Hey, our Anglo out-of-place sadness is gaining some attention, creativity and a conference!
Expanding the local audience for English-language writers is one of the aims of Israel’s first conference on American aliyah in literature, which will take place next week at Tel Aviv University. The conference, which will also focus on current research about Anglophone immigrants, is being hailed by organizers as a major step in creating a broader community of English-language writers here.
The conference, which is open to the general public, will deal with some of the frustrations and occasional sense of shame faced by some English-language writers who work within the dominant Hebrew culture.
“A lot of people [who immigrate here] either stop writing or leave because they don’t have an audience here. The whole point of writing is that you are communicating and if there’s no audience, you are not communicating and giving a voice to people. Many of us are writing for an audience abroad and so often, there’s no one to talk to, no one who gives you feedback. Some people I know have either turned to other arts like photography and painting, or just shut up,” Karen Alkalay-Gut (chair of the Israel Association of Writers in Israel) said.
As an English-language writer, I can completely relate. I’d love to participate in this conference.
FYI: It begins at 9:30 A.M. on Wednesday, October 25 at Tel Aviv University, Gilman 496.
Whadya got: