Our blog features essays, book reviews, coverage of FTB titles, and noteworthy news of American Jewish experience by our publisher.
Rude and Crude but Definitely Justified
Posted on August 8, 2024
Pushkin House in London, in collaboration with the University of London, recently invited Israeli author Dina Rubina (above) to a literary discussion on Zoom about her books. Then she received the email below from the meeting’s moderator, Nataliya Rulyova, who demanded she state where she stands “on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” because other invited participants need […]
On Getting My Writing Mojo Back, Post October 7th
Posted on July 1, 2024
by Nina Lichtenstein I know I’m not the only writer whose creative mojo left the room after the horrendous events on October 7thand the subsequent war in Gaza and Israel with all its gruesome images and devastation. You do not need to be Jewish or Palestinian to be impacted by such meaningless human suffering. Months […]
A Chill Has Fallen Over Jews in Publishing
Posted on June 3, 2024
By James Kirchick, May 27, 2024 This month, an account on X with the handle @moyurireads and 360 followers published a link to a color-coded spreadsheet classifying nearly 200 writers according to their views on the “genocide” in Gaza. Titled “Is Your Fav Author a Zionist?,” it reads like a cross between Tiger Beat and “The […]
Jewish Writers Must Defy the Publishing Industry’s Narrow Genres
Posted on May 1, 2024
We should write to defy those who prefer seeing books where Jews are either victims or plotting their escape from religious Jewish practice. The Jewish Journal – Judy Gruen In the film “American Fiction,” protagonist Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is a Black English professor and author of literary but commercially unloved novels. Portrayed by Jeffrey Wright, […]
The Fight for the Future of Publishing
Posted on April 1, 2024
Ideological fanatics and fear have crippled the major houses. But new book publishers are rising up to take the risks they won’t. by Alex Perez in The Free Press [https://www.thefp.com/p/the-fight-for-the-future-of-publishing] November 28, 2023 On September 19, 2022, Elle Griffin, a freelance writer in Salt Lake City, published the first installment of her new fantasy novel, Oblivion, […]
PEN AMERICA – Update on Book Bans in the 2022-2023 School Year
Posted on March 6, 2024
Shows Expanded Censorship of Themes Centered on Race, History, Sexual Orientation and Gender As noted in PEN America’s previous Banned in the USA reports, the movement to ban books that has grown since 2021 is deeply undemocratic, as it seeks to impose restrictions on all students and families based on the preferences of a few parents or […]
A Publishing Giant’s Risky Fight Against Book Bans
Posted on February 2, 2024
A fiery board meeting inspired Penguin Random House to actively challenge the removal of books from school libraries By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, The Wall Street Journal Jan. 27, 2024 When Penguin Random House held a board meeting in May, book banning was one of several topics on the agenda. It was supposed to be a […]
A.I.’s Inroads in Publishing Touch Off Fear, and Creativity
Posted on January 2, 2024
The technology has the potential to affect nearly every aspect of how books are produced — even the act of writing itself. Artificial intelligence is already being used in some aspects of the book business, and has the potential, in time, to touch nearly the whole process. By Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter Aug. 2, 2023 The […]
Philip Roth’s Sabbath Theater … Art and Belligerency Off-Broadway
Posted on November 28, 2023
Desperate times call for degenerate measures. For American Jews, this would be a good time to call upon Philip Roth. Thane Rosenbaum Desperate times call for degenerate measures. For American Jews, this would be a good time to call upon Philip Roth. It just so happens that Roth, in the personage of one of his […]
Guest editorial – Gaza—Where the Moral Math of Revenge Has No Equal
Posted on October 23, 2023
No other nation, most especially the United States, has ever been held to such an exacting standard of precision while responding in self-defense. By Thane Rosembaum October 22, 2023 [Fig Tree Lit welcomes responses to this guest editorial; decisions to publish are exclusively within the domain of Fig Tree Lit.] Take out your calculators. While […]