Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 highlights to check out at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival
From the climate crisis to queer identity, the fest is full of thought-provoking author talks
Israeli author Eshkol Nevo kicks off the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival.
The Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival takes place February 20 to 25 online.
INSPIRED BY THE idea of “together but apart”, the 36th annual Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival reflects our current times. Local and international authors will delve into themes of family and community, and how even amid isolation, the written word keeps us connected.
Pre-registration is required for all events. A gold pass, $90, provides access to all happenings; most others on an individual basis are pay what you can.
Look for a postponed appearance by actor Tovah Feldshuh (Lilyville: Mother, Daughter, and Other Roles I’ve Played) on April 15, in an event co-presented by the Jewish Book Festival as part of the JCC Literary Consortium.
Check out Stir’s coverage of the fest’s Prologue event with Yosef Wosk (Memories of Jewish Poland: The 1932 Photographs of Nachum Tim Gidal) and of Myriam Steinberg’s graphic-novel memoir, Catalogue Baby.
Here are five other festival highlights to mark on your calendar.
Eshkol Nevo, February 20, 9 pm PST
One of Israel’s most successful living authors, Nevo joins Globe and Mail writer Marsha Lederman in conversation for opening night as part of the Betty Averbach Foundation Author Series: Questioning the Israeli Psyche. Nevo, who grew up in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Detroit, teaches creative writing and thinking at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Tel Aviv University, and Sapir College, and his best-selling novels have been widely translated.
His most recent novel, The Last Interview, is a psychological thriller that not only explores the myriad often contradictory facets of an Israeli author’s identity but that also paints a nuanced, thought-provoking portrait of a country at odds with itself.
Norman Lebrecht, February 21, 1:30 to 2:30pm PST
British historian, cultural commentator, and novelist Normal Lebrecht (whose books have been translated into 17 languages) explores cultural identity and discusses his latest work, Genius and Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947.
Lebrecht has devoted half of his life to researching the mindset of Jewish thinkers, intellectuals, writers, and scientists who helped shaped the modern world. Genius and Anxiety spans the timeframe from the 1847 Communist Manifesto to the founding of Israel in 1947.
Seth Klein, February 22, 7:30 to 8:30 pm PST
The founding BC director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and an adjunct professor in urban studies at Simon Fraser University, Seth Klein has been a social activist focused on climate change and inequality for more than three decades.
In A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, Klein looks at how a “wartime approach” could address the climate crisis. Based on lessons from the Second World War, the book offers a hopeful take on this ominous and pressing issue.
Myla Goldberg and Ilana Masad, February 23, 6:30 to 8:00 pm PST
The author of the New York Times best-selling Bee Season: A Novel, Myla Goldberg is back with Feast Your Eyes, a story about a female photographer attempting to balance the competing demands of ambition and motherhood. Framed as catalogue notes from a MOMA photography exhibition, the novel tells the life story of Lillian Preston: “America’s Worst Mother, America’s Bravest Mother, America’s Worst Photographer, or America’s Greatest Photographer, depending on who was talking.”
Joining Goldberg is Ilana Masad, a queer Israeli-American writer and book critic. Her novel, All My Mother's Lovers, touches on sex, gender, grief, queerness, secrets, and identity while acknowledging how difficult it is to truly know our parents.
Anna Solomon, February 24, 6 to 7 pm PST
The Jewish Book Festival’s annual Book Clubs event features Anna Solomon, whose The Book of V explores feminism through the intertwining the lives of three women across centuries.
The Brooklyn-based writer is a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize; her appearance at the fest takes place the day before the Purim holiday for a new take on its history with her darkly sexy novel.
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