Moderated by Nancy Reisman
Monday, April 3
Doors open at 6:30pm, discussion starts at 7pm
The Parthenon
When you think of Jewish women writers, maybe you think of Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Nicole Krauss, or Myla Goldberg. In the contemporary U.S., writing not only from these women but also from younger generations is flourishing. In the early twentieth century women writers embraced Yiddish as their literary language writing poetry, novels, stories, and plays. Why don’t we know more about them? What are their stories? One of them was Fradl Shtok. In 1919 she published a volume of acclaimed short stories, and by 1921 she disappeared from public literary life. Yiddish critics dismissed her and in time assumed she had died. In fact Fradl Shotk continued writing, dying alone and forgotten in 1990. Allison Schachter will discuss her new translation of Fradl Shtok’s work, the story of her life, and the history of Yiddish women’s writing in conversation with Nancy Reisman. Allison will also discuss her other book, Women Writing Jewish Modernity 1919-1939.
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