Tomorrow the book entitled `Age of Confidence, the new Jewish culture wave,` is published. I note that the publisher The History Press, and other outlets – from Amazon to W H Smith, have added some detail to their previous blurbs. Below – from the History Press.
“Taking the terrorist attacks of 9/11 as their starting point, five new essays look at how Jewish culture has changed over the past two decades. Covering music (Vanessa Paloma Elbaz), art (Monica Bohm Duchen), literature (Bryan Cheyette), theatre (Judi Herman) and film (Nathan Abrams), the essays explore the role of confidence in the cultural output of minority communities, and ask whether the trends identified look set to continue over the coming years. Commissioned to mark the twentieth anniversary of Jewish Renaissance magazine, the book includes a foreword by Howard Jacobson and is interspersed with a selection of the best articles from the magazine’s archive, including pieces by the director Mike Leigh, author Linda Grant and sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris.”
As I mentioned recently, my article, entitled `What is Jewish Theatre` is one of those `best articles from the magazine`s archive.` I am pleased to be in the mix with the better known contributors mentioned above. Possibly I don`t have quite the sense of confidence that is supposedly in the air. Trust me to be looking away from the zeitgeist, and into space.
The Emissary will be in Stand Magazine in December, and following that my collection, `Tell it Not,` will be published in January by Red Heifer Press. As of yesterday I have moved on from months of intermittent but compulsive reviewing and editing of the stories, particularly those which have not previously been anywhere. Yesterday I emailed the `final version` to RHP, then printed the stories out, and put them in a ring-binder under the chair in the corner of my study.
Now pleased to be thinking of next work. Whatever comes next. I feel less confident in the world around me, Jewish and general, than I have felt for quite some time. But those who chose the title above presumably found it appropriate. Must google it, actually. It might come from somewhere.
