Jewish Literature Live! Spring 2014 commences with a reading by Dara Horn on Thursday, January 30 at 7 PM in The Marvin Center at George Washington University.

The annual class allows students to read the works of a series of living Jewish authors, and then have the opportunity to interact with them in an intimate, engaging, collegiate setting. The course, the only one of its kind in the country, is also accompanied by public lectures or readings by established and emerging authors.

Dara Horn was born in New Jersey in 1977 and received her Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University in 2006, studying Hebrew and Yiddish. In 2007 she was chosen by Granta magazine as one of America’s Best Young American Novelists. Her first novel, In the Image, published by W.W. Norton when she was 25, received a 2003 National Jewish Book Award, the 2002 Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and the 2003 Reform Judaism Fiction Prize. Her second novel, The World to Come, published by W.W. Norton in 2006, received the 2006 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, the 2007 Harold U. Ribalow Prize, was selected as an Editors’ Choice in The New York Times Book Review and as one of the Best Books of 2006 by The San Francisco Chronicle, and has been translated into eleven languages. Her third novel, All Other Nights, published in 2009 by W.W. Norton, was selected as an Editors’ Choice in The New York Times Book Review and was one of Booklist’s 25 Best Books of the Decade. In 2012, her nonfiction e-book The Rescuer was published by Tablet magazine and became a Kindle bestseller. Her newest novel, A Guide for the Perplexed, was published by W.W. Norton in September 2013. She has taught courses in Jewish literature and Israeli history at Harvard, Sarah Lawrence College, and City University of New York, and has lectured at over two hundred universities and cultural institutions throughout North America and in Israel. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and four children.

 

Additional Author Events for the semester feature :

Anouk Markovitz – I am Forbidden Feb. 13; MC Amphitheater; 7:00 PM

Helene Wecker – The Golem and the Jinni – Feb. 27; MC Amphitheater; 7:00 PM

Claudia Roth Pierpont – Roth Unbound – March 20; MC Amphitheater; 7:00 PM

Joy Ladin – Through the Door of Life: a Jewish Journey between Genders – April 3;MC 302; 7:00 PM

Fran Lebowitz April 17 – Details TBD

Jewish Literature Live! is a unique college course taught by English Professor Faye Moskowitz at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The University hosts rising and renowned Jewish American writers to speak with the GW and literary community. Guest Speakers include emerging leaders, National Humanities Award Recipients, international bestsellers, and UN-Award Winning Writers, e.g. Michael Chabon, E.L. Doctorow, Nicole Krauss, & Erica Jong.

David Bruce Smith, a graduate and trustee of George Washington University, established the course in 2009. All of our events are FREE and open to the public.