolen.

Jane was joined by Highlights senior editor Debra Hess in providing critiques in an after-dinner group critique session. For many of the participants, this was the workshop’s proverbial icing on the cake.

On our final day, Boyds Mills art director Tim Gilner joined us for breakfast and met with our author-illustrators. We then devoted our remaining time together to a discussion of each individual’s challenges and goals for the next 12 months. After lunch, several participants took the tour of Highlights and Boyds Mills Press and spoke with some of the editors.

Whew. Will this become an annual event? If this year’s participants have anything to say about it, the answer is yes.

So, for those of you who write Jewish-themed children’s books, stay tuned. Also be sure to be on the lookout for more information about the one-day conference in New York City, now sponsored by the Jewish Book Council and scheduled for Sunday, November 21 at the Center for Jewish History. We’ve got a great agenda lined up for you!

Resources:

• Jewish Book World
• Jewish Book Council
• HighlightsFoundation workshops

Bio: Barbara Krasner is an award-winning author and speaker based in New Jersey. She blogs at The Whole Megillah The Writer’s Resource for Jewish-themed Children’s Books and has an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Journal Editor to Speak at Museum of Jewish Heritage

Received from NYC's Museum of Jewish Heritage:

On Wednesday, July 14 at 7 p.m., as part of the popular Terrace Talks series, editor Joshua Ellison will discuss his groundbreaking, Habitus: A Diaspora Journal, which Library Journal praises for its “exemplary creative and journalistic work.” Habitus is an international journal of Diaspora literature and global Jewish culture that was first published in 2005. The conversation between Ellison and author André Aciman (Eight White Nights, 2010) will focus on whether New York City —especially Manhattan —is the new Jerusalem, or if the very question is sacrilegious. This fascinating conversation will take place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

Each issue of Habitus focuses on a different city, penetrating deep into the emotional and political substance of the urban environment. Cities that have been featured in the magazine include New Orleans, Moscow, and Buenos Aires. As Ellison wrote in the introduction to the first issue: “Habitus is not just about cataloguing distinctions. It’s a way of using the whole world as raw material for creating a more complete picture of ourselves.”

Tickets are $5 and free for members. Tickets are available online at www.mjhnyc.org or by calling the Museum box office at 646.437.4202.

Terrace Talks feature authors presented in one of the Museum’s beautiful spaces with stunning views of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

Notes from Around the Web/Twitter

So excited to see more attention directed toward Ludwig Lewisohn and his novel, The Island Within. For additional info on this important book, see the essays by Josh Lambert and yours truly.
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Comme j'adore l'oeuvre de Patrick Modiano! And how happy I was to see this write-up on Monsieur Modiano from Benjamin Ivry!
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From Tablet: an excerpt from Benjamin Balint's new history of Commentary, focusing on the fiction published in the magazine's early years.
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Just in time for summer: The Forward's special summer books section. (I am especially grateful for the reminder about Joan Leegant's upcoming book!)
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Did you miss the Canadian Jewish Book Awards? Me too. Hence, my interest in Ezra Glinter's post (which prompted me to order a copy of What the Furies Bring, by Kenneth Sherman, right away).
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Learn about Artists4Israel through this interview on the New Vilna Review site.
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Did you miss Wednesday's Jewish Book Council lunchtime Twitter book club? The JBC has posted the transcript. (I thought it was a particularly good chat. I wonder how the transcript will read to someone who wasn't "there," though.)
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And last, but (hopefully) not necessarily least: The Jewish Journal has just published my review of Every House Needs a Balcony, a debut novel from Israeli author Rina Frank (translated by Ora Cummings).

Shabbat shalom!

