Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

Need some book suggestions based on books you’ve just read or enjoyed reading? Check out The Book Seer. All you need to play is the name of a book you like and the author here.

Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

Congratulations to Anne Landsman, who just returned from South Africa where she accepted the 2009 M-Net Literary Award for her title The Rowing Lesson (which was a Finalist for the 2009 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature). Each prize is worth R30 000.

The M-Net Literary Awards were established in 1991 by M-Net (Electronic Media Network), a commercial television station based in South Africa, in order to encourage the writing of quality novels by South African authors, in one of South Africa’s 11 official languages, that could be adapted for the screen.

The complete list of 2009 Winners can be found here.

(Image via, credit: book.co.za)

Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

The Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA) will present Tobi Kahn: Sacred Spaces for the 21st Century, an exhibition of 30 recent paintings, sculptures and objects by the noted New York artist, from October 16, 2009 to January 24, 2010. As the first exhibition to explore Kahn’s notion of sacred space, it marks the public debut of a complex new work – a visually cohesive environment Kahn has created for the interior of a synagogue, the Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2008). Anchored by eight magnificent six-foot-high abstract murals in shimmering tones of gold and white suggestive of a limitless grandeur, this elegant artistic ensemble draws upon Kahn’s rich awareness of history to create a place of worship that departs from tradition, even as it is informed by it.

Along with the exhibit, GILES (in association with the Museum of Biblical Art) is publishing a catalog by the same name (Tobi Kahn: Sacred Spaces for the 21st Century). Each work in the volume is accompanied by a Meditation by novelist and poet Nessa Rapoport. Other pieces will include:

The Meaning of Beauty by Tobi Kahn
The Art of Engagement: Sacred Spaces Past & Present by Ena G. Heller
The Embrace of the World: Art and the Matter of Worship by David Morgan
The Ethos of Tobi Kahn’s Sacred Spaces by Klaus Ottman
The Measure of an Infinite Object by Jeff Edwards
Sanctity in Space by Daniel Sperber
Catalog with Songs by Nessa Rapoport

The book is due out this October.

If you would like to visit the exhibit, the MOBIA is located at 1865 Broadway at 61st Street in Manhattan. More information can be found on MOBIA’s website.

Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

We just got wind (via Publisher’s Weekly on Twitter (@PublishersWkly)) that we can look forward to new work from Jonathan Safran Foer. BookSeller.com reports:

London-based indie publisher Visual Editions has acquired two books byEverything is Illuminated author Jonathan Safran Foer. Visual Editions will publish two art books – one will be printed as a die-cut story, and the other will contain illustrated versions of two of Safran Foer’s short stories.

The deal was negotiated with Abner Stein on behalf of Aragi Inc. The first title will be published in June 2010 and the second is scheduled for a June 2011 publication.


(http://www.thebookseller.com/news/88989-new-safran-foer-titles-to-indie-publisher.html.rss)

Can’t wait that long? Safran Foer’s Non-Fiction Book Eating Animals is due out this November (more from Paste).

Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

This year’s NETWORK class is making us so proud! Two of our 2009-2010 season authors are listed on The Daily Beast’s “12 Hot Father’s Day Books."

The two titles featured are Andrew Blauner’s Brothers: 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry and Sam Apple’s American Parent (which was featured on Jewcy this week).

Happy Father’s Day book buying!

Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

With all of the variations and twists on the Google Map, it was only natural for The BIBLE GOOGLE MAP to find the light of day. As Galleycat reports, we can finally answer those pressing questions that have been on all of our minds:

Ever wonder where in the world Jonah was swallowed by a whale or where the apocalyptic visions of Revelations unfolded? There’s an app for that. HeLives.com has built a Bible Map using Google Maps, charting chapter and verse of the good book on Google’s geographical tool. They eventually hope to have every Biblical landmark mapped on Google.

Bravo to HeLives.com. More can be found here.

And the map itself can be found here.

(Image via Galleycat)

Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

An excerpt from 2009-2010 NETWORK member Sam Apple’s new book, American Parent, in Jewcy.

Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

New reviews on Words Without Borders include Kafka’s Amerika and Suzane Adam’s Laundry can be found here.

Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

This morning, the Jewish Publication Society announced that Ellen Frankel, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish Publication Society since 1991, has decided to step down from that position August 1, 2009, to pursue her own writing and scholarly projects. Frankel will maintain her ties to JPS, working in an advisory capacity as Editor Emerita. More from the press release (if you have any questions, please contact Anita Bihovsky at 215-832-0601 or ABihovsky@Jewishpub.org):

Frankel is the first executive in the agency’s history to have served both as Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer. She is also the first woman to have served as CEO.

While the JPS Board of Trustees engages in a search process, COO and Publishing Director Carol Hupping will serve as interim CEO.

“JPS has benefited both from Ellen’s scholarship and her leadership as the face of JPS for almost two decades,” said David Lerman, President of the JPS Board of Trustees. “Ellen has upheld the mantle of a great tradition in scholarship as well as leading us to the next phase of JPS’ mission to bring our content to new audiences online. We wish her every success and know she will continue to contribute to JPS’ evolution.”

Frankel’s tenure has been distinguished by an ambitious acquisitions program, which has included several major publishing projects, among them The Commentators’ Bible, a new English-language edition of the rabbinic classic, Miqra’ot Gedolot; Outside the Bible, the first Jewish anthology in English of Jewish extra-canonical texts; and Folktales of the Jews, a multi-volume collection of Jewish folktales from around the world. The latter two projects won major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Frankel’s focus as Editor-in-Chief has been to establish JPS as the premier Jewish Bible publisher in the English language. One of the cornerstones in this program has been the 1999 Hebrew-English Tanakh, containing the acclaimed JPS translation. JPS’ Bible program is currently being expanded through the Tagged Tanakh, a collaborative learning platform based on the Bible, and a new audio edition of the JPS translation.

Under Frankel’s direction, JPS has published a number of other award-winning titles, including Avivah Zornberg’s Genesis: The Beginning of Desire; Rachel Adler’s Engendering Judaism; We Are Children Just the Same: Vedem, the Secret Magazine by the Boys of Terezin; the Conservative Movement’s humash, Etz Hayim; Elliot Dorff’s Matters of Life and Death; and Menahem Elon’s Jewish Law, all of which have won National Jewish Book Awards.

Frankel, who received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University, is a scholar of Jewish folklore and the author of nine books, including the forthcoming JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible. She has received Hadassah’s Myrtle Wreath Award as well as the Bernard Reisman Award in Professional Excellence from the Hornstein Program at Brandeis University. In addition to working as a consultant to JPS, she plans to devote time to writing and lecturing.

JPS is the oldest nonprofit, multi-denominational publisher of Jewish works written in English. The organization celebrated its 120th Anniversary in November 2008. For more information, please visit www.jewishpub.org.

Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter

For the past several weeks, we’ve had the most wonderful intern, Rebecca Blady, working with us on many of our projects–Jewish Book Network author tours, Jewish Book World editing, the Sami Rohr Prize, and our website. Yesterday, she posted her first blog post on NewVoices (A National Jewish Student Magazine). Her first post, “Orthodox Judaism is moving–where?”, can be found here: http://blog.newvoices.org/?p=527. Stay tuned for more posts from Rebecca on NewVoices and possibly the JBC Blog!