Dear Fellow Book Lovers,
I would like to thank you for your support in what was a trying year. While we were unable to present our live, physical festival, I am very proud of the online offerings that we produced, and which are all available on the MJBW website and YouTube channel.
Normally we would be presenting an online event tonight, being the second Tuesday of the month. However, with so much on at this time of year, we decided to release the first season of our recorded Book Chats series today. You can watch them at your leisure. Further information can be found below. The second season will be released in early January.
MJBW has grand plans for 2021. We are launching our new year with an interview with the international literary sensation Nicole Krauss, on Thursday 28 January 2021. Booking details will be available in the next MJBW enews, on Thursday 10th December.
Thank you to our hard-working team at Melbourne Jewish Book Week, including Board and Committee members, whose passion for literature enables us to provide you, our enthusiastic supporters, with a broad world of Jewish reading. Our gratitude is extended to our generous financial supporters and cultural partners for working with us and to our wonderful writers without whom none of this would be possible.
On behalf of everyone at MJBW, we wish you and your families a safe and enjoyable summer, and a Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate the Festival of Lights.
Nicolas Brasch
Festival Director, MJBW |
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ANNOUNCING BOOK CHATS:
A space for authors to unpack and explore their latest work
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MJBW is very excited to launch our first season of Book Chats, featuring six authors who were set to be part of MJBW 2020. In these edited chats, they talk about their latest work — some fiction, some non-fiction, but all exceptional works that we can highly recommend.
SEASON 1 BOOK CHATS:
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Miriam Sved is a Melbourne-based novelist and short story writer. Her second novel, A Universe of Sufficient Size (2019), is a story about genius, friendship, secrets and survival.
In Miriam's book chat, the author discusses how the life of her grandmother inspired A Universe of Sufficient Size, and the process of setting a work between two very disparate locations and time periods: Budapest in the ’30s and Sydney in the early 2000s.
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Ginger Gorman is an award-winning social-justice journalist, who in 2013, together with her family, suffered first-hand the effects of online hate. It was this experience that set her on her professional journey into the world of trolls. Her series of articles on trolling for Fairfax newspapers in 2017 went viral, and became some of the most read Australian stories of the year. Ginger has written and spoken extensively about trolling and social media self-defence in Australian and global contexts, and is the author of Troll Hunting (2019).
In Ginger's book chat, the award-winning journalist discusses the spectre of online harassment. Gorman explores the concept of trolling, and highlights strategies to make technology companies accountable to the public good.
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Jeff Sparrow is a writer, editor, and broadcaster. He writes a regular column for The Guardian and contributes regularly to many other Australian and international publications.
In Jeff's book chat, the award-winning writer discusses the 2019 Christchurch massacre (the subject of his latest book, Fascists Among Us), the urgent need to truly fight fascism, and the complexities of far-right responses to climate change.
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Suzanne Leal is the author of novels The Deceptions (2020), The Teacher’s Secret (2016) and Border Street (2006). She is a regular presenter at literary events and festivals, was the senior judge for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards (2017–2019) and is a board director of the Sydney Crime Writers Festival.
In Suzanne's book chat, the writer discusses the responsibilities an author has when writing a novel about the Holocaust — and whether it's ever really possible for an author to leave one's stories and characters behind.
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Suzy Zail left the law to write The Tattooed Flower (2006), an account of how her father survived the Holocaust. Inspired by his war-time experience, Suzy wrote The Wrong Boy (2012), a CBCA shortlisted novel and USBBY Outstanding International Book. Continuing to chase stories about which she cares deeply, she wrote Alexander Altmann A10567 (2014), a CBCA Notable Book. Suzy’s latest YA novel, I Am Change (2019), is the story of a young Ugandan girl’s struggle to stay in school.
In her book chat, Suzy discusses the decision to write about the lives of young women in Uganda, opting for fiction over biography, and writing to empower young women In Australia and Africa.
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Daniel Ziffer covered the Hayne royal commission for ABC radio, TV, and online. He was formerly the long-time senior producer of ‘Mornings with Jon Faine’, at ABC Radio Melbourne, and has worked on air and in production at Macquarie Radio, as a freelance foreign correspondent based in New York City, a journalist at The Age, and as a magazine editor.
In Daniel's book chat, the journalist discusses the gruelling stories of Australians dudded by trusted banks and financial institutions — and shares what surprised him most about the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
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Each individual book chat is now available on the MJBW website — look for the Book Chats page.
This series is proudly supported by:
- Dr Mark and Dr Alla Medownick
- Anonymous
- The Australian Jewish News
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SUPPORT MELBOURNE JEWISH BOOK WEEK
MJBW has planned and presented FREE live-streaming events to its audience of the highest literary standard and is largely maintained by a small group of volunteers.
In order to continue the quality of MJBW events, we are asking you to help us support our literary community of writers, moderators and keynote speakers, local and international, which will assist us to keep everyone connected in the Melbourne Jewish Book World. We wish to say a big THANK YOU to each and everyone who has financially supported our literary community to this stage.
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Melbourne Jewish Book Week is a not-for-profit organisation with registered charitable and Deductible Gift Recipient status. All donations over $2 are tax deductible. We appreciate your support and welcome all contributions.
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