Notes from Around the Web (and Twitter)

Disturbing, but unsurprisingly good short story by Nathan Englander in the current New Yorker. (Englander's Q&A with Cressida Leyshon piqued my interest, too.)
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Elena Kagan, Jewish feminist.
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Daniel Levenson reviews A Safe Haven, Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, by Allis and Ronald Radosh
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via @JewishPub RT @KarBenPub Mazel Tov to Association of @JewishLibraries President-Elect Heidi Estrin! http://bit.ly/dpxb7B #Jewish#books
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via @bookoflifepod A brand new blog for folks who write Jewish kidlit! Cool! http://bit.ly/aaw6pA
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via @JewishIdeas A new book narrates the Jewish history of North Carolina http://www.jidaily.com/uXfrUCkqI/t
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Finally, please help me choose the author photo for my forthcoming short story collection, Quiet Americans!

Shabbat Shalom!

Jewish Reading Series (Additional Info Welcome!)

Thanks to the Jewish Book Council, I've learned of two new Jewishly-focused series right here in NYC.

First, we have the Brooklyn-based Candlestick Readings and Book Club, with an inaugural event--a reading featuring Melissa Broder, Joshua Cohen, Jason Diamond, Fiona Maazel and musician Reuben Chess--on Tuesday, May 11. Then--making its debut on Tuesday, May 18, with a lineup of Rachel Shukert, Sam Apple, and Jami Attenberg--is Jewcy's Yiderati series.

I'd love to know about similar series in other locations. Care to share?

Notes from Around the Web

As Israel once again marked Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut this week, Ethan Bronner described a "dark" mood in the country.
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Welcome to the Jewish-American canon, Walter Mosley.
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The Jewish Journal summarizes "the Jewish side" of this weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. And Jonathan Kirsch spotlights one participating author: Herman Wouk, who, at the age of 94, has a new book to talk about.
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For a roundup of the Israeli presence at the upcoming PEN World Voices Festival in New York, check Naomi Firestone's informative post.
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Writers, this online auction to benefit Lilith magazine has some special offerings for you!
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In the Jewish Exponent, Robert Leiter reviews and recommends a new book from one of my favorite publishers (Toby Press): Haim Sabato's From the Four Winds (translated by Yaacob Dweck).
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Finally, here are some more books to add to your TBR list, courtesy of Josh Lambert's latest Tablet column.

Tablet Magazine Launches Paid Internship Program

From Tablet Magazine:

Next month, Tablet Magazine is inaugurating a paid internship program. If you have experience in journalism and are familiar with the landscape of American Jewish life, we’d love to hear from you. We’ll be hiring three times a year—spring, summer, and fall—for two- and three-day-a-week internships at our office in New York City. Interns will assist the editorial staff with research and administrative tasks, as well as contributing blog posts and, potentially, full features.

Application deadline is May 3. Click here for more information/application instructions.

A Webzine of Their Own

As a Jewish woman, I'm proud to say that I've contributed to some publications--and have read many others--that are geared to this particular cohort. Now, Jewish men have a 'zine of their own. As The Forward explains:

"It used to be that women, to paraphrase Virginia Woolf, needed to have a room of their own, to carve space out of a male-dominated world in which to find and share their own voices. Today, it seems, men need a room, as well. So the Conservative movement’s Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs has started a Web magazine, Mentschen.org, to provide those with a Y chromosome a safe place to explore important issues in their lives."

Good luck, guys! Sounds like a great idea.

P.S. Congrats to The Forward team on the recognitions they're receiving.

Notes from Around the Web

Thank you, Josh Lambert, for telling us about new translated fiction from Israel.
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And thanks to Naomi Firestone for sharing more information about the new Dalkey Archive Press series of translations of Hebrew literature to which one title Lambert mentions (Eshkol Nevo's Homesick, translated by Sondra Silverston) belongs.
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Speaking of translation, reviewers of literature written in Hebrew (as well as in other languages) will be happy to learn that Massachusetts Review is amplifying its translation content--and adding a new annual translation award: the Jules Chametzsky Prize in Literary Translation.
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Reviewer Margot Lurie finds David Lehman's latest poetry collection, Yeshiva Boys, "at times excellent and at times conspicuously bad, but always unfailingly interesting," and calls the long title poem the book's "beating heart."
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Finally if you have access to PBS this evening, try to catch Blessed is the Match, a remarkable film about poet-diarist-heroine Hannah Senesh. (If you're in Boston, though, you have a tempting option: novelists Anita Diamant and Jennifer Gilmore will be reading from their books at Brandeis in an event titled "The Personal and the Political: Historical Fiction and the Jewish Experience.")

