In this colloquium, Irena Klepfisz will explore the short stories of four Yiddish women writers: Fradel Schtok, Yente Serdatzky, Rokhl Brokhes, and Celia Dropkin. The writers vary in background and their stories are situated on different continents and in different communities, secular and observant. Yet directly and indirectly all four stories address the aspirations and challenges Jewish women face in expressing their inner artistic longings while fulfilling the traditional social roles assigned to them.

Location and pre-circulated reading provided upon RSVP. Lunch will be provided
RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdFn30VF5HhXegxGs0pHv3p3SgBE18V8zaaraREOXSachi6og/viewform?usp=sf_link

Irena Klepfisz is a poet, essayist, translator, editor, and teacher. She is serving as Jewish Studies’ 2019 Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholar and will be in residence at CU Boulder February 20 - 21, 2019. She has taught at Barnard College, in the college program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a women's maximum-security prison, and elsewhere. Among her many other literary accomplishments, she was a founder and co-editor of the award-winning Conditions magazine, the Yiddish editor of the Jewish feminist Bridges, a major contributor to Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology, and co-editor of The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology.

In this colloquium, Irena Klepfisz will explore the short stories of four Yiddish women writers: Fradel Schtok, Yente Serdatzky, Rokhl Brokhes, and Celia Dropkin. The writers vary in background and their stories are situated on different continents and in different communities, secular and observant. Yet directly and indirectly all four stories address the aspirations and challenges Jewish women face in expressing their inner artistic longings while fulfilling the traditional social roles assigned to them.

Location and pre-circulated reading provided upon RSVP. Lunch will be provided
RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdFn30VF5HhXegxGs0pHv3p3SgBE18V8zaaraREOXSachi6og/viewform?usp=sf_link

Irena Klepfisz is a poet, essayist, translator, editor, and teacher. She is serving as Jewish Studies’ 2019 Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholar and will be in residence at CU Boulder February 20 - 21, 2019. She has taught at Barnard College, in the college program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a women's maximum-security prison, and elsewhere. Among her many other literary accomplishments, she was a founder and co-editor of the award-winning Conditions magazine, the Yiddish editor of the Jewish feminist Bridges, a major contributor to Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology, and co-editor of The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology.