Fiction can be full of ideas and can tackle important issues, but I now understand that it's usually not interesting when the writer has predetermined the points he or she wants to impart. by Avner Landes I'm excited to have author Avner Landes visit gilagreenwrites today. Way back (in another life), I met Avner at Bar Ilan University while I was s...

April Jewish Book Carnival

I'm thrilled to be the host of this month's Jewish Book Carnival. Passover is a season for growth, famil,y and fun, but also for time off to read and explore new authors. Welcome! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of the contributing bloggers and to wish all of them and all of you a chag Pesach kasher V'Sameach!&nbs...

I love featuring authors monthly and learning from every one of them.  I particularly enjoy featuring fellow authors in Israel who write in English. I'm so pleased to say I've met Leah Scheier in person. Yes, I've had the honor and hope to do so again.  Leah's novel THE LAST WORDS WE SAID was just awarded the Sydney Taylor Honor...

BIO: Meryl Ain is a writer, author, and career educator. The Takeaway Men, her award-winning Post-Holocaust debut novel, was published in 2020. In 2021, she founded the Facebook group, Jews Love To Read! Her new podcast, People Of the Book, airs on Authors on the Air Global Radio Network beginning in February. A member of The International Advisory...

My colleague, Marc Kornblatt, has once again generously shared his latest short films with me. Worth watching! From YouTube: "Israeli-born artist Liran Bechar has travelled around the world, tripping over more than a few bumpy spots along the way. In this short video, filmmaker Marc Kornblatt celebrates Bechar's ability to turn his traumas int...

 Thank you so much to author Alex Pearl for including me in his new book.  Within these pages, authors from a wide spectrum of backgrounds wax lyrical about their backgrounds, motivations, and working methods. Among this throng, self-published newbies rub shoulders with award-winning bestsellers from all corners of the globe, including th...

 Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash Cost: $25  Time: Dec 19, 2021 11:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada) Each of us has a story to tell, we just need the impetus to get started. Join me for this 90-minute workshop. We will examine some readings together (sent to you beforehand), and then discuss how we can use objects from the pa...

Thanks so much to author Julie Zuckerman for this poster. I repost here from her site.   Spread some light this Chanukah with the gift of books! There's something for every type of reader here...The books here are written by members of a group of Jewish women writers I'm privileged to be in. Many of them have appeared at Literary Modiin a...

This is a repost of the November Jewish Book Carnival. Thanks so much to Shilo Musings for putting this together this month.  The genre of Jewish Books has many subgenres fiction, biography, history, children's books and even poetry. Please click on the various reviews I've included to read them in their entirety and get to know the different ...

Thanks so much to Alex Pearl for spending time with me this week. Alex Pearl is the author of Sleeping with the Blackbirds and The Chair Man. In 2015, his eclectic collection of blog posts appeared in paperback under the title Random Ramblings of a short-sighted Blogger. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Gila Green onto the website today. ...

I love guest posts, and this one particularly resonated with me. I like to think I'm not alone in beating myself up when my writing routine falls apart or in worrying when I struggle to write. I'm thrilled to have Rabbi Amy Grossblatt Pessah visit gilagreenwrites and offer some deep and meaningful reflections on the practice and art of writing. Wel...

I'm very happy to introduce you to author Jonathan Hale Rosen. Jonathan's new work "The Museum of an Extinct Race"  is a dystopian glimpse into a world in which Judaism has been eliminated. Please welcome, Jonathan Hale Rosen to gilagreenwrites.    Bio Jonathan Rosen is a Family Physician who has written six novels. He has ...

 Far from being only about books, this entertaining and thought-provoking series of eleven multilingual, eclectic events brings together some of today's top literary minds in interviews and inspiring lectures, along with film, workshops, concerts and Russian dance & culture. Insightful Q&A sessions follow most presentations. These one-...

There is an urgent need for books with religiously diverse characters who don't stand out because of their religion or beliefs.  by Author Marcia Berneger I want to welcome Marcia Berneger to gilagreenwrites. I'm so happy to have her here to share her thoughts on a topic on the minds of many readers and writers: diversity in children's books. ...

Thanks to Barbara Bietz for hosting this month's Jewish Book Carnival. On gilagreenwrites, author Nancy Churnin talks children's book trends, the women in Charles Dickens' life, and Jewish symbols in her new work. Shiloh Musings has reviewed Pamela Braun Cohen's memoir about her decades as an American activist to free Soviet Jewry in HIDDEN HEROES....

