*This has been postponed as, due to the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Maria Stepanova is unable to participate. We hope to reschedule it soon as an online event. In the meantime, we hope you’ll join us on Wednesday 9 March for our Jewish Ukraine event in aid of World Jewish Relief’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
We’ve teamed up with Jewish Book Week to explore the ways writers use the concept of memory in their work as a way of reflecting on the enormous political and social changes of recent decades. Maria Stepanova features on our panel of guest speakers. She was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker for her book In Memory of Memory, the story of how her seemingly ordinary Russian Jewish family managed to survive the myriad persecutions and repressions of the last century. Plus George Szirtes, whose poetry, translations and children’s books have won him numerous awards, including the Faber Prize and Booker International for translation. His latest collection, Fresh Out of the Sky, looks at major life-changes involving country, identity and belonging. They join JR’s Editor Rebecca Taylor to discuss their work and that of others. This event is part of our 20th anniversary year of celebrations and links to our book, Age of Confidence: The New Jewish Culture Wave, which examines the past, present and future of J-culture. For further JR events at Jewish Book Week, see What’s Happening.
Venue: Kings Place, London, N1 9GU
Price: £16.50
Booking for this event will open nearer the time.
Buy the book
In celebration of our 20th anniversary, we’ve launched our first book, Age of Confidence: The New Jewish Culture Wave, which comprises five essays by experts in their fields that cover Jewish culture over the last two decades in a period that spans the attacks on New York’s Twin Towers in 2001 to the challenges of creating culture under Covid today. Interspersed with the essays are a series of archive pieces from past magazines, ranging from Mike Leigh on Arnold Wesker to Linda Grant on Saul Bellow, plus an introduction by Howard Jacobson.
