Vermont author Beth Kanell presents a groundbreaking Jewish feminist short story collection, from the editors of Lilith Magazine.
Short story collections focusing on Jewish writers have—no surprise—typically given women authors short shrift. This new volume represents the best Jewish feminist fiction published in Lilith magazine, and does what no other collection has done before in its geographic scope, its inclusion of twenty-first-century stories, and its Jewish feminist focus. This collection showcases a wide range of stories offering variegated cultures and contexts and points of view: Persian Jews; a Biblical matriarch; an Ethiopian mother in modern Israel; suburban American teens; Eastern European academics; a sexual questioner; a Jew by choice; a new immigrant escaping her Lower East Side sweatshop; a Black Jewish marcher for justice; in Vichy France, a toddler’s mother hiding out; and more. Organized by theme, the stories in this book emphasize a breadth of content, and our hope is that in reading you’ll appreciate the liveliness of the burgeoning self-awareness brought to life in each tale, and the occasional funny, call-your-friend-and-tell-her-about-it moment. Skip around, encounter an author whose other work you may know, be enticed by a title, or an opening line. We hope you’ll find both pleasure and enlightenment—and sometimes revelation—within these pages. Northeast Kingdom poet, novelist, and journalist Beth Kanell quilted pieces of 40 years of listening to Vermont women’s experiences, both tough and terrific, for her included story, “What Was Cut.” Take a harsh situation, add hope, love, and a bit of mystery, and there really can be a happy ending.
Living passionately in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Beth Kanell has written a dozen published books, including the Winds of Freedom novels. Find her poetry in small, heartfelt magazines, and her journalism in the North Star Monthly. Roberta Berner, retired director of the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council, joins her for a conversation about women’s realities of life and love.
