Jewish Life in Harbin, China: A Conversation with Jean Hoffmann Lewanda by Susan Blumberg-Kason Interviews [email protected] Tue, 01/07/2025 - 07:08 Shalama and Paul, Shanghai, 1950. Photo courtesy of Jean Hoffmann LewandaI met the author Jean Hoffmann Lewanda for lunch this past November in New Jersey, not too far from her home in suburban Philadelphia. Jean is the author of a new book, Shalama: My 96 Seasons in China (Earnshaw, 2024), the story of her mother’s childhood in Harbin, China, and young adult years in Shanghai. Jean’s first book, Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience, is an edited edition of her father’s memoir tracing his escape from Nazi-controlled Vienna to the safe shores of Shanghai in the late 1930s. Jean and I originally met online thanks to mutual friends who are historians and the authority on everything Old Shanghai. When we met in person in November, we spoke for hours about publishing Jewish Chinese stories. We expanded this conversation over email. Susan Blumberg-Kason: Thank you, Jean, for continuing our lovely conversation back in November. I don’t remember coming across other authors who have personal connections to both the old Shanghai and Harbin Jewish communities, each of which numbered in the thousands. Your mother was the daughter of Russian Jewish refugees, and your father was an Austrian Jewish refugee. Was it unusual for people in these... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2025-01-07 13:08:24 UTC ]
In her memoir “The Critic’s Daughter,” Priscilla Gilman recounts her life with intensely intellectual — and very different — parents. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-02-13 10:00:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
His masquerade — a tale recounted in a memoir and in the film “Europa Europa” — saved his life. But “to this day,” he said, “I have a tangle of two souls in one body.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-02-11 22:40:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Super Bowl winner Malcolm Jenkins sells a book about his life on and off the field to S&S, and Viking buys a memoir by Barbra Streisand. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Beloved dad-rocker Jeff Tweedy is no stranger to publishing: he has two previous titles under his belt about his life in music, one a memoir of his time with Wilco, the other about the art of songwriting. (Perhaps my favorite bit of Tweedy literalia, though, is his appearance as a character in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-09 16:20:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Davon Loeb’s debut memoir The In-Betweens follows the story of his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood as a biracial young man growing up between various cultures, races, and identities. Loeb grows up with a Black mother and a white, Jewish father. In school, he is one of the few Black... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-02-09 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Luckily for us, the celebrity memoir genre is rife with tantalizingly tales from stars past and present. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2023-02-09 10:45:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this
'My Name Is Barbra,' the memoir that superstar Barbra Streisand said she's been working on for more than a decade, will be published this fall. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-02-08 20:02:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Nothing prepared me for revisiting the most painful times of my life – then being criticised for it. We need industry-wide guidelines to helpI called her Terri The World Gets. She was the outward-facing me, the woman I’d spent decades curating. And Terri The World Gets was about to be rocketed... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-08 08:00:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Barbra Streisand announced that her long-awaited memoir My Name Is Barbra will be coming out November 7, 2023 with Viking Books. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-02-07 16:37:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In ‘one of the greatest tales of the creative life ever told’, the singer, actor and director recounts her life and 60-year career, in which she won scores of awards, many times as the first woman to do soBarbra Streisand will publish her first memoir later this year, her publisher has... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-07 16:11:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this
About twenty pages into Sofia Samatar’s memoir The White Mosque, Sigmund Freud appears, sitting in a train compartment late at night. Up to this point, Samatar’s story has been primarily about her travels across Central Asia to study The Bride Sect, a Mennonite group who fled persecution in... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-02-07 12:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In his memoir “Holding Fire,” Bryce Andrews confronts the violence and guilt of past generations. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-02-07 10:00:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“Will this book, like so many cultural products made by creatives of color, be expected to somehow prove the viability of Black novels in the marketplace?” Debut author Laura Warrell on publishing while Black. | Lit Hub Memoir Rapid-fire reviews of the literary adaptations that premiered at... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-06 11:30:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It's a rough time for fans of several live service games, which are titles designed to be constantly updated for a long time. A bunch are shutting down in the near future, and CrossfireX and Knockout City are among the latest to join the list.CrossfireX is an Xbox console version of the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-02-03 20:24:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Bestseller Kiley Reid re-ups with Putnam, two-time NBA winner Jesmyn Ward sells her first historical fiction outing to Scribner, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-03 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The newly formatted prize will, for the first time, name winners in fiction, nonfiction and poetry and the shortlist includes writers from across the worldThe shortlists for this year’s Rathbones Folio prize spans three continents and includes Booker prize-shortlisted Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-01-31 19:45:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The former 'Baywatch' star opens up in a new memoir, 'Love, Pamela' — to an extent. Here are five excerpts that left us with more questions than answers. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-01-30 14:00:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Last year’s historical fiction was all about the 60s, baby, while this year’s features more from the 1950s, the long 19th century, and the 1970s. I have bad news for Gen-Xers and Xennials: the 1990s are now historical fiction, and there’s plenty coming out about the tail end of the 20th century... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-30 09:52:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Historical fiction for young readers like CATHERINE CALLED BIRDY help readers discover the history of sexism, ableism, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-01-27 11:34:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Her second memoir — about her small-town coming-of-age, her multiple traumas and Hollywood escapades — is an attempt to set the record straight. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-01-27 10:00:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this