Now taking suggestions

Looks like I'll be back in Israel this summer with a week to myself. Any suggestions as to where I can go "off and write" for a week. Perhaps Sfat or Haifa... or south to Eilat.

Any and all suggestions open.

Readings, etc

One of the cool things about being involved in Pilcrow is that I'm suddenly much more aware of readings, book launches and author events going on around the country. Also, my friends are more aware too and are starting to send things my way.

Coming up in New York, Gregory Levey (the best friend of a friend) is launching his new memoir Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government -- A Memoir. I wish I could go, alas, I don't live in New York. Maybe you do?

No Tam-Tams for Passover this year!?

I know - I thought the same thing. But here is a link to the article from today's NYT!

New books from former Sofer faculty members

Alan Shapiro has a new book of poetry, Old War. Here's a link to it on Amazon. I've loved everything I've read in it so far, and was especially excited to read "Egg Rolls," a poem he shared at his reading last year. Adam Langer's novel is also just out. Here's a link to it on Amazon. I'll be getting to it soon. Have you read either of these? I also saw that Jennifer Gilmore sold her second book and that it will be out next year. Good luck to all of our faculty alumni!

Photos from Sofer!

Here are a few photos from the Sofer weekend.

Top: Jason Sommer; Middle: Aaron Hamburger; Bottom: Dara Horn. (On a side note, I'm hoping we get to read the Dara's new story "Shteytl World" again some time soon!)

Pilcrow Lit Fest

Since you are all in the area, I wanted to make sure you have information about the Pilcrow Lit Fest coming up Memorial Day weekend in Chicago. I'm on the staff and it should be no surprise that we are blogging.

Come join us for two days of great panels and a fund raiser for the New Orleans Public Libraries.

On-line Magnetic Yiddish Poetry!

check it out!
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~vaisman/poetry/WordMag.html

More links!

I'm hoping to build a comprehensive set of links to websites that feature Jewish poetry, stories, essays, and other writing. You'll see that I've added jbooks, zeek, and nextbook so far. Do you have any other places out there we should add to our list?

Cheap Tricks

The idea of the "cheap trick," Dara's loving terms for a key element of stories, is one I've been thinking about all week, especially with the books being read in my school. I conferenced with a student about The Great Gatsby and we talked about the death of Myrtle as a turning point in the story. In my class, we're reading The Stranger, and there part one ends with the famous "Killing an Arab" scene. I keep thinking about how to add elements like this into my stories, and not be afraid of making things up, as Dara urged. How do other people do this? How do you come up with ideas for how to move the plot ahead?

Suggested Reading

I came back from the weekend with a notebook filled with suggestions for books and poems to read next. The one that leaps to mind first is Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories, by Shalom Aleichem. Dara mentioned it in her workshop when David shared his writing about the tattooed man next to him on the plane, and how it made him a part of the great literary tradition of writing the stories of the people met while traveling. I'm looking forward to reading it soon! What else was recommended to you during the weekend?

What to do next?

My bag is still my car, filled with newly signed books and a few new drafts of poems, but I wanted to get on to the computer right away and get this blog thing started! I hope this blog is the start of a forum for us to continue the excitement and energy of Sofer by giving each other feedback, suggestions, and ideas about what to read and what to do next. I look forward to hearing from all of you!