9781684581269
9781684581276
Distributed for Brandeis University Press
Frankly Feminist
Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine
A groundbreaking Jewish feminist short story collection.
Short story collections focusing on Jewish writers have—no surprise—typically given women authors short shrift. This new volume represents the best Jewish feminist fiction published in Lilith magazine, and does what no other collection has done before in its geographic scope, its inclusion of twenty-first-century stories, and its Jewish feminist focus.
This collection showcases a wide range of stories offering variegated cultures and contexts and points of view: Persian Jews; a Biblical matriarch; an Ethiopian mother in modern Israel; suburban American teens; Eastern European academics; a sexual questioner; a Jew by choice; a new immigrant escaping her Lower East Side sweatshop; a Black Jewish marcher for justice; in Vichy France, a toddler’s mother hiding out; and more.
Organized by theme, the stories in this book emphasize a breadth of content, and our hope is that in reading you’ll appreciate the liveliness of the burgeoning self-awareness brought to life in each tale, and the occasional funny, call-your-friend-and-tell-her-about-it moment. Skip around, encounter an author whose other work you may know, be enticed by a title, or an opening line. We hope you’ll find both pleasure and enlightenment—and sometimes revelation—within these pages.
Short story collections focusing on Jewish writers have—no surprise—typically given women authors short shrift. This new volume represents the best Jewish feminist fiction published in Lilith magazine, and does what no other collection has done before in its geographic scope, its inclusion of twenty-first-century stories, and its Jewish feminist focus.
This collection showcases a wide range of stories offering variegated cultures and contexts and points of view: Persian Jews; a Biblical matriarch; an Ethiopian mother in modern Israel; suburban American teens; Eastern European academics; a sexual questioner; a Jew by choice; a new immigrant escaping her Lower East Side sweatshop; a Black Jewish marcher for justice; in Vichy France, a toddler’s mother hiding out; and more.
Organized by theme, the stories in this book emphasize a breadth of content, and our hope is that in reading you’ll appreciate the liveliness of the burgeoning self-awareness brought to life in each tale, and the occasional funny, call-your-friend-and-tell-her-about-it moment. Skip around, encounter an author whose other work you may know, be enticed by a title, or an opening line. We hope you’ll find both pleasure and enlightenment—and sometimes revelation—within these pages.
Reviews
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
The Stories
1. TRANSITIONS
The New World
Esther Singer Kreitman (translated from the Yiddish by Barbara Harshav)
In Every Girl’s Heart
Myla Goldberg
In Vegas That Year
Adrienne Sharp
A Wedding in Persia
Gina Nahai
News to Turn the World
Katie Singer
Sylvia’s Spoon
Michelle Brafman
Max’s Mom Goes to Camp
Judith Zimmer
My Daughter’s Boyfriends
Penny Jackson
Unveiling
Racelle Rosett
2. INTIMACIES
1919: At the Connecticut Shore
Jane Lazarre
The Curiosa Section
Harriet Goldman
Glass
Diana Spechler
The Wedding Photographer’s Assistant
Ilana Stanger-Ross
The List of Plagues
Audrey Ferber
Road Kill
Miryam Sivan
Probabilities
Elizabeth Edelglass
Sound Effects
Michele Ruby
Take the A Train to Scotland
Ellen Umansky
3. TRANSGRESSIONS
Lot’s Wife
Michal Lemberger
Paved with Gold
Beth Kanter
Driving Lesson
Kate Schmier
Little Hen
Emily Alice Katz
The Proper Care of Silver
Emily Franklin
Boundaries
Ilene Raymond Rush
Face Me
Elena Sigman
Zhid
Yona Zeldis McDonough
Deep in the Valley
Cherise Wolas
4. WAR
La Poussette
Rachel Hall
The Fronds of Knives
Rebecca Givens Rolland
Street of the Deported
Anca L. Szilágyi
Facts on the Ground
Ruchama King Feuerman
5. BODY AND SOUL
The Lives Under the Stones
Amy Bitterman
Do Not Punish Us
Chana Blankshteyn (translated from the Yiddish by Anita Norich)
Working the Mikveh
Amy Gottlieb
Ironing
Sarah Seltzer
What Was Cut
Beth Kanell
Flash Flood
Hila Amit (translated from the Hebrew by Ilana Kurshan)
All That Remains of Etta
Erica W. Jamieson
The Neowise Comet Listens In
Carolivia Herron
6. TO BELONG
Flight
Phyllis Caron Agins
The Miscreants
Tamar Ben-Ozer
Home
Zeeva Bukai
The Woman Who Lost Her Names
Nessa Rapoport
Raised by Jews
Naomi Seidman
Authors and Editors
Questions For Discussion
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Stories
1. TRANSITIONS
The New World
Esther Singer Kreitman (translated from the Yiddish by Barbara Harshav)
In Every Girl’s Heart
Myla Goldberg
In Vegas That Year
Adrienne Sharp
A Wedding in Persia
Gina Nahai
News to Turn the World
Katie Singer
Sylvia’s Spoon
Michelle Brafman
Max’s Mom Goes to Camp
Judith Zimmer
My Daughter’s Boyfriends
Penny Jackson
Unveiling
Racelle Rosett
2. INTIMACIES
1919: At the Connecticut Shore
Jane Lazarre
The Curiosa Section
Harriet Goldman
Glass
Diana Spechler
The Wedding Photographer’s Assistant
Ilana Stanger-Ross
The List of Plagues
Audrey Ferber
Road Kill
Miryam Sivan
Probabilities
Elizabeth Edelglass
Sound Effects
Michele Ruby
Take the A Train to Scotland
Ellen Umansky
3. TRANSGRESSIONS
Lot’s Wife
Michal Lemberger
Paved with Gold
Beth Kanter
Driving Lesson
Kate Schmier
Little Hen
Emily Alice Katz
The Proper Care of Silver
Emily Franklin
Boundaries
Ilene Raymond Rush
Face Me
Elena Sigman
Zhid
Yona Zeldis McDonough
Deep in the Valley
Cherise Wolas
4. WAR
La Poussette
Rachel Hall
The Fronds of Knives
Rebecca Givens Rolland
Street of the Deported
Anca L. Szilágyi
Facts on the Ground
Ruchama King Feuerman
5. BODY AND SOUL
The Lives Under the Stones
Amy Bitterman
Do Not Punish Us
Chana Blankshteyn (translated from the Yiddish by Anita Norich)
Working the Mikveh
Amy Gottlieb
Ironing
Sarah Seltzer
What Was Cut
Beth Kanell
Flash Flood
Hila Amit (translated from the Hebrew by Ilana Kurshan)
All That Remains of Etta
Erica W. Jamieson
The Neowise Comet Listens In
Carolivia Herron
6. TO BELONG
Flight
Phyllis Caron Agins
The Miscreants
Tamar Ben-Ozer
Home
Zeeva Bukai
The Woman Who Lost Her Names
Nessa Rapoport
Raised by Jews
Naomi Seidman
Authors and Editors
Questions For Discussion
Acknowledgements