Many of you have known or worked with editor Deborah Brodie. She passed away on June 27 after a battle with cancer.
Read the Publisher’s Weekly obituary>>>
The Whole Megillah- Mid-Week NotesThree quick things: I’m happy to announce that a short story being published by the literary magazine of Mercer County Community College, The Kelsey Review, has been nominated for a Pushcart. The story is based on the man who sat … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- Mid-Week NotesThree quick things: Let poetry inspire your writing. See the interview with Devora Busheri about her use of Hayyim Bialik’s poetry in her new picture book, In the Jerusalem Forest (Kar-Ben, 2019). Are any of you participating in Nanowrimo? I … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- Two-in-One Author’s Notebook | In the Jerusalem Forest by Devora Busheri and illustrated by Noa KelnerIn the Jerusalem Forest by Devora Busheri and illustrated by Noa Kelner, 32 pp., Kar-Ben Publishing, 2019. Israel-based Devora and I met as inaugural fellows at the 2017 Jewish Children’s Literature Tent at the Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, MA. The … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- Poet’s Notebook | Birthright by Erika DreifusDreifus, Erika. Birthright: Poems. American Fork, Utah: Kelsay Books, 2019. 86 pp., $17.00. The Whole Megillah (TWM): What motivated you to create a poetry collection? Erika Dreifus (ED): I’m not at all certain that it’s something I set out to … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- New Writing Classes from The Whole MegillahThe Whole Megillah is proud to announce online writing classes to take your writing to new heights: It Could Be Verse Workshop Putting the Past on the Page Workshop Each workshop includes a set of weekly prompts. Participants post their … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- Mid-Week NotesThree quick things: Stay tuned for an announcement later this week from The Whole Megillah about forthcoming online classes and workshops. One of them could be just the thing you’re looking for to take your writing to the next level. … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- Mid-Week NotesThree quick things: I’m on a week’s break from Gratz, but instead of filling it with my own creative writing, I’ll be grading student compositions. The October Writing Chai prompt goes out on Friday. If interested in participating, send me … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- Mid-Week NotesThree quick things: I’m thinking about Nanowrimo to work on a novel I abandoned in 2011. Anyone thinking about participating? This “event” motivates you to write 50,000 words during the month of November at a rate of about 1700 words … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- Mid-Week Notes | Leshone ToyveThree quick things: The late composition guru Donald Murray reminds me to think of the first draft as the discovery draft and the second draft as the developmental draft. For more, see his Write to Learn. My Yiddish studies are … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- Mid-Week NotesThree quick things: Editorial work has begun on my middle-grade novel-in-verse, 37 Days, about the voyage of the doomed MS St. Louis in 1939. The publisher is Kar-Ben. So far, so good! In teaching freshman composition, I’m reminded of Anne … Continue reading →Barbara Krasner
- Mid-Week Notes
I cannot express how kind Deborah was to me. She reached out and expected nothing in return. She sent me writing exercises, asked me what I really wanted to do in my work (she was sure I could write a novel, and was determined to help me figure out what it was)…she was just so all-around encouraging and supportive and funny. At shiva people laughed about her sharp tongue, but I only got it once — when I accidentally called her Deb.
Hamakom Yinachem.
Deborah was the first professional editor to pull me out of a slush pile and declare I had a voice, and from that day on, became a person I could count on for a clean response, with honest encouragement. Her course at the New School, which I took early in my career, relieved us all of our self-consciousness. In her classroom, contrary to her editorial reputation, we all could fall flat on our faces, and pierce the boundaries which had held us back.
What a loss to the children’s book world, especially at a time when a voice for quality and authenticy is so sorely needed. I didn’t know Deborah well but thought of her as a kindred soul. Baruch dayan ha emet.