Posted on February 29, 2008 by Steve Pollak
The Associated Press is reporting that a best-selling Belgian writer has admitted to fabricating her memoir of growing up as a Jewish child and living with a pack of wolves in the woods during the Holocaust.
Here's more on the story:
Misha Defonseca's book, "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years," was translated into 18 languages and made into a feature film in France.
Her two Brussels-based lawyers, siblings Nathalie and Marc Uyttendaele, said the author acknowledged her story was not autobiographical and that she did not trek 1,900 miles as a child across Europe with a pack of wolves in search of her deported parents during World War II. Continue reading...
Posted on February 28, 2008 by Steve Pollak
My passion is Jewish writing but I'm also a political junkie. So, when I saw an opportunity to combine the two for a post on this blog, I jumped.
Nick Antosca is tracking political contributions by writers on his blog. It's a pretty simple operation, thanks to the Huffington Post's special section on political fundraising. You simple ask for all contributors who list their occupation as novelist and it provides a listing.
I was struck by the number of writers I've discussed on these pages or could be discussed on a blog called Jewish Literary Review. For example, Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish novelist Michael Chabon gave $4,600 to the Obama campaign. His wife, writer Ayelet Waldman, gave $4,652 to Obama as well. Nick also listed information on Judy Blume, David Mamet and Jonathan Safran Foer. Continue reading...
Posted on February 26, 2008 by Steve Pollak
Ha'Aretz posted a story yesterday about this year's winners of the Israel Prizes for Literature, Poetry and Translation.
Ida Fink, pictured right, took home the prize for literature (actually, all of the winners will receive their prizes at a state ceremony in Jerusalem on Israel Independence Day).
Fink is perhaps best known to English-speaking audiences for her collection of short stories, "A Scrap of Time and Other Stories." Other works that have been translated into English include "The Journey" and "Traces: Stories." In addition, Fink was the subject of a 2007 documentary called "The Garden That Floated Away."
Fink was born in the Ukraine, according to Ha'Aretz, but her Wikipedia page says she was born in Zbaraz, Poland. I'm assuming this is one of those Eastern European towns that's changed ownership over the years. In any event, she spent two years in the Zbaraz ghetto before escaping in 1942. She moved to Israel in 1957 and began publishing stories in 1971. According to her Wikipedia page, her "stories revolve around the terrible choices that the Jews had to make during the Nazi era and the hardships of Holocaust survivors after the war." Continue reading...