Notes from Around the Web

Some big news of my own: My short story collection, Quiet Americans, will be published in early 2011 by Last Light Studio books. Expect to hear much more about this here!
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New discovery: "Olah-la is a contemporary, online meeting place for writers, artists, and people interested in or connected to Israel." Accepts writing in English and French. (via placesforwriters.com)
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Lovely blog post on "Teaching Tots About Shabbat", by Linda K. Wertheimer.
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Remarkable account of "Mourner's Kaddish in Mumbai," set shortly after the terrorist attack of November 2008, by Akiva Freidlin in Witness.
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Allegra Goodman has another novel coming, and it has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly!
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And just in time for Passover readings, Jonathan Kirsch introduces us to poet Edward Hirsch's latest book.

Jewish Literary Events Galore

So many events coming up! Here's a sampling:

March 21, in NYC: Park Avenue Synagogue presents the book launch of The Prophet's Wife, the unfinished novel of Milton Steinberg. Includes a symposium on March 21. See also details about Anita Diamant's lecture on "Reimagining the Bible: Fiction, Women, and the Power of Untold Stories," on Friday evening, March 20.

April 9, in NYC: "New Perspectives on Jewish Writing with Gary Shteyngart and Amy Sohn," a discussion moderated by Joshua Lambert and followed by a Shabbat dinner.

May 23-25, in Honesdale, Pa.: This exciting workshop on Writing Jewish-Themed Children's Books is, I hear, sold out. But you never know! If you're interested, maybe there's a waitlist. Even if you can't attend, we'll have a follow-up guest post here on My Machberet from workshop leader Barbara Krasner to give you the post-conference scoop.

Ending June 15, in Tel Aviv: This Ha'aretz article introduces an exhibition at the Eretz Israel Museum on poet, playwright, and translator Nathan Alterman.

Coming Soon: American Academy in Jerusalem

From the Foundation for Jewish Culture:

"Mishkenot Sha'ananim and the Foundation for Jewish Culture are collaborating on the creation of an institute at Mishkenot, modeled after the successful American Academies in Rome and Berlin. Groups of distinguished artists and scholars, leading experts in their fields, will be in residence at Mishkenot for two ot three month periods. They will work on projects inspired by Jerusalem and connect with cultural and academic institutions, thereby enriching the city's cultural discourse. We expect they will return home with new connections and share their appreciation of the rich diversity and potential of this extraordinary city.

We are currently planning a pilot mini-residency for June 2010, which will include literary artists Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss, urban planner Joshua Sirefman, and theater artist TBA. The selection process for the full residency will be by nomination. Details will be provided after the pilot residency is complete.

Initial research support for this initiative was provided by the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, and support for the pilot residency has been provided by the Bracha Foundation."

Very exciting news! I just hope that the residencies will be open to those of us who are slightly less well-known than Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss!

Goldberg Prize Welcomes 2010 Submissions

"Established in 1999 and supported through a generous grant from the Samuel Goldberg & Sons Foundation, the Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers is among the very first of its kind to highlight new works by contemporary writers exploring Jewish themes. The prize spotlights promising new talent, and is awarded to an American fiction writer for a first or second full-length work that was published in the previous calendar year. Submissions must be made by the publisher. The award includes a prize of $2,500, as well as a one-week residency at Ledig House International Writers Colony in New York’s Hudson Valley." There is no entry fee. Deadline: March 1, 2010.

Save the Dates for Jewish Authors' Conferences

Look what I found via Twitter!