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 ]
The book doesn’t offer a clear-eyed view of who the singer really was — he would have hated that. Continue reading at The Washington Post
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Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine EvaristoSince studying Lara as a student, I have been a fan of Bernardine Evaristo’s work, and am delighted to see her win the Booker Prize this year. Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives of twelve black characters with different backgrounds and experiences, most... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-10-30 09:49:28 UTC ]
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Carmen Maria Machado follows up her acclaimed collection of stories, “Her Body and Other Parties,” with a memoir about her frightening relationship with another woman while in graduate school. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-10-29 19:27:21 UTC ]
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JAQUIRA DÍAZ’S FIRST BOOK — the memoir Ordinary Girls, published by Algonquin Books on October 29 — lyrically chronicles a childhood and early adulthood marked by pain and chaos but also by joy and celebration. Díaz grew up, first, in one of Puerto Rico’s roughest neighborhoods and then amid... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
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Author Timothy J. Hillegonds shares three ideas on how to determine what to include and what to leave out of a memoir so that it supports the main themes of the book. The post But This Really Happened: What to Include and Leave Out of a Memoir by Timothy Hillegonds appeared first on Writer's... Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2019-10-28 15:03:11 UTC ]
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ABC’s Black-ish spinoff joins a new memoir by Thomas Chatterton Williams in presenting a seemingly enlightened but ahistorical view of race. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2019-10-26 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Duras’s body of work is a reminder that it’s okay to press send, to publish your drafts.” On Marguerite Duras, proto-internet essayist. | Lit Hub Memoir “Space flight is not being powered by people doing reasonable things.” Peter Ward explores the fraught history (and inevitable future) of space... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-10-26 10:30:56 UTC ]
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Stop whatever it is you’re doing and pay attention to me because I have, just this morning, stumbled upon some joyous, and potentially game-changing, literary news: Val Kilmer is releasing a memoir. Yes, friends, according to Publishers Weekly, Simon & Schuster will publish I’m Your... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-10-25 16:13:04 UTC ]
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Looking for your next favorite book? Check out these new historical fiction books, full of beautiful prose, dynamic characters, and captivating settings. Continue reading at Book Riot
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“Little Weirds,” a new collection by the actress and comedian, isn’t the funny memoir you might have expected. Continue reading at The New York Times
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Chatto & Windus has triumphed in a hotly-contested eight-way auction to publish an "extraordinarily brave" memoir about faith, loss and addiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-23 09:08:05 UTC ]
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Historical fiction writer Ben Kane has signed a three-book deal with Orion Fiction for a new series of novels exploring Richard the Lionheart. Continue reading at The Bookseller
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Head of Zeus has picked up a memoir of Belfast by poet and writer Ciaran Carson, who passed away earlier this month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
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Columnist, editor and author hailed as ‘fearless’, after her death at the age of 57Friends and colleagues have responded to the death of the journalist and author Deborah Orr with a flood of tributes, describing the longtime Guardian columnist as fearless, hilarious, and “a lioness in a world... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-10-21 15:54:16 UTC ]
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Complete with endorsements from Donald Trump and Judy Murray, the parody jacket turned up in a branch of FoylesThere are large acts of protest, such as the People’s Vote march that took place in London on Saturday. And then there are smaller ones, such as the work of the as yet unidentified... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-10-21 12:46:59 UTC ]
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Motherwell, the incisive memoir by Deborah Orr, unpicks the complexities of familial relationships. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-21 06:10:58 UTC ]
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In his memoir “Long Way Home,” Michael Douglas’s oldest son examines the “demented death wish” that drove him to drugs and crime, shining a light on his famous family along the way. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-10-19 09:00:12 UTC ]
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Chuck Schwab said his company will soon introduce fractional-stock trading and other services designed to appeal to younger clients. The founder and chairman of Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that introducing the new services is the next step after dropping... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-10-18 18:05:16 UTC ]
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The Blunt Instrument is an advice column for writers, written by Elisa Gabbert (specializing in nonfiction), John Cotter (specializing in fiction), and Ruoxi Chen (specializing in publishing). If you need tough advice for a writing problem, send your question to [email protected].... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-10-18 11:00:04 UTC ]
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HarperCollins imprint HQ will publish a "heartwrenching" post-Holocaust memoir from the mother of Jonathan Safran Foer, the story of which was the basis for his bestselling 2002 novel, Everything is Illuminated. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-16 20:21:07 UTC ]
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