Creative Midrash: Beyond Talmudic Texts

Tuesdays, January 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 and February 6, 2024
12-1:30 p.m. EST
$250

Talmudic narratives are filled with distinctive characters, strange plots, and enigmatic silences. These stories provide a treasure trove for creative writers. For example, when Moses sits in the back of Rabbi Akiva’s classroom and doesn’t recognize his own teachings, how might we imagine Moses’s sense of dissonance? If we transpose the emotional core of this scene to another setting, what story would we conjure? In each class, we’ll explore a specific Talmudic text with a lens on character, images, narrative twists, and unspoken qualities that pique our curiosity. We’ll then pivot to a generative session in which we write from prompts related to our text study. Be prepared to surprise yourself on the page as you uncover fresh possibilities in your writing practice. This generative workshop is suitable for creative writers of all levels as well as readers seeking to engage imaginatively with Jewish texts.

All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Amy Gottlieb‘s debut novel The Beautiful Possible was a finalist for the 2017 Harold U. Ribalow Prize, a 2016 National Jewish Book Award and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award. Her fiction and poetry have been published in Other Voices, Lilith, Puerto del Sol, Ilanot Review, On Being, Zeek, Storyscape, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, and elsewhere. She has received a Literary Fellowship and Residency from the Bronx Council on the Arts and an Arts Fellowship from the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. Amy is a graduate of Clark University and the University of Chicago. She lives with her family on the edge of the Hudson River in New York City.