The Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival, taking place February 20 to 25, will feature in-person (limited-capacity) events with local authors as well as virtual conversations with international authors.

 

Featured authors will include: ​Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo (The Last Interview), author Myla Goldberg (Feast Your Eyes), first-time novelist Ilana Masad (All My Mother's Lovers), British historian and novelist Norman Lebrecht (Genius and Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947), and actress Tovah Feldshuh (Lilyville).

 

Also taking part are Chilean novelist Carla Guelfenbein (In the Distance With You), Myriam Steinberg (Catalogue Baby: A Memoir of [In]Fertility), storyteller Naomi Pommier Steinberg (Goosefeather: Upon a Cartographic Adventure), author-activist Seth Klein (A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency), filmmaker-author Bonnie Sherr Klein (Beep Beep Bubbie), and Anna Solomon (The Book of V).

 

“The Jewish Book Festival strives to spark meaningful and captivating conversations about the written word in every shape and form” says festival director Dana Camil Hewitt in a press release. “Arts and stories are more relevant than ever and to us, writers are most essential workers. We strive to support them and re-create the joyful experience of a shared literary event.

 

"And while the nucleus of our festival is Jewish-themed," she adds, "our speakers, events and audience all defy narrow categorization: we provide an interactive forum and showcase for recent publications that revel in the lively and pivotal ideas stemming from the modern world and current reality. We are attuned to timely and universal themes and we thrive on the interdisciplinary, inviting music, photography and performance art into our events”.

 

Tickets for most events are pay-what-you-can. For more info visit the festival website here.