Early in the pandemic, many writers wondered if their productivity would increase or decrease during the weeks and then months of isolation. One viral tweet from March 2020 read, “Just a reminder that when Shakespeare was quarantined because of the plague, he wrote King Lear.” UC Berkeley student Kayla Harris Cohen seems to have found…
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Books
Off the Shelf
Jewish writers with Soviet roots have deep stories to tell
Irving Howe famously theorized that American Jewish literature would decline as the immigrant experience that informed so much of it became consigned to…
Books
For your summer reading list: New Jewish books, authors and themes
The month of June is gifting us with a wide variety of Jewish stories, from a reissue of an antifascist novel published in 1938 to a heartwarming YA…
Books
How a N.Y. novelist found his voice in S.F.
Books coverage is supported by a generous grant from The Milton and Sophie Meyer Fund. Joshua Henkin has lived in New York for most of his life, but he…
Celebrity Jews
Shatner on Nimoy; Jamie Lee Curtis rebuilds Hungarian shul; etc.
Captain Kirk and his old pal Spock In a recent interview with the Guardian, William Shatner opened up about his friendship with the late Leonard Nimoy,…
Organic Epicure
‘Technically Food’: how big tech puts new foods on our plates
Food coverage is supported by a generous donation from Susan and Moses Libitzky. Once you know Larissa Zimberoff’s backstory, it’s easy to understand how…
Books
'It deserves to exist': Stanford prof on Roth biography controversy
Books coverage is supported by a generous grant from The Milton and Sophie Meyer Fund. A Stanford University history professor and author of a…
Books
Grieving her dad, she wrote a novel and began swimming in the bay
Books coverage is supported by a generous grant from The Milton and Sophie Meyer Fund. When Rebecca Handler’s father died from Alzheimer’s in 2013, there…
Books
Otherness meets imagination in young adult fiction
Books coverage is supported by a generous grant from The Milton and Sophie Meyer Fund. Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s engaging picture book “Also an Octopus,”…