Whew! We have made it to December 15th! What a year it has been. From pandemic quarantining to uprisings for racial justice, you have been here every step of the way, cheering on Sinister Wisdom, joining in our zoom events, and reading the pages of the journal. Thank you! Sinister Wisdom works every day to publish great lesbian literature and art in the quarterly journal and now to provide online community spaces that allow us to celebrate lesbian and queer women's literature, art and culture. Thank you for your support in this wild and unusual year!
I am thrilled to reveal the cover for Sinister Wisdom 119: To Be a Jewish Dyke in the 21st Century. Elana Dykewomon and Judith Katz, with prodding by Michele Karlsberg, conceived and edited this issue - a new collection of Jewish lesbian writing continues to explore the question that Muriel Rukeyser raised in her poem "To be a Jew in the twentieth century / is to be offered a gift." Echoing Rukeyser, Elana and Judith ask, What is the gift? The pages of Sinister Wisdom 119: To Be a Jewish Dyke in the 21st Century provide some answers and raise more questions to help make our conversations richer and more meaningful.
Featuring work by an array of Jewish lesbian writers and artists as well as cover art by Judith Masur, Sinister Wisdom 119: To Be a Jewish Dyke in the 21st Century Elana writes that being a Jewish lesbians means to her "always to work with a commitment to intersectional justice. While Judith reflects, no matter how 'we envision our futures and reimagine our pasts...one thing is certain: our commitments to makign trouble and speaking up." With Sinister Wisdom 119: To Be a Jewish Dyke in the 21st Century, you can join in this conversation with Elana and Judith and the many other writers gathered.
Sinister Wisdom 119: To Be a Jewish Dyke in the 21st Centuryis at the mail house now; they are doing their magical work of bagging it with a few additional goodies and will drop it into the mail on December 27th. This fantastic issue of Sinister Wisdom officially publishes on January 15, 2021. If you are a subscriber, you should receive your copy in January. If you do not have it by February 15th, let me know and I will investigate and replace as necessary.
Not a subscriber to Sinister Wisdom? Click here to purchase a journal subscription! A Sinister Wisdom subscription secures one or two years of Sinister Wisdom, four beautiful published each year filled with unique issues of contemporary lesbian writing and artwork delivered right to your home. If you subscribe today, your subscription will start with Sinister Wisdom 119: To Be a Jewish Dyke in the 21st Century. Order it today. This issue will sell out quickly.
While we are not quite ready to announce the whole of our events for 2021, I can let you know that we will be doing another very special tribute, like the evening with Joan Nestle and Cheryl Clarke in February. Stay tuned to this email channel for some very special event updates for 2021 designed to help us all get through the winter months of the pandemic.
Tonight! Tuesday, December 15th, at 7 p.m. ET, we will meet for our second Sinister Wisdom Book Club and discuss Shani Mootoo’s book Polar Vortex. This book is a fabulous novel that had me on the edge of my seat the whole time I read it. I am really looking forward to hearing everyone’s perspective on it. The book club will NOT be recorded, to be a part of it, you must show up live and in person! Looking forward to seeing you - the zoom information is below or on the Facebook event page.
Whatever ways you support Sinister Wisdom, know that it makes a difference and that I and the full board of Sinister Wisdom appreciate your support for the organization and the work that we do.
As always, thank you for all that you do for Sinister Wisdom and for lesbians in the world.
P.S. Thank you all for your continued support of Sinister Wisdom and our community, and inspiring us to find new ways of creating community with each other. As always, Sinister Wisdom is sustained by your subscriptions, donations, back issues purchases, and support of the journal. Thank you, and we looking forward to “seeing” you all at our upcoming events.
Join us TONIGHT on Zoom!
Sinister Wisdom Book Club: Polar Vortex
Time: Dec 15, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Meeting ID: 872 0106 2014
Passcode: 119988
One tap mobile
+19292056099,,87201062014#,,,,,,0#,,119988# US (New York)
+13017158592,,87201062014#,,,,,,0#,,119988# US (Washington D.C)
Sinister Wisdom 119 Launch Event featuring
readings by Elana Dykewomon, Bonnie S. Kaplan, Judith Katz,
Irena Klepfisz, R.D. Landau, Dr. Yael Mishali, Ellen Rifkin, Mira Schlosberg, Amy Horowitz, and tova.
(Photos and bios of speakers are below!)
Tuesday, January 26th, 2021 @ 8:00pm EST
Here is the full information to join the Zoom Reading:
Sinister Wisdom 119 Launch Event
Time: Jan 26, 2021 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Meeting ID: 883 5737 1231
Passcode: 386716
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,88357371231#,,,,,,0#,,386716# US (Washington D.C)
+13126266799,,88357371231#,,,,,,0#,,386716# US (Chicago)
Elana Dykewomon was an editor of Sinister Wisdom from 1987-1994, is the author of eight books of fiction and poetry, and is currently writing a play about lesbian love, dementia, right to die, caretaking and community, honoring her late spouse, Susan Levinkind. She is grateful for all these years of lesbian inter-connection.
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Mira Schlosberg is a writer, comics artist, and editor whose work focuses on queer experiences, Jewish mysticism, and ecotheology. Her new graphic novella, Kugel Western, is forthcoming from Glom Press in 2021. You can find her on twitter @miraschlosberg.
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Bonnie S. Kaplan is a Pushcart-nominated poet and educator whose work appears in numerous journals and anthologies including Adrienne Rich: A Tribute Anthology. Her poem, “Mastectomy, Simple,” is a finalist for the Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize for Poetry, Bellevue Literary Review. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
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A 21st-century Jewish lesbian from a working-class background, tova writes, lectures and takes photographs. She does communication work on equity issues for the University of Oregon. She and her partner/spouse of 33+ years live in Eugene; their son is a professional ballet dancer, so they see lots of shows.
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Judith Katz is the author of, Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound, which won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction in 1992, and The Escape Artist. She lives in Minneapolis. just a few miles from the block where George Floyd was murdered last May.
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Dr. Yael Mishali is a feminist/queer writer, activist and performer. She is a Gender Studies lecturer in both Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, as well as a member of the organizing committee of the largest Israeli conference devoted to LGBT studies and queer theory – ‘An Other Sex.’
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Irena Klepfisz is a poet, teacher, Yiddish translator, researcher
of Yiddish women writers and intellectuals, and lesbian-feminist activist. A bilingual edition of her collected poems (with some prose) will be published in Poland in 2021. She recently completed a new collection of poetry, tentatively titled: Her birth and Later Years: Poems 1990-2020.
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R.D. Landau is the editorial assistant for the Jewish News Of Northern California. Her work has appeared in Diabolical Plots, Entropy and Star 82 Review.
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Ellen Rifkin lives in Eugene, Oregon, where she leads a yiddish vinkl and is active in her local chapter of Showing Up For Racial Justice, She says friends, forests, music and meditation sustain her.
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Amy Horowitz worked as Sweet Honey In The Rock’s artist representative, won a Grammy, co-founded Roadwork and Sisterfire, and teaches and writes about Jerusalem, Mizrahi culture, and music in disputed territory. She is Israel Studies Senior Fellow at Indiana University and works with Navajo Technical University. amyhorowitz.org
