Essay from Actor Michael Rapaport: A Message to My Haters up North
By Fredric Price
A Canadian politician is trying to bar me from the country where I’m scheduled to perform a few gigs. I’m offering her front-row seats. MICHAEL RAPAPORT SPEAKS AT RALLY OUTSIDE ‘THE HOSTAGES AND MISSING SQUARE’ ON DECEMBER 16, 2023, IN TEL AVIV, ISRAEL. (ALEXI J. ROSENFELD VIA GETTY IMAGES) By Michael Rapaport I’ve seen a […]
Jewish authors confront growing backlash in literary world
By Fredric Price
Calling Jewish writers Zionists as an epithet and the reason to be excluded from the annals of publishing unless we denounce our attachment to our identities is frightening. By Joan Leegant – December 21, 2024 In May, a color-coded Google spreadsheet titled “Is your fav author a Zionist???” began circulating online. Its creator scrutinized the […]
Blacklisted for Israel support, author draws strength from Holocaust survivor grandma
By Fredric Price
Bestselling writer Lisa Barr – targeted by hecklers and review bombers – vows that though she wants to ‘curl up in a ball’ after Oct. 7, she will ‘fight back constructively’ Bestselling author Lisa Barr never expected to call her newest novel “eerily relevant” to modern times. Historical fiction, “The Goddess of Warsaw” is a […]
The Resistance: Five People Standing Up to Book Banners
By Fredric Price
For many, defending the freedom to read has come at a steep cost. We recently talked with five librarians and educators who are standing up to the would-be censors. By Andrew Richard Albanese and Nathalie op de Beeck | Sep 16, 2024 With the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week set to begin on […]
Ad for Israel Book Canceled
By Fredric Price
Ad for Israel Book Canceled Because ‘Customers Might Complain’ Magazine rejects advertisement for Bernard-Henri Lévy’s work because it will give booksellers ‘trouble they haven’t asked for and don’t wish to have.’ By Francesca Block October 23, 2024 A prominent trade publication refused to advertise a new book because it feared the word Israel in its […]
Book Publishing and Antisemitism
By Fredric Price
When a list of Jewish authors is circulating with instructions to boycott them, publishing cannot remain silent by Kathleen Schmidt; May 13, 2024 I debated whether to wade into these waters, but the “yes” outweighed the “no” in my gut, so here we are. I will preface this post by saying I am not getting […]
Jewish writers say the post-Oct. 7 English literary world has blacklisted them
By Fredric Price
As the war in Gaza goes on, authors say that when they don’t face outright hostility for being Jews, they are marginalized as publishers claim their voices aren’t marketable By CATHRYN J. PRINCE – 13 April 2024 13 April 2024 NEW YORK — Erika Dreifus has spent the better part of two decades sharing resources […]
3 am by Eve Barlow, creator of Blacklisted
By Fredric Price
I learned how to write at this time. This is when you become a writer. In the wee hours. The brain needs out of the head. Sometimes it’s the plague of a worry that refuses to die in slumber. Sometimes it’s the rush of an idea that required a subconscious requiem to bring it into […]
Rude and Crude but Definitely Justified
By Fredric Price
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
By Fredric Price
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 […]