Fiction

Content type
Collection

EL Konigsburg

Elaine Lobl Konigsburg is best remembered from her many beloved children’s novels, including The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizbeth, and The View from Saturday. Her novels and her characters reflect the angst of growing up in a middle-class world and finding your way, no matter where you come from.

Dorit Rabinyan

Dorit Rabinyan was born in Israel in 1972 to a family that emigrated from Iran. She is an acclaimed and popular author whose writings highlight her Jewish/Persian heritage and provide a critique of the position of women and the effects of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict on individuals.

Pulcellina of Blois

Pulcellina was a prominent and powerful Jewish moneylender in twelfth-century Blois. In 1171, she was burned at the stake with mother than 30 other Jews on the false accusation of murdering a Christian boy.

Twenty-First Century Jewish Literature by Women in the US

Twenty-first-century Jewish women’s writing in the United States is wide-ranging in genre and topic. In this body of literature, we can find insightful and nuanced stories of contemporary American life as well as fiction that delves into lost or forgotten Jewish histories. From a female Spinoza to a female golem, a strong feminist ethic is pervasive in these writings.

Jamaica Kincaid

Born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson, Jamaica Kincaid is a Jewish Afro-Caribbean author. She was sent to the United States from her birthplace in Antigua at the age of sixteen and became a writer while living in the United States.

Judith Katzir

Yehudit Katzir (b. 1963) is an Israeli author who emerged as a leading female voice in what had been a male-dominated literary field until the 1980s. Her novels and short stories are noted for their idiosyncratic and lyrical language, as well as their focus on female identity and treatment of taboo themes.

Emma Wolf

Author of five novels and numerous short stories, Emma Wolf was a pioneering Jewish American writer whose works were widely read and discussed within and outside the American Jewish community.

Episode 48: A Ceiling Made of Eggshells (Transcript)

Episode 48: A Ceiling Made of Eggshells (Transcript)

Episode 48: A Ceiling Made of Eggshells

Author Gail Carson Levine is famous for writing retellings of classic fairy tales with a modern twist—like her best-selling novel Ella Enchanted—but her most recent book, A Ceiling Made of Eggshells, takes readers back to a real time and place. It's set in Spain in the decade leading up to the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Ten-year-old Loma's Jewish family is in a unique position. Her financier grandfather has a special, though tense, relationship with the king and queen, and Loma soon finds herself at the center of events that determine the Jewish community’s future. JWA talks with Gail Carson Levine about how she did her research for the book and what motivated her to write it.

An interviewee shakes hands with an interviewer. Another interviewer sits beside them.

"Planting Seeds": A Writer's Job Interview

Lilah Peck

Of all the interview questions I’d prepared for, I didn’t think of this one: "Why are you a writer?”

Topics: Writing, Fiction
Ritu Weds Chandni Book Cover

Through the Window: Interview with Author Ameya Narvankar

Ambika Sambasivan

As part of the Association of Jewish Libraries’ program Through the Window: A Diversity Exchange, we interview Ameya Narvankar, author of LGBTQ children's book Ritu Weds Chandni.

Episode 41: Coming of Age with Judy Blume (Transcript)

Episode 41: Coming of Age with Judy Blume (Transcript)

Episode 41: Coming of Age with Judy Blume

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Judy Blume's classic teen novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, a story that normalizes the experiences of teenage girls: what it’s like to have your first period, your first bra, your first kiss… what it’s like to feel uncomfortable in your own body and confused about who you are. Margaret, who comes from an interfaith home, with one Jewish parent, goes through these teen rites of passage and also grapples with her religious identity. Judith Rosenbaum and Nahanni Rous recently re-read the book with their own pre-teen daughters, Ma'ayan and Shalvah.

Naamah Book Cover

Interview with Sarah Blake, Author of "Naamah"

Rebecca Long

Exclusively for JWA, author Sarah Blake discusses her novel Naamah.

Topics: Bible, Fiction
Jennifer Weiner / "Mrs. Everything" cover

An Interview with Jennifer Weiner, Author of "Mrs. Everything"

Dina Adelsky

Exclusively for JWA, Jennifer Weiner discusses her book Mrs. Everything.

Topics: Fiction
Diary of a Lonely Girl Cover cropped

Jessica Kirzane on "Diary of a Lonely Girl"

Jessica Kirzane

Exclusively for JWA, Jessica Kirzane discusses her new translation of Yiddish author Miriam Karpilove's Diary of a Lonely Girl.

Topics: Fiction
Alice Hoffman and book cover

An Interview with Alice Hoffman about "The World That We Knew"

Karen Kashian

JWA interviews author Alice Hoffman about her new novel, The World That We Knew, one of our Book Club picks.

Topics: Fiction
Natasha Diaz and Book Cover

An Interview with Natasha Díaz about "Color Me In"

Mikki Pugh

JWA sat down with author Natasha Díaz to discuss her debut novel, Color Me In, one of our Book Club picks.

Topics: Fiction
Disobedience Book Cover

"Disobedience" and the History of Jewish Lesbian Obscenity

Sophie Hurwitz

Naomi Alderman's acclaimed novel Disobedience is the latest in a long line of Jewish works about women in love and owes much to predecessors like Gut fun Nekome.

"Gittel's Journey" Book Cover

A Passover Story: Lesléa Newman's "Gittel's Journey"

Dr. Helene Meyers

Gittel’s Journey overlaps with one of the central themes of Pesach: that having been strangers ourselves, we are ethically obligated to remember the stranger.

Topics: Immigration, Fiction
Ayelet Tsabari / The Best Place On Earth

Video Interview with Ayelet Tsabari

Judith Rosenbaum

Judith Rosenbaum interviews author Ayelet Tsabari about her book, The Best Place On Earth, one of JWA's Book Club picks.

Topics: Fiction
Forest Dark Book Cover

Review: Nicole Krauss's "Forest Dark"

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

Forest Dark is an exploration of what happens when the relationships, material objects, and geographic locations that have come to constitute an identity fall apart.

The Waiting Room Book Cover

Leah Kaminsky On Her Book "The Waiting Room"

Leah Kaminsky

Exclusively for JWA, Leah Kaminsky reflects on the inspiration for her book, The Waiting Room and contemplates the power of memory.

Topics: Fiction
Eternal Life Crop

An Interview with Dara Horn about "Eternal Life"

Rebecca Long

JWA sat down with award-winning author Dara Horn to discuss her latest novel, Eternal Life, one of our Book Club picks. Eternal Life tells the story of Rachel, a woman who cannot die.

Topics: Fiction
Regina Persisted Book Cover

An Interview with Rabbi Sandy Sasso about Regina Jonas

Judith Rosenbaum

JWA Executive Director Judith Rosenbaum interviewed Rabbi Sandy Sasso about her 2018 children’s book, about the world’s first woman rabbi. Watch their fascinating conversation here, and learn about Regina Jonas’s legacy and impact on Rabbi Sasso and the other women rabbis who followed in her footsteps.

Topics: Rabbis, Fiction

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