We’re soliciting short stories and essays for Fig Tree Lit, our monthly literary newsletter
By Fredric Price
We started Fig Tree Books LLC in 2013 with the idea to publish only fiction, but expanded the list to include memoirs — Angela Himsel’s A River Could Be A Tree); and Abigail Pogrebin’s My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew—as well as a non-fiction book: Thane Rosenbaum’s Saving Free Speech … from Itself. […]
Biotech and literary fiction
By Fredric Price
I’ve reconnected with friends from the past during the pandemic, mostly over Zoom, sometimes over the phone. It’s been a wonderful experience, but I have to confess to one significant regret. I wished I’d kept up with these people years ago, as they are a remarkably talented group of individuals, not simply measured in terms […]
Predictions
By Fredric Price
We asked a group of our readers what their predictions were about what life would be like for Americans in general and American Jews in particular in 2021. What follows is an amalgamation of their responses, which are, in a word, pessimistic. Question – What is your set of predictions for Americans in general and […]
Anno Horribilis
By Fredric Price
Well-known cultural anthropologist Wade Davis wrote a provocative article for Rolling Stone in August, titled ‘The Unraveling of America’. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/2Mftf3z. Among other pull-out quotes, this one stands out as the basic set-up of his message: “The COVID pandemic will be remembered as such a moment in history, a seminal event […]
How to Fight Anti-Semitism – mini book review
By Fredric Price
I have some friends who think we are living in a period of deja vu that relates to what was going on in Germany just prior to Hitler assuming the chancellor’s position in 1933. Other think that this is a wild exaggeration, that we are going through a period of ‘lone wolf’ attacks that are […]
Thanksgiving 2020
By Fredric Price
Thinking about some of the myths about our country that have been raised during the shouting leading up to and after the recent election (which I won’t go into now as I’m finally able to take a deep breath and calm down) has got me thinking about the myth of Thanksgiving, coming up tomorrow. Yes, […]
Can we reduce the chasm of the great partisan divide in the US?
By Fredric Price
From Guest Blogger Yoel Magid What can we do from a communications point of view to reduce the chasm of the great partisan divide in the US? As so many commentators have noted, the divisions within our country are to a large extent a product of differing sources of information and the growing role of […]
Salute to my maternal grandfather
By Fredric Price
November 1 would have been the 130th birthday of my maternal grandfather, Bill Hirshberg. He was born in the States in 1890, and was a major presence in my life. So much so that when I adopted a pseudonym as an author, I chose his last name. (I use the first name of my father-in-law, […]
2 Books that are Must Reads During these Troubling Times
By Fredric Price
During these very troubling times, with a president who, in my opinion, is acting in dangerous and dare I say unhinged ways, it’s worthwhile to note that we’ve been through this before. Seriously. Annette Gordon-Reed gives us an up-close look into Andrew Johnson, a vile, stubborn man whose admiration for the antebellum southern white way […]
Outside for the Holidays — Reconnecting with nature on Rosh Hashanah
By Fredric Price
Guest Blog By Lisa Trank For some, Rosh Hashanah means davening in synagogue. For me, this time of year has come to signify something else: stepping outside the confines of the synagogue, and reconnecting to the natural world. I grew up in an observant Reform Jewish household in Southern California in the 1960s. This translated […]