First Steps in Writing Your Memoir  The world should know your story.  When: Thursday, October 21, 2021 12 PM ET (2-hour workshop) 7 PM Israel Each of us has a story to tell, we just need to get started.  Cost: $25 Register at Institute of JewishExperience.org

"I wondered, does that mean G-d has stopped talking to people? Are we on our own?" by Evonne Marzouk I'm very excited to have Evonne Marzouk visit gilagreenwrites today. She shares some deep insights into the two decades it took her to write her YA novel The Prophetess and the world she invented with "everyday" prophets. Please welcome Evonne Marzo...

From my colleague Marc Kornblatt: I am proud of the piece, which brings together a number of key issues in my life: family, homelessness, aging, mortality, and persistence. Humor, too. I invite you to watch, comment, like, and share it, and hope you'll subscribe to my channel, too, if you haven't done so already.  Worth watching this solo...

I'm so excited to have Nancy Churnin visit gilagreenwrites. Her new children's book is an absolute delight to read! After all of these years with Charles Dickens, this book explores a refreshing, new (well, new to me), Jewish angle that is so well done. Nancy doesn't hit the reader over the head with a hammer, yet gets her message across about "spe...

Welcome to the July Jewish Book Carnival. This month eleven bloggers bring you their latest interviews, reviews, and insights into Jewish authors and books. The Jewish Book Carnival is a monthly event where bloggers who blog about Jewish books can meet, read and comment on each others' posts. A Jewish Grandmother reviews DISSONANCE A Nove...

At the times when you're feeling dispirited or disillusioned with the process – when you're bogged down in editing, or querying and getting nowhere – holding onto the reason you created the story you chose to can really help you to keep going and hold onto what matters to you. by Author Kit Mallory One of the nicest things about receiving invitatio...

 With panelists Gila Green, Stuart Gibbon, Kit Mallory (moderator), Caleb Roehrig, and Christina Hoag. About this event Join us at 3pm (BST) on July 9th 2021 for this panel on how true events inspire crime fiction. To Register

People who suffer from mental illness are individuals, they are not the illness. by Author Florence Kraut Today Florence Kraut visits gilagreenwrites. I just finished writing my seventh novel titled "A Good Eye," which explores narcisstic personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (specifically as suffered by veterans). As such, I was ...

"I briefly considered writing my story as a memoir, but I just couldn't do it, it was too painful, so I chose to go the fictional route." by Author Christina Hoag  I recently participated in a panel titled "How True Events Inspire Crime Fiction." Thank you UK-based author Madeline Dyer for inviting me to participate for the second ye...

I'm pleased to be hosting the July Jewish Book Carnival (coming up July 15th). Look for interviews and reviews from a range of bloggers including: Batya Medad, Deborah Kalb, Erika Dreifus, Mirta Ines Trupp and many more and yes, I have my own submission coming up. Expand your summer reading list right here on gilagreenwrites. Shoutout to Jewis...

Today on gilagreenwrites, I'm so pleased to share my interview with author Lori Banov Kaufmann. Lori is a fellow writer living in Israel, writing in English, so I was immediately drawn to her work and that was before I knew it took place in my favorite city: Jerusalem. As someone with deep roots in the Holy City, I am fascinated by this book, which...

Autofiction : Between Fiction and Memoir

"An author working in good faith can't win at this game. If she is forced to confirm that her material is autobiographical, then she risks forfeiting both the privacy and the power of transfiguration that fiction promises. If she denies it, then she surrenders a badge of authenticity that she may never have wished to claim in the first place, and l...

In 2011, I finished writing my first novel King of the Class (NON Publishing, Vancouver). It took me two years to find an independent press in Vancouver who agreed to publish it. In King of the Class, I envisioned an Israel of the future, divided into two states: one Halachikally religious and one staunchly secular. The prime minister? Yair Lapid. ...

Summer reading with this month's Jewish Book Carnival. Thanks so much to the Rachak Review for hosting this month's carnival. It's always an honor to be included.  In her monthly author interviews, Gila Green speaks to Barbara Stark-Nemon about her new work that deals with bilingualism, German roots, and the complexity in our writing that come...

Ann Bausum is an award-winning author of 16 works of nonfiction for children, teens, and adults. Her books often explore under-told stories and examine social justice history, but she's also written twice about a famous dog! Earlier this year National Geographic published her latest book for middle graders and up: Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair—Inside...