Elizabeth Rosner's Blog

Survivor Cafe

Dear Readers,

I hope you are finding your way to my new book SURVIVOR CAFE: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory. As I mention in my author's note in the opening pages, this is a book I've been writing my whole life. And although it's my first book of nonfiction, when you read and absorb it, you'll see how many of the themes and images have haunted my novels and poems and essays....

I'm inserting here a number of links to interviews and reviews and excerpts. May these help to deepen and inspire more conversation.

NPR's "All Things Considered" http://www.npr.org/2017/09/12/5504928...

NYT "Tell Us 5 Things About Your Book" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/bo...

Joe Donahue and "The Roundtable" http://wamc.org/post/survivor-caf-eli...

Sound cloud of "The Alphabet of Inadequate Language" https://soundcloud.com/user-159317573...

Booklist starred review https://www.booklistonline.com/Surviv...

SF Chronicle review http://www.sfchronicle.com/books/arti...

Lithub excerpt http://lithub.com/hiroshima-the-holoc...

Daily Beast excerpt http://www.thedailybeast.com/can-we-i...

Q & A with Deborah Kalb http://tinyurl.com/y8slxryq

with gratitude,
Elizabeth

Dear Reader:

I'm sitting in my study, imagining the moment when you turn the first page and begin. I'm here in my chair and you're in yours. Maybe you're on a plane or on a couch or in bed; maybe you're looking out a window or at the sleeping face of your child or some other beloved. And eventually, after a while -- hours, days, weeks even -- I imagine you turning the last page and maybe wiping away a tear, maybe sighing or smiling. Feeling happy! Not that the book is over but that there is some kind of joy in your heart to believe that two people who want to love and be loved can, if they are lucky and also patient, find their way home. To each other.

Thank you.Electric City

Rave review of ELECTRIC CITY in the Chicago Tribune

“…remarkable, lyrical… It's a wondrous thing to watch the deepening and unfurling of a writer's talent over one book and another and another. Electric City is Elizabeth Rosner at her best yet..”



for the entire review, click here:

http://tinyurl.com/lbv62zy

Self-Interview

http://tinyurl.com/p24qdxk

Testimonial from a writing student...

Writing with Elizabeth Rosner at her recent Martha's Vineyard writing retreat has been one of the joys of my life. Her supportive environment, her excellent coaching on craft, and her amazing prompts have moved my writing forward like nothing else I've participated in over the recent years. She holds her writers dear and believes in their ability to dig deep and write the way they've always yearned in their hearts to write. I can't thank her enough. I also appreciated how she facilitated the group with the deftness of one who values all our writing equally; she always kept us on track as writers, as listeners and as commenters. She's the whole package and I am so glad I was able to partake of the week long retreat.

Hanging out on Martha's Vineyard was amazing too. And everything about the Noepe Literary Center -- my lovely bedroom, the colorful and artistic central meeting area, the beautiful grounds, the amazingly delicious food, the proximity to central Edgartown -- all more than met my expectations. Count me in for next year.

~Kathy

New Blog Post on my Website

http://elizabethrosner.com/commemorat...

Exciting news re: ELECTRIC CITY

Thrilled to be included on this new ten best list compiled by Jane Ciabattari for the BBC Culture page:

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/2014...

Tell Me Another Morning

Tell Me Another Morning by Zdena Berger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This astonishingly beautiful book is an "autobiographical novel" based on Zdena Berger's four years of surviving multiple concentration camps, from the age of 16 to 20. Somehow she manages to inspire hope in readers; with directness and honesty, she shares her harrowing experiences in heart-rending lyricism. First published in 1961, at the same time as the memoir NIGHT by Elie Wiesel, this book quietly disappeared for many decades, until it was resurrected by Paris Press.

Read it. Zdena Berger's story can change your life forever.



View all my reviews

My goodreads review of MOTHERLAND

Motherland by Maria Hummel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a stunningly important book, highly recommended for anyone who is willing to consider the infinite complexities of World War II. As a daughter of a survivor of Buchenwald, I was expecting to feel disturbed and challenged by this novel --- but I want to say that Maria Hummel deserves vast credit for her thoroughly-researched and profoundly compassionate view of the "side-lined" players in a horrible drama. It's beautifully written and deeply humane.



View all my reviews

my review of Tracy Guzeman's THE GRAVITY OF BIRDS

http://www.sfchronicle.com/books/arti...